Captions (Mirage) review for gaming shorts

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Verdict in short

Shortlist Captions if your shorts are you talking to camera, you want styled captions on a phone, and you are curious about AI avatars. Consider its Clips feature for gaming only if you already pay for Max and your VODs run under 3 hours. A dedicated clipper with named Twitch and Kick import is the safer first choice for a streamer whose main job is mining VODs.

On the name: Captions is the product, and Mirage is the company behind it. The terms describe Captions as “the content creation and editing platform of Mirage US LLC”, and the Mirage site lists Captions alongside Tesseract and APIs.

What the Clips feature says it does with gameplay

Captions’ Clips help article, last modified 19 August 2026, describes turning “long podcasts, streams, webinars, or gameplay” into short clips. The feature was previously called AI Shorts and Long-to-Short. The documented flow is:

1. On the Home screen, select Clips.
2. Upload a file of up to 3 hours and 10GB, or paste a YouTube or public video link.
3. Optionally add a prompt. The article’s own examples include “just the boss fights”. Choose a captions style.
4. Review the video plan, set the aspect ratio, decide on introduction titles and click Generate.
5. Clips return ranked from strongest first, at around 30 seconds by default. Edit any of them, or generate another batch with a different prompt or length.

For gaming, the article promises “Facecam-friendly layouts”, with a split screen or your facecam in a smaller window, and “Action-first reframing” that follows what matters on screen. It also says it detects captions burned into footage and won’t add a second set. All of this is the vendor’s description.

Limits that apply to a streamer:

• Link support. YouTube is named, along with “public video link”, and the Import & Upload article says you can paste a YouTube or other video URL on iOS and web. Twitch and Kick are not named on the pages we read. You may need to download your VOD and upload a file.
• Length. A 3-hour ceiling means a longer stream has to be trimmed first.
• Credit cost. The credit table does not list a cost for Clips. A note says the cost of AI Edit, at 10 to 40 credits, varies with duration, model and algorithm choices, so test on a real VOD before judging your budget.
• Platform. The feature availability table shows AI Shorts (the old name for Clips) on iOS and legacy desktop but not on Captions on Web, while the Clips article directs you to captions.ai. Check which applies to you.

Reasoning, not a result: the article says Clips analyses “hooks, peaks, and punchlines”. It does not say whether silent gameplay is read from the picture, so test a section without commentary as well as one with it.

What the plans cost, as of 8 November 2026

Captions’ pricing page carries a note that its features and prices “reflect iOS plans only”, while its help centre adds plans that page does not show.

The two Free plan figures may differ in scope, since the help centre describes those credits as lifetime and non-refreshing, which would not count as a recurring allowance. A yearly plan exists and bills 12 months upfront, but a yearly price is not on the page we read. The pricing FAQ says unused credits roll over for up to two extra months, so a balance can reach three times the monthly allowance.

Credits are spent on generative features, according to the credit guide. AI Edit is 10 to 40 credits, and Prompt to Video 16 credits for every 6 seconds. On Max’s 500 credits, at the top of that AI Edit range, 12 AI Edits would use 480. That is arithmetic for illustration only, because costs vary.

Captions and watermarks for gaming clips

Captions gives clearer watermark rules than its pricing page suggests. The subscriptions article lists “No watermarks” for the Free plan’s basic features: captions, camera, trim, zoom, sounds, media, voiceover, transitions and resize. But the watermark help page says using Max-only features on a Basic plan, such as AI Edit or AI-generated media, adds a watermark on export.

Caption-specific limits from the help centre: captions in 100+ languages, one template on Free against 100+ on paid plans, and a manual editor limit of up to 10 minutes on iOS. AI Edit is capped at 2 minutes on iOS and 1 minute on Captions on Web.

Reasoning, not a measured result: captions come from audio, so a clip with loud game sound under your voice may transcribe worse than a quiet talking-head video. Check the text against what was said before you post. Compare also with editors that publish more on the matter: Submagic’s pricing page lists AI auto captions on every paid plan (Starter $19 monthly or $12 billed yearly), and Kapwing’s free plan lists a watermark on exports and 10 minutes of auto-subtitling. Our captions for gaming shorts roundup compares them on the same question, and the Submagic review covers that tool. For a full clipper that includes captions, see the OpusClip review.

Terms: what you grant over your footage

Captions’ terms and privacy policy are the part of this review to read closest, especially for a streamer with guests.

• Ownership. “As between the parties, you own all rights in and to your Input and Output”, subject to Mirage’s rights in its own content.
• Licence to Mirage. You grant a sublicensable licence over Input and Output to provide the services, “to improve the Services, and to develop new services and products”. It survives termination. The terms say Mirage will not commercialise your voice on a standalone basis without written permission.
• AI training. The privacy policy, effective 10 November 2025, lists using information “to train our artificial intelligence/machine learning models”. It also says information may be disclosed to third parties “for their own business and commercial purposes, including for the purpose of enhancing their services, training their algorithms, and marketing third-party products or services to users.”
• Other people on screen. You must have the written consent of every identifiable person in your Input to use their name, likeness or voice. That applies to duo partners and guests on a facecam or in voice chat.
• Cancelling. Cancel through the store or billing portal you bought from, at least 24 hours before the period ends. Deleting the app does not cancel.
• Refunds. “YOUR PAYMENT IS NONREFUNDABLE” unless stated otherwise or required by law, and the cancellation help repeats that monthly plans are non-refundable.

AI avatars and digital twins: a note

Max lists “Create digital twins or custom AI actors”. For a streamer, the terms’ likeness consent rule is the important part: a digital twin of yourself is one thing, and one of a co-streamer needs their written consent. Rules on labelling AI-generated people vary by platform, so check the platform you post on before uploading avatar content.

Who should shortlist Captions

• Creators who record talking-to-camera clips on a phone and want captions and styling in one app.
• Max subscribers who already use Captions and want to try the Clips feature on a VOD under 3 hours.
• People curious about AI avatars who are willing to read the terms first.

Who should not buy it

• Streamers who need named Twitch or Kick import. Use the Twitch roundup or the long-VOD roundup.
• Anyone with VODs over 3 hours and no wish to split them.
• Anyone who wants captions only and has no use for generative AI, since Max at $24.99 pays largely for features they will not use. The free plan or Basic may be enough.
• Anyone uneasy with footage being used to train models or disclosed to third parties under the privacy policy.
• Teams that need web or Android pricing before committing; the pricing page covers iOS.

Downsides from the published evidence

• Prices on the main pricing page are iOS only, with no yearly figure.
• Clips is listed only from Max upward, and its credit cost is not listed.
• Twitch and Kick are not named as inputs.
• The training and third-party disclosure language is broad.
• No refunds on a monthly plan.

What to check in a trial on one of your own clips

1. Read the plan screen, and the terms and privacy policy, before you upload anything with other people’s voices or faces in it.
2. Use a real 30 to 60 second clip with game audio and speech, and compare the transcript with what was said.
3. Check where captions sit against the killfeed, ammo count and facecam. Our killfeed check and layout guide list what to look for.
4. On Max, paste a Twitch or Kick VOD link into Clips and see whether it is accepted; otherwise upload a file.
5. Prompt for “just the boss fights” or your own game’s equivalent, and judge the batch against a run with no prompt.
6. Note the credit balance before and after one Clips run, so you can work out a monthly cost.
7. Check the export for a watermark, and check again once any AI feature has been applied.

Our caption accuracy guide explains how to measure captions yourself, and the methodology covers how pages are made. More verdicts are in reviews.

Last checked 8 November 2026. Prices and limits change; we re-check monthly.