Translate YouTube Videos While You Watch

YouTube’s auto-translate gives you translated subtitles. AutoDub adds a way to listen: hear the explanation in your language while keeping your attention on the video. For a coding tutorial, a cooking demonstration or a lecture with slides, that means less time moving your eyes between the action and the text.

YouTube also offers translated audio tracks on some videos. Those are separate from caption auto-translate: you select from the tracks available for that video. With AutoDub, you choose your dubbing language and voice in the extension, with bilingual subtitles and original-audio controls in the same panel.

Want to listen instead of keeping up with subtitle lines? Start with AutoDub. It’s free, with no account or API key to set up.

YouTube’s own guides explain its caption settings and available audio tracks.

In Tim Urban’s TED talk, Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator, the speaker explains a diagram while talking in English. The capture above shows AutoDub’s Spanish translation alongside the original English caption.

Source

English speech and captions

AutoDub setting

Spanish dubbing; bilingual subtitles

Captured

October 19, 2026, in desktop Chromium with AutoDub 0.9.0

To try the same task, open the video on YouTube, start AutoDub and choose the language you want to hear. Keep both caption lines visible at first; then decide whether to keep reading or focus on the diagram. Use the transcript to return to a moment you want to hear again.

For a listening-focused setup, see how to watch without constantly reading subtitles. To choose between products, compare YouTube translator extensions.

Go from watching in another language to listening in your own, directly in the YouTube player. Set up AutoDub once, then use the player button whenever you want a translation.

1. 1

   Install the extension and refresh YouTube

   Add AutoDub to Chrome, Edge, or Brave from the Chrome Web Store, or install the Firefox version. If the video was already open, reload the page so the player can show the AutoDub button.

2. 2

   Open YouTube on your computer

   Choose a tutorial, lecture, interview or another video you want to understand. Stay on the YouTube watch page: there is no need to copy the link into another tool.

3. 3

   Click AutoDub in the player controls

   Move your pointer over the video to reveal its controls. The AutoDub icon is on the right side of the control bar. Click the icon to open AutoDub’s settings and start translating.

4. 4

   Choose your language and play the video

   Set Dubbing language to the language you want to hear. Open Dubbing to choose a Voice and adjust the sound. If playback is paused, press play. The first translation and audio take a moment to load, and AutoDub prepares the next part while you watch. Click the AutoDub icon again to reopen the settings.

If the Chrome Web Store is blocked for you, follow the manual installation guide. For more controls, see the AutoDub user guide.

Choose English, Hindi or any other supported language under Dubbing language in AutoDub. In subtitles-only mode that setting is called Translation language.

You don't need to change YouTube's language setting. Supported languages:

• Arabic
• Bengali
• Cantonese
• Chinese (Simplified)
• Chinese (Traditional)
• Czech
• Danish
• Dutch
• English
• Filipino
• Finnish
• French
• German
• Greek
• Gujarati
• Hebrew
• Hindi
• Hungarian
• Indonesian
• Italian
• Japanese
• Kannada
• Korean
• Malay
• Malayalam
• Marathi
• Norwegian
• Persian
• Polish
• Portuguese
• Romanian
• Russian
• Slovak
• Spanish
• Swedish
• Tamil
• Telugu
• Thai
• Turkish
• Ukrainian
• Urdu
• Vietnamese

YouTube also offers built-in subtitle options. To use them on the desktop website:

1. Open the video and click the Settings gear.
2. Open Subtitles/CC and choose your language.
3. If it isn't listed, look for Auto-translate and pick a language there.

In the YouTube app on iPhone or Android, the same option usually sits under the gear icon → Captions → Auto-translate. The menu differs a little between app versions.

This changes the subtitle text only. The voice stays in the original language. Following subtitles can get tiring during a long lecture, especially if you also need to watch code or a demo. We compare dubbing and subtitles in more detail on the dubbing extension page.

The available options vary by video and device.

YouTube's help page covers caption and language settings in full.

Some videos already offer another language as an audio track. If yours does, you can listen without installing anything:

1. Open the video's Settings menu.
2. Click Audio track, then choose your language.

If that menu or your language is missing, the video doesn't have that track, and changing YouTube's interface language won't create one. AutoDub offers another way to listen in your language, with your choice of voice and subtitle display.

For more detail, read how YouTube's automatic dubbing works or YouTube's audio-language instructions.

Some online translators let you paste a YouTube link and download a translated video for editing or publishing. AutoDub is built for watching: stay in the player, choose your language and follow along without managing another video file.

If it's your own channel, look at YouTube Studio first. You can add translated subtitles there and check whether automatic dubbing is available for your channel.

Need help with a video? report the problem with the video URL, browser, target language, and any error message. That's what we need to reproduce it.