Captioning Rates

Captioning pricing is how the cost of a caption job is worked out, and which parts of a file move the figure. The work is produced by people and not by software, and what shapes it here is caption files built to the standard the platform or the regulator requires, so the deliverable fits how you actually work instead of a generic template. Every file is checked by a second reviewer before it is sent.

Mostly budget holders and project managers costing a caption run before they commit. What they have in common is material that has to be exact and not roughly right, which is why every file is checked against the source before delivery. Most of the work here is for teams with an accessibility requirement to meet, not simply a preference.

Urgent work is covered by rush delivery within 2 to 24 hours, depending on length and how difficult the source is. Captioning pricing is scheduled against the people who actually do this work, not against a general pool. Longer jobs are split across a coordinated team working from one style sheet, so speed never costs consistency.

The 99+% accuracy standard applies to every file, and it holds because each caption file is produced by a person and then played back against the picture by a second reviewer. What gets checked on captioning pricing is the detail a viewer would otherwise have to verify alone: names, figures, terms and anything the source left ambiguous. Anything genuinely unclear is flagged for you, never guessed at.

It is handled by restricting access, not by promising discretion. Unreleased video is routine here, so review links are restricted and nothing is held longer than the project needs. Captioning pricing often involves material people would not want circulated, so the file is closed to everyone except the pair working on it. Everyone on the job is under NDA, transfer is encrypted, and your own confidentiality agreement is signed before work starts if you have one.

SRT or VTT for web and streaming, SCC or STL for broadcast, or burned in where a platform strips subtitle files. The format for captioning pricing is agreed at order stage, so the first delivery is the one you can file, send on or publish. Caption files are delivered to the standard of the platform you publish on, whether that is SRT, VTT, SCC or STL. The target format is confirmed before work starts, because retiming afterwards costs more than getting the specification right first.

The practical part is this: captioning is quoted per minute of running time rather than per word, so a quiet file costs the same. It is agreed with you before anyone starts, because the alternative is a first delivery built on a guess and a second round of work to undo it. Reading speed, line length and line breaks are set to the target standard before the first file is timed.

Difficult audio, extra speakers and a same-day deadline are the three things that lift a quote. That is part of what captioning pricing means here, not an extra, and anything genuinely outside the brief is quoted before it starts. The same timed file can produce a burned-in version and a sidecar caption file in one order.

Yes, in 100+ languages, each handled by a native speaker and not by someone working from a dictionary. What captioning pricing involves does not change with the language, and the same independent check happens before delivery. A translated caption track is timed separately, because reading speed differs between languages.

Captioning is quoted per minute of runtime. Captioning pricing is quoted per job rather than on a published unit rate, because the cost follows what you need done. The rate follows the runtime of the video, not the number of caption lines the finished file contains. Nothing starts before you approve that figure in writing, and the invoice matches it exactly.