The complete user manual.

Live Classroom Captions is a Chrome extension that turns a teacher’s speech into live on-screen captions and translates them in real time, so every student can follow the lesson in their own language on their own device. Teachers sign in with Google; students never need an account.

1. Quick facts

• Price: $6/month or $64.80/year (save 10%), after a 10-day free trial. No credit card required for the trial. Cancel anytime.

• Students always join free, with no account, from their own Chrome browser with the extension installed.

• Two recognition engines: Basic Mode (free, unlimited, browser-based) and AI Mode (more accurate, auto-detects languages, runs on prepaid AI Coins).

• AI Coins: 4 coins per minute of AI Mode listening · 1 coin per line of AI translation · 1 coin per audio-minute of recording transcription. Packs: 200 for $5, 500 for $10 (most popular), 1,000 for $20. Coins never expire. Daily safety cap: 1,500 coins per day (resets midnight UTC).

• Translations available in 100+ languages (134 in the language picker).

• Transcripts save to the teacher’s own Google Drive — never to our servers.
• Captions shared to student devices are automatically deleted within 24 hours. Students are anonymous; no student names or IDs are ever collected.

2. Getting started (teachers)

1. Install “Live Classroom Captions” from the Chrome Web Store.
2. Click the CC icon in the Chrome toolbar to open the popup.
3. Click Sign in with Google. Your 10-day free trial starts immediately.
4. Tap the language pills for the translations your class needs.
5. Open a normal webpage (slides, docs, anything) and click Start Captions. Allow the microphone when Chrome asks.
6. First-time users see a welcome overlay (“Welcome! Three steps to live captions”) — pick languages, click Start Captions, share the join code. Click Got it to dismiss it permanently.

3. The extension popup (teacher view)

Open it by clicking the CC toolbar icon. The popup has three possible views: teacher (default), student, and accommodation. This section covers the teacher view.

3.1 Header

• Live Captions title with a version pill (e.g. v2.6.0) showing the installed build. The pill is informational, not clickable.

3.2 Signing in and the account bar

• Signed out, you see one card: Sign in to get started with the Sign in with Google button. While connecting it reads “Opening Google sign-in…”. Success shows “Signed in — welcome!”.

• Signed in, the account bar shows:

• A connection dot — green means connected to the captions service, red means offline.
• Your email, and a Sign out button.
• A plan pill: “Subscribed”, “Free trial · N days left”, “Trial (card on file)”, “Subscribed · ends soon” (cancellation scheduled), “Payment issue — update your card”, or “Trial ended”.
• A coin pill, e.g. “250 AI Coins” (turns red at 10 or fewer; shows ∞ for unlimited accounts). Tooltip: “AI Coins power AI Mode recognition.”
• Buy coins — opens the Buy AI Coins window listing the three packs. Packs are purchasable by subscribers; trial accounts see them locked with the message “Only subscribers can purchase AI Coin packs.”
• Manage plan (subscribers — opens the Stripe billing portal for card, invoices, cancel) or Subscribe (everyone else — opens the Choose-your-plan window: Monthly $6/month or Annual $64.80/year).

• Usage ▸ — expands to show “Coins used today”, “This billing period”, and the note “Daily limit: 1,500 coins (resets midnight UTC)”.

• If your trial has ended, an extra card appears: “Your trial has ended — Subscribe for $6/month to keep captioning. Everything you set up — languages, vocabulary, transcripts — is right where you left it.” with a Subscribe — $6/month button.

3.3 Start Captions / Stop Captions

The large red button starts and stops a captioning session.

• Captions can only appear on normal web pages (http/https). Chrome system pages, the Web Store, and similar show the warning: “Captions can’t appear on this page — it’s a browser system page… Open a normal website or document, then start captions.”

• Starting requires being signed in with an active trial or subscription. Otherwise you’ll see “Sign in with Google to start captions” or “Your free trial has ended — subscribe to continue.”

• On success you’ll see “Starting captions…” and a pinned tab opens (see §4). Stopping shows a session summary such as “Session: 24 min | 48 AI coins used | 312 captions” (the coins part is omitted for Basic Mode sessions).

3.4 Recognition mode toggle

Two segments: Basic Mode and AI Mode. Switching mid-session shows “Switching recognition…”; while idle, “AI Mode selected” / “Basic Mode selected”. A hint line beneath explains the current mode; if your coin balance can’t cover one minute, it warns: “You are out of AI Coins — tap ‘Buy coins’ above to keep using AI Mode.” See §6 for the full comparison.

3.5 Your class room (live panel)

Appears only while captions are running with Room Sharing enabled (Settings page), signed in, and a class code set. Shows:

• Students reading: N — live headcount, refreshed every few seconds.
• Language breakdown — colored pills like “Spanish 12 · Vietnamese 8”.

• Copy class link — copies the join code blob for pasting into Google Classroom or Canvas (“Copied! Paste it into Google Classroom or Canvas.”). If Room Sharing is off: “Turn on Room Sharing in Settings first.”

• Show QR code — opens “Scan to join” with a large QR plus the short class code as text. Students scan with a phone camera or type the short code. If the QR image can’t load, the text code still shows.

3.6 Presets

Visible only once you’ve saved at least one preset. Tap a preset pill (e.g. “B2 Chemistry”) to select all of its languages at once — you’ll see “B2 Chemistry selected”. The preset matching your current selection is highlighted.

3.7 Languages

Tap language pills to toggle which translations are broadcast. Each pill has the color used for that language’s caption stripe. Your own teaching language never appears here — it’s the original, not a translation. Defaults: Spanish, Vietnamese, French, German. Add or remove languages and change colors on the Settings page (134 available).

Save selection as preset… opens a name field (max 40 characters, Enter to save, limit 10 presets). Errors: “Give the preset a name first”, “Select at least one language first”, “Preset limit reached (10) — remove one in Settings first”. Saving over an existing name replaces its languages.

3.8 My classes (permanent join codes)

One class per period. Each class has a permanent short code (e.g. CHEM42) that stays valid all year — students save it once and reconnect automatically every time you go live.

Each class row has four controls:

• Class name — tap to make it the active class (“Period B2 Chemistry is now your active class”). The active class shows a ✓ and receives your captions. Event classes show “· event”.

• Code chip — tap to copy just the short code (“Code CHEM42 copied — students type it into their extension”).

• ✎ Rename — inline editor, max 100 characters, Enter or Save.

• × Delete — permanently deletes the class immediately (no undo). Its code becomes free to reuse. Students who saved it can no longer connect.

Creating a class: type a name (e.g. “Period B2 Chemistry”), optionally check Conference mode (“an all-day event, not a class period — room stays open 24 hours; shown as ‘Event: name’”), then Create. A code picker appears with a suggested code built from your class name (confusing characters 0/O/1/I/L are never generated). Choose Use this code, Generate another, or type your own 4–8 letter/number code and hit Use. Taken codes prompt for another. On success: “Class created — code CHEM42”, and the new class becomes active.

3.9 Co-present (co-teaching, with host approval)

Co-presenting uses a dedicated co-presenter code — never a class code — and requires the host teacher’s approval before anything appears on screen.

As the host: your personal co-presenter code (looks like CP plus 6 characters) shows in the Co-present area — tap it to copy, or tap ↻ to get a new one (the old code stops working for new requests). Share it with co-teachers only. When someone requests to co-present you’ll see them listed with Approve and × (deny) buttons — and if you’re mid-lesson, an on-screen prompt appears on your presentation tab so you can approve without opening the popup. Approving is one-time: that co-teacher can join your classes until you remove them with × in the approved list.

As the co-presenter: enter the host’s co-presenter code and press Co-present. You’ll see “Waiting for [host] to approve…” (with a Cancel request button) until they accept; then “Approved by [host] — your next Start Captions joins their class once it’s live.” Your captions appear to their students tagged with your name (“Ms. G: …”). Stop co-presenting returns captions to your own room.

Students can never co-present: knowing a class code grants reading only, and co-presenting requires both a teacher account and the host’s explicit approval, enforced by the server.

3.10 Caption options

• Show English original (relabeled to your language if you don’t teach in English) — whether your own words appear alongside translations. It resets to ON at the start of each new session.

• Record transcripts — on by default; toggles “Recording on/off”.

3.11 Links

• Settings & styling → opens the Settings page (§9).
• Class transcripts → opens the Transcripts page (§11).
• User added vocabulary → opens the Vocabulary page (§10).

3.12 Accommodation room (small-group testing)

A separate room for 504/SpEd students testing in a small-group area, fully independent of your main captions. Click Open accommodation room, accept the suggested short code or type your own, and give the code to those students only. The panel then shows the code, a live “N joined” count, and Close accommodation room. The code expires when you close the room (rooms also expire on their own after several hours). Students in the room run captions locally on their own device — nothing they hear is transmitted anywhere.

3.13 I’m a student — join a class

The link at the bottom switches the popup to the student view (§8). The device only commits to being a student device once a class is actually saved.

4. The recognizer tab (while captioning)

Starting captions opens a pinned tab titled “🎙 Captions Running — keep this tab open”. This tab holds the microphone; you can switch to any other tab and captions follow you there.

• Listening state: “Listening — captions are live”, plus the language line (“Listening for: English” in Basic Mode; “AI Mode — listening (detecting language automatically)” in AI Mode).

• Microphone prompt: if permission isn’t granted yet, the tab shows Allow microphone & start. If blocked, it explains: click the lock icon in the address bar, set Microphone to Allow, then Try again.

• AI paused (silence): in AI Mode, after about a minute of silence a note appears — “AI paused (silence) — coins are not being used. Speak and it resumes automatically.” Quiet minutes are never charged.

• Closing this tab stops the session — same as pressing Stop Captions.

• AI Mode problems (out of coins, daily cap reached, signed out, trial ended, connection failure) show a clear message in this tab with an Open settings button; the tab stays open so you can read it.

5. Captions on screen (teacher)

5.1 Caption boxes

Each selected language gets its own floating box that works on any page:

• Move by dragging the header; resize from the bottom-right corner. Positions and sizes are remembered per language.

• Your own language’s box is labeled “(Presenter)”.

• ⚙ Customize this box opens a per-box style panel: black/white background, opacity slider, font size slider (14–72px), text color, and accent (stripe) color, plus Reset to global and Done. These override the global styling from Settings for that one box.

• × Hide this language closes the box — closing a translation box also stops broadcasting that language; closing your own box turns off “Show English original” for the session.

• If you scroll up to re-read, new captions stop yanking you down; a ↓ Latest pill appears — tap it to jump back to live.

• On Google Slides, slide changes insert a thin “Slide N” divider in every box so the transcript lines up with your deck.

• If a box drifts off-screen, use Reset all caption box positions on the Settings page.

5.2 Floating buttons (presentation tab only)

Four draggable round buttons appear while captioning:

• Pause/Resume (red ⏸ / teal ▶) — pausing genuinely turns the microphone off; resuming turns it back on.

• Hide/show caption boxes (eye) — hides all boxes without stopping listening or student broadcast. Perfect for showing an answer key.

• Student response (person icon; Basic Mode only) — tap and choose the language a student is answering in (“A student is answering in…”). Their words are captioned in their language and translated for you and for every other language. Tap “↩ Back to English (presenter)” when done. In AI Mode this button is hidden because languages are detected automatically.

• Student questions (speech bubble) — pulses with a red unread badge when questions arrive. Opens a panel listing each question with a flag for its source language, the question translated into your language, the original wording underneath, and a Mark answered button.

6. Basic Mode vs AI Mode

When coins run out, AI Mode stops with a clear message and you can keep teaching free in Basic Mode. You can never be charged beyond the coins you chose to buy. No AI account or API key is ever needed.

7. Sharing captions with students (Room Sharing)

1. Turn on Enable Room Sharing on the Settings page (off by default).
2. Create a class in the popup’s My classes and make it active.
3. Share the code: paste the class link into Google Classroom/Canvas, show the QR, or just tell students the short code (codes are not case-sensitive).
4. Start Captions. Students who saved your code connect automatically whenever you go live, all year.

Only caption text is relayed — never audio, never student identity. A normal class session’s room stays open up to 8 hours; conference/event classes stay open 24 hours. Shared captions are deleted from our servers within 24 hours.

8. Student guide

Students install the same extension. No account, ever.

8.1 Joining

Click the CC icon → I’m a student — join a class → paste the join code from Classroom/Canvas, or type the short class code (e.g. CHEM42), then Add. You’ll see “Saved [class] — you’ll connect automatically when your teacher starts captions.” You only do this once per class. Add as many classes as you have teachers; tap a class name to switch (“Switched to …”), or × to remove one.

8.2 Reading captions

• Pick your language in the Caption language dropdown (choices come from what the teacher is broadcasting). Your choice is remembered per class.

• The status line shows: Connected to your class / Waiting for your teacher to start captions / This page isn’t linked yet — reload it (or open a normal website) and it’ll connect.

• The caption box’s footer dot reads Live (green), Teacher paused (yellow — normal whenever the teacher isn’t captioning), or Class ended (gray).

• Floating buttons on the caption view: an eye to hide/show captions, a gear to set your own caption text size (12–36px — your size wins on your device), and a blue ? to ask a question.

• Optional: “Vibrate when captions start (if your device supports it)” — buzzes once when the teacher goes live.

8.3 Asking a question

Tap ? → “Ask your teacher” → type in any language (up to 500 characters) → Send. The teacher sees it translated into their language. Sending has a 20-second cooldown; after 5 questions you’ll be asked to “Give others a chance” for a couple of minutes.

8.4 Accommodation (testing room)

When your teacher gives you an accommodation code, enter it under “Going to a testing room?” and press Go. Captions then run locally on your device: press Start Captions in the popup, and use Back to my class when testing ends. Nothing you caption in a testing room is sent anywhere.

9. Settings page (“Settings & styling”)

Reached from the popup. Except where noted, changes apply only after clicking Save settings at the bottom.

9.1 Speech Recognition

• Your language (what you speak when teaching) — 16 choices, default English. If you teach in a non-English language, AI Mode is recommended and custom vocabulary applies only when teaching in English.

• Basic / AI Mode cards — same choice as the popup toggle. Selecting AI Mode reveals “What AI Mode costs” (coin rates and pack prices; coins are bought from the popup, and unused coins never expire).

9.2 Room Sharing

• Enable Room Sharing checkbox (off by default). When on, an info panel explains that everything is included with your subscription and points to the popup’s My classes for codes, QR, and new-year resets.

9.3 Content Filter

• Filter profanity from captions — checks every caption against a built-in list of common profanity before it is displayed, translated, recorded, or sent to students; matches are replaced with asterisks (“what the ****”). Applies instantly, no Save needed. It’s a plain wordlist — it catches accidental pickup, not creative spelling.

9.4 Live Preview & Caption Bar Appearance

A live preview shows your styling as you adjust: background Black/White, opacity (0–1), font size (14–60px), font color. Reset all caption box positions fixes boxes that drifted off-screen (instant, no Save).

9.5 Quick-Pick Languages

The list behind the popup’s language pills. Each row: label (editable), code, stripe color, and × to remove. The top row is your own language (“always shown”) — only its stripe color is editable. + Add language opens a picker of 134 languages with an editable display label and stripe color. Duplicates are rejected (“That language is already in your list”).

9.6 Presets

Create named language groups (“+ Add preset” → name it → tap language chips). Presets with blank names are discarded on Save. Delete with ×.

9.7 Delete my account

Type DELETE and press Delete my account — cancels any subscription first, then permanently deletes your profile, coins, classes, and rooms. Transcripts in your Google Drive are untouched. Cannot be undone. (Also available on the teacher dashboard, §12.)

9.8 Save / Reset

Save settings persists everything and restyles captions on open pages immediately. Reset to defaults (with confirmation) restores original styling and the four default languages; it does not touch recognition mode, your language, Room Sharing, the content filter, vocabulary, or transcripts.

10. Vocabulary page (“User added vocabulary”)

Control the translations of technical terms yourself instead of letting the automatic translator guess. When a term is recognized correctly in your captions, your manual translation is used in its place.

• Worth knowing: this fixes translation errors, not recognition errors — the mic must hear the term correctly first.

• + Add term — English term, one optional translation box per quick-pick language (blank = automatic translation), optional note. Duplicates rejected (“That term already exists”).

• Edit / Delete on each term card (delete asks to confirm).

• Browse vocabulary packs — premade subject term lists you can load; duplicates are skipped, and only languages matching your quick-picks are applied.

• Export Vocabulary List — downloads your terms as a file (user-vocabulary.json) for backup or sharing with a colleague.

• Import Saved Vocabulary — loads such a file; you’ll be asked to confirm (“Add N term(s)… Duplicates with existing terms will be skipped.”).

• Terms are saved on this computer only — export to move machines.

• Vocabulary edits take effect on the very next caption.

11. Transcripts page (“Class transcripts”)

Every captioning session is recorded automatically while “Record transcripts” is on (popup checkbox). Sessions are listed with date, length, and entry count; Open shows the full timestamped transcript with every translation.

• Download as Markdown (.md) or Plain text (.txt), with an optional “Include translations” checkbox.

• Export SRT / Export VTT — standard subtitle files for use with recorded video.

• Save to Google Doc — creates a Google Doc of the transcript in your Drive. After a successful save the local copy is removed — the Doc becomes the master copy (“✓ Saved to Drive” opens it).

• Share with parents — creates a read-only link that works for 7 days, in any language you captioned in (the page has a language picker). The link is copied to your clipboard; paste it into a parent email, ParentSquare, or Remind. After 7 days it stops working automatically. Review the transcript first and remove anything sensitive.

• Google Drive button — connect your Google account so every session saves automatically as a Google Doc (“Automatically save every session to Drive”, on by default once connected) to a folder named “Live Classroom Captions Transcripts”. The extension can only see files it creates — it has no access to the rest of your Drive. Disconnect anytime; existing Docs are untouched.

• Upload recording — transcribe an audio/video file (mp3, mp4, wav, webm, m4a; up to 24 MB). Costs 1 AI Coin per minute of audio, confirmed before anything is charged. The result is timestamped, translated into your active languages, and appears as a normal transcript.

• Delete all transcripts removes local copies only — Google Docs already in your Drive are never affected.

12. Teacher dashboard (www.classroomcaptions.com/dashboard.html)

Sign in with the same Google account you use in the extension.

• Overview cards: Plan (Subscribed / Free trial (N days left) / Trial ended, with renewal date), AI Coin balance (“Coins never expire”), Coins used today (“Daily cap: 1,500 coins (UTC)”), and Sessions this month.

• Account: email, status, trial end, current period, auto-renew state.

• Usage: coins used today / this week / this month, AI Mode minutes this month, caption sessions this month.

• AI Coins: the three packs with Buy pack buttons (subscribers only — trial accounts see “AI Coin packs are for subscribers”), plus a Recent transactions table (coin purchases, AI Mode captions, AI translation, transcription, bonuses, refunds).

• My classes: a read-only table of your active classes — name, join code, Standard vs Conference (24h), whether it’s live right now, and created date. Classes are created and managed from the extension popup.

• Transcripts: a reminder that transcripts live in your own Google Drive, with a View your transcripts in Google Drive button.

• Contact support: name, email, category (General, Billing, Technical, Account, Bug, Feature request), subject, and message. On send you get a reference like CC-9F566DC8 on screen and by confirmation email; replies from the support team quote the same reference. If self-serve answers are enabled, you may first see a “Quick answer” from the help guide with the choice “That answers it” (nothing is sent) or “No, send to support.”

• Account management: Manage Subscription (Stripe portal — update card, view invoices, cancel), Subscribe For $6/mo, Subscribe Yearly — $64.80 (Save 10%), and the Delete account zone (type DELETE to unlock; cancels any subscription first; transcripts in your Drive survive; cannot be undone).

• After any Stripe checkout you land on a confirmation page — “Subscription active!”, “Coins added!”, “Checkout cancelled” (no charge), or “Billing updated” — then head back via the CC toolbar icon.

13. Billing summary

• Free trial: 10 days, starts at first sign-in, no card required. When it ends, teacher features pause until you subscribe; all your setup is kept. Students are never affected by a teacher’s billing state.

• Subscribe: $6/month or $64.80/year, from the popup or dashboard. Promotion codes can be entered on the Stripe checkout page (“Add promotion code”). Payments are processed by Stripe; we never see your card number.

• AI Coins: prepaid, subscribers only, never expire, hard daily cap of 1,500. When they run out, AI features simply stop — no surprise charges.

• Cancel: Manage plan/Manage Subscription → Stripe portal → cancel. You keep access until the period ends.

14. Troubleshooting

• Captions won’t start on this page — it’s a browser system page; open a normal website first.

• Microphone blocked — click the lock icon in the address bar on the recognizer tab, set Microphone to Allow, then Try again.

• The pinned “Captions Running” tab closed — that stops the session; just press Start Captions again.

• Student sees “Teacher paused” — normal whenever the teacher isn’t live; the student reconnects automatically when captions start.

• Student page “isn’t linked yet” — reload the page, or open a normal website.

• Captions look wrong / box off-screen — Settings → Reset all caption box positions; per-box styling via the box’s ⚙.

• A caption box scrolled away from live — tap the “↓ Latest” pill.

• AI Mode stopped mid-class — check the recognizer tab’s message: out of coins (buy more or switch to Basic), daily cap reached (resets midnight UTC; Basic still works), or trial ended.

• A join code “wasn’t found” — check the code with the teacher; codes are 4–8 letters/numbers and not case-sensitive.

• Wrong word keeps translating oddly — add it on the Vocabulary page with your preferred translation.

• Transcript missing — confirm “Record transcripts” was checked in the popup; if Drive auto-save is on, the transcript is a Google Doc in the “Live Classroom Captions Transcripts” folder of your Drive.

15. Privacy at a glance

Teachers sign in with Google; we store the account email and billing status. Students have no accounts — a student device is known only by a random identifier used to count “N students joined”. Audio never leaves the device in Basic Mode; in AI Mode audio is streamed securely for transcription and never stored. Shared caption text, questions, and presence data are deleted within 24 hours. Transcripts belong to the teacher, in the teacher’s own Google Drive. Payments are handled entirely by Stripe. Full policy: classroomcaptions.com/privacy.html.

Questions this manual doesn’t answer: email support@classroomcaptions.com or use the Contact support form on the teacher dashboard — you’ll get a reference number and a reply by email.