How to translate a YouTube video, free or with a voice-over
Many YouTube videos translate for free right in the player: the gear, then Subtitles/CC, then Auto-translate, then your language. That gives you subtitles. To hear a video in your language, play its translated audio track if it has one, or use a voice-over extension when it does not. Below are all five ways, with the clicks as we checked them on 12 November 2026.
Which way to pick
Go down the table and stop at the first row that fits the video in front of you. The first three cost nothing.
| You want | Use | Cost | It needs |
|---|---|---|---|
| To read along in your language | YouTube's Auto-translate | Free | Captions on the video, the creator's or YouTube's own |
| To hear it in your language | The video's translated audio track | Free | A track in your language, which only some videos have |
| The whole text, to read or keep | The transcript and a translator | Free | Captions on the video |
| To hear it when there is no track | A voice-over extension such as Vocnu | From €0.03 a minute | Chrome, Brave or Edge on a computer |
| Your own video in other languages | An upload to Vocnu, then YouTube Studio | From €0.13 a minute in Premium | The video file and the rights to it |
Auto-translated captions, free
YouTube can turn a video's captions into subtitles in another language. In a browser on a computer:
- Start the video and click the gear (Settings) at the bottom right of the player.
- Choose Subtitles/CC.
- Choose Auto-translate, the last item in that list.
- Pick your language.
On NASA's "Moon Base: November 2026 Update" the list held 156 languages, Lithuanian among them. Auto-translate only shows up when the video has a caption track to start from: the creator's own, or one YouTube made from the speech, marked "auto-generated". On many videos that means a machine translation of machine-made captions, so expect the odd wrong name or term. And you still hear the original language.
A translated audio track, free where there is one
Some videos carry spoken versions in other languages. A creator can upload their own, and YouTube makes AI tracks itself for eligible channels. When a video has them, the same gear menu shows Audio track: choose it and pick a language. YouTube's own AI tracks sit under the label "Auto-dubbed".
YouTube's help pages list 20 languages that English videos get automatic tracks in, and 29 that it turns into English. Lithuanian, Czech, Greek and Swedish are in neither list. Videos longer than 120 minutes get no automatic track, and neither do videos that are mostly music, have little or very fast speech, or carry a copyright claim. The page on the languages YouTube leaves out keeps the full list.
If the video has a track in your language, use it: it is free and needs no install. How to watch a YouTube video in another language covers picking a track, and getting the original sound back when YouTube plays a translated one by itself.
The transcript and a translator
To read the whole thing at your own pace or keep a copy, open the video's description and click Show transcript in its Transcript part. A panel opens with every caption line and its time. Select the lines, copy them and paste them into a translator such as Google Translate or DeepL. A translator's box takes a limited amount of text at a time, so an hour of speech goes in several pastes, and the times come along with the words.
This needs captions too. It suits a lecture or a talk you want to quote, less so a film you want to follow.
A voice-over as you watch, when there is no track
When a video has no audio track in your language, a browser extension can read it to you. Ours is Vocnu, for Chrome, Brave and Edge on a computer. Switch it on over a YouTube video and pick your language. It translates the captions, or what it hears when there are none, and one AI voice reads the translation over the lowered original sound, with subtitles in your language over the player. It reads 38 languages, and live streams too.
- A new account gets 40 free credits once it confirms its email, no card needed: 20 minutes of Premium voice-over.
- After that a minute costs from €0.03 in Economy to €0.20 in Premium, depending on the grade and the pack. Credits never expire.
- A video already in your language is never voiced or charged, and watching the same minutes again within 90 days, in the same language, voice and mode, is free.
- It does not run in the YouTube app on phones, tablets or TVs, and songs are not voiced.
Want to hear it in English? The English voice-over guide goes through the setup, the English voices and the price for that case.
Translating your own video for your viewers
Everything above happens on the viewer's side. To give everyone who watches your channel another language, upload the video to Vocnu instead. You see the price before anything starts: 2 credits a minute for a voice-over in Premium, 1 credit for subtitles alone. MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM, MP3, M4A and WAV files work, up to 5 hours and 10 GB. The job gives you subtitles as SRT, VTT and ASS files, a transcript of the original, and the voice-over as an audio track or a finished MP4.
In YouTube Studio, open Languages, choose the video and click Add language. The subtitle file goes under Subtitles. On a channel that can add audio tracks, the voice-over goes next to Dub: Add, then Select file, then publish. Vocnu for YouTube creators has the full steps and what a whole channel costs. Upload only videos you made or have the rights to.
When to skip Vocnu
- The video already has an audio track in your language. Use it: it is free.
- You are happy to read. Auto-translate covers far more languages than the 38 Vocnu reads.
- You watch on a phone, a tablet or a TV.
- You want the speakers' own voices or matching lips. Vocnu reads every line in one voice over the original.
- It is a song. Songs are not voiced.