Rev captioning API alternative: styled, burned-in captions in minutes

Rev is the default name in transcription, and for good reason: their API is very good at what it returns, which is text. Human-made transcripts and caption files run about $1.99 per minute as of writing, AI transcription around $0.25 per minute, with human turnaround measured in hours. If the deliverable you need is words on a page, that market is mature and Rev is a safe pick.

But text is not the finish line for short-form video. A transcript is an artifact for readers. An SRT or WebVTT sidecar file only renders where the player supports it - and TikTok, Reels and Shorts do not. If the actual goal is a video with captions people can see in the feed, a caption file leaves you one render step short.

A different finish line

caption.sh returns the finished video, not a file of words. One POST with a source URL or an upload, and you get back an MP4 with word-timed, karaoke-style captions drawn directly onto the frames: active-word highlighting, your fonts and colors, positioned where you want them. It plays identically everywhere because the captions are the pixels.

curl -X POST https://api.caption.sh/v1/videos \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CAPTION_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"source_url": "https://example.com/raw.mp4"}'

# -> 202 { "job_id": "..." }
# poll GET /v1/jobs/{id} until status is "done",
# then GET /v1/jobs/{id}/result for the MP4

Speed and price, honestly

• Rev human captions: about $1.99 per minute, turnaround in hours, output is a caption file.
• Rev AI transcription: about $0.25 per minute, output is text.
• caption.sh: $0.10 per minute of video, output is the rendered MP4, usually back in minutes, and you are only charged for successful renders.

The prices are not directly comparable because the products are not the same shape. Per minute of video that ends up captioned in a feed, though, the rendered route is both cheaper and faster than human captioning plus a render pass you still have to build yourself.

When Rev is the better fit

If you need a transcript for compliance, legal review, or archival, buy a transcript - that is Rev's core product and caption.sh does not sell it. If your deliverable is an accessibility sidecar file for a player that renders VTT, you need the file, not burned pixels (our free converters at caption.sh/tools can at least save you the SRT-to-VTT round trip). And if a human must verify every word by hand, human transcription is worth its premium.

See the difference on your own footage

The playground at caption.sh renders a real clip in your browser, no account required. The docs cover uploads, polling, webhooks, and style options, and agents on Claude Code or Cursor can caption video natively through the hosted MCP server. Prepaid balance, failed renders never charge, so a test costs ten cents a minute at most.