Chrome Live Captions in French, Spanish, German and 16 Other Languages

What languages does Chrome's Live Caption support?

Chrome's Live Caption supports 19 languages, according to Google's Chrome Help page: English, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Swedish, Thai and Turkish. Google lists one entry per language, with no separate regional variants such as Canadian French or Latin American Spanish.

To add a caption language on Windows or Mac:

1. Open Chrome, click the three-dot menu → Settings → Accessibility (or paste chrome://settings/accessibility in the address bar).
2. Turn on Live Caption.
3. Next to Manage languages, click Add languages and choose yours. Chrome downloads the language pack automatically.
4. Select the language you want captions in from the dropdown.

On Linux there is one extra step: Settings → Accessibility → Captions, then the same toggle. On a Chromebook, the switch lives under Settings → Accessibility → Manage accessibility features → Audio and captions.

Once the pack is downloaded, Live Caption runs on your device: Google says the audio and captions are processed locally and never leave the computer. That makes it private and free, but it also means the speech model is far smaller than a cloud model. In practice, everyday speech comes out well, while lecture vocabulary, names of researchers and institutions, and fast or accented speakers come out worst.

Two languages that many students need are missing: Arabic and Russian. If your lectures are in either, Chrome cannot caption them, and an extension such as LessonScriptor is the practical option.

Can Chrome translate live captions into another language?

Yes. Chrome's Live Translate feature translates Live Caption text into more than 100 languages as the audio plays. You could watch a German lecture and read English captions, or watch an English talk and read French ones. Google's help page lists Live Translate for Windows, Mac, Linux and Chromebook Plus. It is not listed for Chrome on Android or iPhone, and standard Chromebooks only get Live Caption. Google first tested the feature in Chrome Canary in 2023. Update to the current stable Chrome before looking for the switch, because older versions don't have it.

To turn on Live Translate on Windows or Mac:

1. Go to chrome://settings/accessibility (three-dot menu → Settings → Accessibility).
2. Make sure Live Caption is on, and that the language being spoken is added as a caption language.
3. Turn on Live Translate.
4. Next to Translate to, pick the language you want to read. On Chromebook Plus, the dropdown is called Translate captions to.

There are two limits worth knowing. First, the source audio must be one of the 19 Live Caption languages, so an Arabic or Russian lecture can't be translated this way. Second, the privacy model changes: plain captions stay on your device, but to translate them Chrome sends the caption text to Google. Machine translation of live speech also compounds errors. If Chrome mishears a technical term, the translation will be wrong too, so treat translated captions as a comprehension aid, not a study record.

What about LessonScriptor? LessonScriptor does not translate. It transcribes in the language being spoken (14 language variants) and keeps the text. If you need a translation, a reliable workflow is to export the transcript as .txt or .md, or copy it to the clipboard, then paste it into DeepL or Google Translate. You then have the original and the translation side by side, and you can check any term that looks wrong.

How do I get live captions in French in Chrome?

French is one of Chrome's 19 Live Caption languages. To get French captions:

1. Open chrome://settings/accessibility.
2. Turn on Live Caption.
3. Next to Manage languages, click Add languages and pick French.
4. Select French in the caption language dropdown. Chrome downloads the French pack, then captions any French audio in a tab.

If Chrome is set to French, the same switch is called Sous-titres instantanés, under Paramètres → Accessibilité.

For French academic content, such as lectures on Moodle, MOOCs on FUN-MOOC or Coursera, or France Culture podcasts, Chrome handles standard spoken French well. It struggles with domain terms, professors' names and institutions such as Sciences Po, EHESS or CNRS.

LessonScriptor transcribes French in its free mode (Chrome's speech recognition via the microphone) or in AI mode, which sends tab audio to Whisper-class cloud models. AI mode is noticeably more accurate on accents and jargon. Because the transcript is editable, you can fix a misheard name once and keep the corrected text.

How do I get live captions in Spanish in Chrome?

Spanish works the same way. Go to chrome://settings/accessibility, turn on Live Caption, add Spanish under Manage languages, then select it in the dropdown. In a Spanish-language Chrome, the feature is called Subtítulos automáticos, under Configuración → Accesibilidad.

Google lists a single Spanish entry, so the same model handles Castilian, Mexican, Argentine or Colombian speakers. It does well on clear lecture speech and less well on fast speakers, strong regional accents (Rioplatense, Andalusian, Caribbean) and technical vocabulary in law, medicine or engineering.

LessonScriptor has one Spanish option (Español). Its AI mode uses cloud Whisper-class models, which generally handle accent variety and jargon better than an on-device model.

How do I get live captions in Portuguese in Chrome?

Portuguese is on Chrome's Live Caption list as a single entry. Add it under Manage languages in chrome://settings/accessibility, then select it in the dropdown. In a Portuguese-language Chrome, the feature is called Legenda instantânea, under Configurações → Acessibilidade.

The model handles both Brazilian and European Portuguese, with the usual on-device weak spots: technical terms, names, and fast or overlapping speech.

LessonScriptor offers two separate options, Português (BR) and Português (PT). Choosing the matching variant helps with spelling and vocabulary differences such as *ônibus* and *autocarro*, or *registro* and *registo*.

How do I get live captions in German in Chrome?

For German captions, add German under Manage languages in chrome://settings/accessibility and select it in the Live Caption dropdown. In a German-language Chrome, the feature is called Automatische Untertitel.

German has a specific weak spot: long compound nouns such as *Universitätsbibliothek* or *Forschungsschwerpunkt* are often split or misheard, and so are institution names such as Humboldt-Universität or Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.

With LessonScriptor, the fix is manual but lasting. Correct the compound once in the editable transcript, highlight it, and the corrected version is what you export. AI mode tends to get long compounds right more often than on-device recognition does.

How do I get live captions in Mandarin (Chinese) in Chrome?

Chrome's Live Caption offers two Chinese entries, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. In practice, both caption spoken Mandarin, and the choice decides which script the captions appear in. Pick Simplified Chinese for mainland content and Traditional Chinese for content from Taiwan or Hong Kong. In a Chinese-language Chrome, the feature is called 实时字幕, under 设置 → 无障碍.

Mandarin is hard for on-device recognition because of tones, homophones and technical vocabulary. Chrome copes with standard Putonghua and drops on regional accents and specialised terms.

LessonScriptor supports Chinese (Simplified) only. If you need Traditional characters, Chrome's built-in captions are the better fit. In mainland China, Google services are not generally reachable. That affects the Chrome Web Store, Live Caption language downloads and Live Translate, as well as the speech recognition behind LessonScriptor's free mode.

Can I use Chrome live captions for language learning?

Yes, and the two tools help in different ways.

Chrome's built-in captions work as a reading aid. Following a French or Spanish video with captions in the same language trains your ear, and Live Translate can show your native language when you're lost. The limit is that captions are read-only and vanish after two lines, so nothing is left to review.

LessonScriptor keeps the text. As the video plays, the transcript builds in the side panel. You can highlight unfamiliar words in one of five colours, add headers, and delete what you don't need. Afterwards, export the transcript as .txt or .md.

A simple study workflow is to watch with LessonScriptor running, highlight new vocabulary as it appears, then export. Copy the highlighted words into Anki or your flashcard app by hand, and paste tricky sentences into DeepL to check meaning. LessonScriptor doesn't generate flashcards or translations itself; those steps are yours.

Which tool should I use for non-English live captions in Chrome?

Use Chrome's built-in Live Caption if your language is one of its 19, you want quick captions that disappear, and you don't need to keep the text. Turn on Live Translate if you want to read the captions in another language on Windows, Mac, Linux or Chromebook Plus.

Use LessonScriptor if you need to keep, edit and export what was said, or if your lecture is in Arabic or Russian, which Chrome does not caption. LessonScriptor's 14 variants are English (US and UK), French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese (Portugal and Brazil), Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Arabic and Hindi. AI mode captures tab audio, so it works with headphones. Free mode listens through the microphone, so it needs speakers.

Neither covers it if your lecture is in Dutch, Polish, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish, Thai or Indonesian and you need an exportable transcript. Chrome captions those languages but LessonScriptor doesn't, so look at a multilingual transcription service such as Notta, which has a free tier.

Frequently asked questions