The short answer
Firefox has no built-in live caption feature. We checked Firefox 156, the current release. Mozilla's own list of Firefox accessibility features does not include one, and the live captioning request on Mozilla Connect has carried the status New idea since it was posted in June 2022.
Mozilla is building a related piece. On-device speech recognition for websites was switched on in Firefox Nightly, the test build, on 16 September 2026, and it is still off in the Beta and release versions. It lets a website offer voice typing or its own captions. It is not a switch that captions whatever a tab plays.
To read what Firefox is playing, use something that hears the whole computer: Windows 11 Live Captions, macOS Live Captions on an Apple silicon Mac, or Fraze, which does the same and puts a translation under each line.
What Firefox actually has
- On-device page translation. Mozilla says translations happen entirely on your device, the language files are downloaded to it, and your text is never sent to cloud servers.
- Text only. The same help page asks whether translation works with non-text content, like images or videos, and answers: No. Translation works only with text.
- Picture-in-Picture subtitles. If a site already carries subtitles, Firefox can show them in the floating video window, on a list of sites that includes YouTube, Netflix and Disney+.
- A site's own captions. Anything the website provides plays in Firefox as normal.
None of this turns sound into words. If a stream, a call or a video has no captions of its own, there is nothing in today's Firefox to switch on.
What is coming is aimed at websites, not directly at you. Mozilla's help page on AI controls lists a speech recognition item: when a website offers voice features, such as talking instead of typing or live captions for audio and video, Firefox transcribes the audio on your device. Mozilla's bug tracker shows it is on by default only in Firefox Nightly so far. A site can build captions with it one day. A video on a site that has not done so stays uncaptioned.
Caption Firefox audio with Windows or macOS
On Windows 11
Press Windows + Ctrl + L, or turn on Live captions in quick settings. Microsoft's documentation says the feature is in Windows 11 version 22H2 and later, that it captions any audio that passes through your PC, and that the first run downloads speech files. All the processing happens on the device.
On a Mac
Open System Settings, click Accessibility, then Live Captions, and turn it on. Apple's documentation says Live Captions is only on Macs with Apple silicon, that audio is processed on device, and that you can switch between the Mac's own audio and its microphone. The first time you turn it on, the Mac downloads language data, so you need to be online.
Then play the tab
Start the video or the call in Firefox. The caption window fills in by itself. Neither feature knows or cares which browser you are in.
Both systems caption every sound the computer makes, so it does not matter that the audio is coming out of Firefox.
The four options side by side
| Captions Firefox audio | Translation | Where it runs | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Firefox on its own | No | Page text only | On your device |
| Windows 11 Live Captions | Yes, all PC audio | Copilot+ PCs only | On the PC |
| macOS Live Captions | Yes, Apple silicon Macs | None listed by Apple | On the Mac |
| Fraze | Yes, all system audio | About 50 languages | On your computer |
Where Fraze fits
Fraze is a Mac and Windows app that listens to system audio. It captions a Firefox tab, a Zoom call in another app, a desktop video player or a game the same way. On macOS it can listen to one app on its own, and on either system it can listen to the microphone for a person in the room.
The difference from the built-in features is the second line. Under each caption Fraze shows a translation, and both steps, the speech recognition and the translation, run on your computer. Nothing is uploaded. After the first download of language files it keeps working with Wi-Fi off. A small caption window can float over the Firefox window, and you can show the original, the translation, or both.
It recognizes speech in 25 European languages, with more on macOS 26 or later, including Japanese, Korean and Chinese. Translation covers about 50 languages to or from English.
The first 30 minutes are free on every account, with no card. After that it is $29.99 once or $2.99 a month, both unlimited.
When you do not need any of this
- You only want same-language captions and you are on Windows 11 or an Apple silicon Mac. Both give you that at no cost, in the languages they support.
- You have a Copilot+ PC and want the translation in English. Microsoft's documentation says Windows Live Captions translates on the device there.
- The video already has subtitles. Turn them on in the player and Firefox will show them.
- You want the page's text in another language, not its audio. Firefox already does that, on your device.
Fraze is for the case the others mostly leave out: the sound is in a language you do not read, and you want the translation to stay on your machine. Windows does that only on a Copilot+ PC, and Microsoft's documentation says it translates into English or Simplified Chinese.
Questions
Does Firefox have live captions?
No. Firefox 156, the current release when we checked, has no caption generation. Mozilla's list of Firefox accessibility features does not include it, and the live captioning request on Mozilla Connect still carries the status New idea, with 140 votes and 69 comments since June 2022. Firefox can display captions a website already provides, but it does not create them.
Is there a Firefox live caption extension?
Third party add-ons for this exist on addons.mozilla.org. The ones we found are made by independent developers, not by Mozilla, so before you install one, read what it does with your audio and whether it sends it anywhere.
Can Firefox translate what is being said in a video?
No. Firefox translation is for page text. Mozilla's help page asks whether it works with non-text content, like images or videos, and the answer is no: translation works only with text.
How do I get captions on a YouTube video in Firefox with no subtitles?
Turn on Windows 11 Live Captions or macOS Live Captions, then play the video. They caption the sound your computer makes, whichever app makes it. If you also need the words in another language, Fraze shows a translation under each line.
Will Mozilla add live captions to Firefox?
Mozilla has not announced live captions or a date. In the Mozilla Connect thread, a Mozilla employee wrote in October 2022 that the team knows this is a gap and would like to fix it, and in September 2025 the community manager said the request had been passed to internal teams. The status is still New idea. The speech recognition now in Firefox Nightly is for websites to use. It does not caption a tab by itself. The date at the top of this page says when we last checked.