Use Windows 11 Live Captions for PC audio
Windows 11 can caption speech playing through your PC, even when an app has no caption control. Learn to turn on Live Captions, choose a language, and understand its microphone, translation and privacy limits.
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A video has no subtitles, a speaker is hard to follow, or you would rather read along than turn up the volume? Windows 11 Live Captions can put detected speech from PC audio on screen, even when the app has no caption control of its own. Press Windows + Ctrl + L to open it.
The first setup downloads a speech language file to your PC. After that, Microsoft says Live Captions can work offline. It can also caption nearby speech through your microphone, but that is a separate option: when microphone audio and PC sound are both present, PC sound takes priority.
This guide is for Windows 11. Microsoft lists version 22H2 as the minimum for Live Captions; exact controls can vary between releases. Translation is a separate feature with narrower hardware requirements.
Turn on Live Captions
Press Windows + Ctrl + L. You can also open Settings → Accessibility → Captions and turn on Live captions, or use the Accessibility option in Quick Settings.
The first time you switch it on, Windows asks for permission to process voice data on your device and downloads the speech recognition files. Connect to the internet for this setup. When the files are ready, play a short clip with clear speech and the captions should appear in a separate window. Microsoft says the downloaded models let Live Captions work when the PC is offline.
Microsoft documents Live Captions for Windows 11 version 22H2 and later. That is the feature’s minimum; it does not say whether an older Windows build still receives security updates. Check your version under Settings → System → About if the shortcut or setting is missing. Microsoft’s Live Captions guide lists the supported versions and setup steps.
Choose which audio to caption
By default, Live Captions listens to the sound coming out of your PC’s default output device. It can caption speech from a video, call or other app without needing that app’s own caption control. If the caption window stays blank, open Settings → System → Sound and confirm the app is playing through the default output device; Microsoft says Live Captions follows that device.
To caption a nearby conversation or your own speech, open the Live Captions window’s Settings → Preferences and turn on Include microphone audio. The microphone option is off by default. If Windows does not pick up your voice, check the selected input under Settings → System → Sound and make sure desktop apps are allowed to access the microphone.
PC sound takes priority when microphone audio is being captured at the same time. In a meeting, for example, Live Captions can show a remote participant’s speech while you talk over them, instead of captioning your own voice. Treat it as a way to read the audio playing through Windows, not a combined transcript of both sides of a conversation.
Set the speech language and caption appearance
In the Live Captions window, open Settings → Change language and choose the language being spoken. If it is not installed, follow the download prompt. For another language, use the option to add one and choose a language with speech recognition support. This changes the language Live Captions listens for; it does not change Windows’ display language.
Some languages and regional variants are available for transcription, and the list is not the same as the languages Windows can display. Use the supported-language list in Microsoft’s Live Captions guide before downloading a language pack.
To keep the caption window out of the way, open its settings and choose a position above or below the desktop, or use a floating window you can move. Increase the window size to show more lines. For a different text size, colour or background, open Settings → Preferences → Caption style; Windows lets you select a built-in style or edit one. See Microsoft’s caption-style instructions .
Live transcription and translation have different requirements
Live Captions can transcribe supported speech on a Windows 11 PC. Translating that speech is a separate feature. Microsoft documents translation in Windows 11 version 24H2 and later for Copilot+ PCs; its 2025 expansion described translation from more than 40 languages into English and 27 languages into Chinese (Simplified). The languages available depend on the translation direction, so check Microsoft’s Windows 11 24H2 feature list and Copilot+ PC update before relying on a particular language.
If you have a regular Windows 11 PC, you can still use Live Captions for transcription in a supported speech language. The absence of translation does not mean the basic caption feature is unavailable.
Know what the captions can and cannot tell you
Microsoft says audio processing and caption generation happen on the device: audio, voice data and captions are not sent to the cloud or Microsoft, and generated captions are not stored. The microphone also stays off unless you enable it. That describes Microsoft’s implementation of Live Captions; the microphone permission remains a separate Windows control.
Live Captions only displays speech it detects. It does not identify applause or music, and Microsoft says song lyrics are not reliably detected. Live Captions is automatic speech recognition, not a verified transcript. Check exact names, numbers and instructions against the original audio or a publisher-provided caption track. Live Captions does not save its output; use a separate transcript or recording method if you need to refer to the words later.
If captions are delayed or stop appearing while another demanding app is running, close unused apps and try again. Microsoft notes that resource-intensive work, such as sharing video with effects, can delay or drop captions.
Check that it is working
- Play a short clip with clear speech in the language you selected.
- Confirm that the text appears and that it matches the spoken language. If the window is blank, check Windows’ default sound output; if the words are in the wrong language, change the caption language.
- If you need captions for a person in the room, pause PC playback and enable Include microphone audio. Speak near the microphone and check the result before relying on it in a conversation.
That quick check tells you which audio Live Captions is reading and whether the selected language is a fit. Keep the distinction in mind: PC audio and microphone audio are separate inputs, translation needs supported Copilot+ hardware and a compatible Windows version, and the generated words are not saved.
