A few people have asked the same thing: “Aren’t Auto Captions free? It says I have to buy credits and it won’t make captions.” Here is exactly how it works.
Auto Captions is an AI feature, so it uses AI credits
Auto Captions, Auto Subtitles and Voiceover AI all run on real speech-to-text / voice AI. That processing is metered in AI credits (also shown as minutes), separate from downloading packs.
- A free AEJuice account includes 10 free AI credits every month (about 10 minutes of captions or voiceover).
- They reset automatically at the start of each month.
- Each time you generate captions, the length of your audio is deducted from your balance.
So the feature is free to try every month — but once the monthly minutes are used up, the plugin asks you to top up. That “buy credits” message is not an error and nothing is broken: it just means the current month’s free minutes are gone.
Check your balance
You can see your remaining credits any time here: Animation Plugins and Presets for After Effects - AEJuice
When you run out, three options
- Wait for the reset — your 10 free minutes come back next month, free.
- Subscribe — plans start at $9/month and include 25 downloads plus 40 AI credits (about 40 minutes): https://aejuice.com/all-access/?utm_source=aejuice_forum&utm_campaign=ai-credits
- One-time top-up — add credits just for this month at Animation Plugins and Presets for After Effects - AEJuice
Tips to make your free minutes last
- Caption only the part you need (trim the work area / selection) instead of a whole long timeline.
- Word-by-word style with no emoji is the lightest, fastest option.
- Re-running the same clip re-charges the minutes, so set your style before generating.
If captions still fail while your balance shows credits remaining, that is a real problem — press Shift + W in Pack Manager to send us a report and we’ll look into it.