Subtitling · Kazakh
Kazakh subtitling services
Safety and induction film, customer video, documentary, broadcast and campaign work, subtitled into Kazakh by native linguists. We settle the alphabet at the brief and name the version, so the file reads as current. Kazakh subtitles, voice over scripts and translation all sit inside one project.
About Kazakh subtitling
Saying Latin is not enough. You have to say which Latin
Kazakhstan is moving its language from Cyrillic to a Latin alphabet, and the Latin alphabet itself has been redrawn three times since 2017. The first version leaned on apostrophes, the second replaced them with acute accents and digraphs, and the one in force since 2021 uses a different set of marks again. A file produced in any of the earlier two is not simply old-fashioned — it is in a script the country has since withdrawn.
Meanwhile most Kazakh is still written and read in Cyrillic. The transition runs to 2031 and it is deliberately gradual, so for the next several years a Kazakh audience is fluent in the alphabet it grew up with and is learning the one arriving. Neither choice is wrong. Choosing without saying so is what produces a file nobody is quite comfortable reading.
At GoLocalise, we settle the alphabet at the brief and name the version in writing, not just the script. We also read the date on a delivery spec as carefully as the numbers in it, because a document written a few years ago may be asking for an alphabet that no longer exists.
Which do you need?
Open captions, closed captions or SDH
Three different deliverables that people often ask for by the wrong name. Here is the short version.
Open captions
Burnt inSubtitles burnt permanently into the picture. Nobody can switch them off, which is exactly what you want for social feeds that autoplay muted — and in Kazakh the alphabet is locked into the picture, so there is no second version to keep track of.
- Always visible
- Alphabet locked at delivery
- Delivered as a finished video file
Closed captions
SwitchableA separate file the viewer can turn on and off, and that can carry several languages at once. The standard for YouTube, Vimeo and the streaming platforms.
- Viewer controls them
- Multiple languages from one video
- Indexed by search engines
SDH
AccessibilitySubtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing: dialogue plus speaker IDs and the sound effects and music cues that carry meaning.
- Speaker identification
- Non-dialogue audio described
- Meets accessibility requirements
Subtitles or captions? The two terms are often used interchangeably. Strictly, subtitles translate the dialogue for viewers who can hear the audio, while captions are same-language and add speaker labels and sound cues for viewers who cannot. We produce either — translated Kazakh subtitles or same-language Kazakh captions and SDH — in whichever form your platform and audience require.
What we subtitle
Kazakh subtitling for every kind of content
Mining, energy and logistics operations training staff across a very large country, banks and retailers with customer video, public bodies with statutory material: that is the shape of Kazakh demand. These formats cover most of it.
Corporate & training video
Internal comms, onboarding and product training subtitled for global teams and LMS delivery.
eLearning & online courses
Timed, readable subtitles for course platforms, MOOCs and instructional video.
Documentary & factual
Festival, broadcast and streaming documentaries, including interview clean-up and on-screen text.
Advertising & social
Burnt-in captions for muted autoplay on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and paid social.
Streaming & OTT
Platform-spec subtitle and caption files for VOD, OTT and broadcast delivery.
Accessibility (SDH & closed captions)
Same-language SDH and closed captions to meet WCAG and accessibility requirements.
Events, webinars & conferences
Recorded talks, town halls and webinars captioned for on-demand viewing.
E-commerce & product video
Short product and explainer videos captioned to lift conversion and reach.
How can we help you?
Your project manager has everything covered
One point of contact from brief to delivery, and both a linguistic and a technical check on every file.
Brief review
Your footage, who is watching, and the decision that governs everything after it: which alphabet, and which version of it, written down before spotting starts.
Template and translation
Where needed, we create an English subtitle template first, then send it to a native Kazakh subtitler.
Timing and quality checks
Cues spotted to picture, then read for pace and length, with a pass confirming the agreed orthography has held from the opening cue to the closing one.
Delivery and display check
Your formats, handed over with the alphabet written on the delivery note so nobody downstream has to work it out.
Our standards
The specs we work to
Readable subtitles are a matter of measurable limits, not opinion. These are the defaults we apply to Kazakh unless your style guide says otherwise.
Maximum per line
Holds in either alphabet
Maximum on screen
Centred and weighted to the bottom
Reading speed
13 for children's programming
Minimum duration
Seven seconds at the far end
These are house figures, since no platform has published a Kazakh guide, and yours take priority wherever the two differ. There is one extra thing we look at on a Kazakh spec, and it is the date on it. A document written a few years back can be exact about line length and still ask for an alphabet the country has since replaced. Better to catch that at the brief than at review.
Deliverables
Professional subtitle formats
We adapt your existing translations into subtitle format or create subtitles from scratch, in Kazakh, English or any other language. And if the project needs a timed script or a plain document instead, we deliver that too.
Standard text-based
Compatible with most platforms and players.
Broadcast & professional
For broadcasters, post houses and streaming delivery specs.
Burnt-in video
A finished file with the subtitles baked into the picture, alphabet included.
Need a different format? Convert SRT, VTT and more with our free subtitle converter →
| Where it's going | What we deliver |
|---|---|
| YouTube, Vimeo & LMS platforms | SRT or VTT closed captions |
| Netflix, Amazon & broadcast | IMSC, TTML or EBU-STL to platform spec |
| Instagram, TikTok & paid social | Burned-in captions in MP4 (open captions) |
| Premiere, Final Cut & DaVinci Resolve | SRT / VTT that import straight into your edit |
Not sure which you need? Tell us the destination platform and we deliver to its exact spec.
Kazakh specifics
2017, 2018, 2021 — and what people are reading meanwhile
The dates are worth having. A decree in October 2017 set out a Latin alphabet built around apostrophes; February 2018 withdrew those in favour of acute accents and digraphs; and the version adopted in 2021, 31 letters with umlauts, a breve and a tilde, is the one in official use since 2023. Each change was a response to how the previous one behaved in print and on a keyboard.
The finish line moved too. The original target of 2025 became 2031, with the changeover phased across the years between, which is why both alphabets will keep turning up in the same organisation for a while yet. Around 16 million people speak Kazakh natively, and it is also official in the Altai Republic in Russia and in the Ili Kazakh prefecture in China.
That last one matters for reach. More than a million Kazakh speakers in Xinjiang read a Perso-Arabic Kazakh rather than either alphabet used in Kazakhstan, so a campaign aiming at Kazakh speakers everywhere is not one file with a different label on it. We say so at the brief, before a budget is built on the wrong assumption.
Since 2008
Subtitling & captioning
100+
Languages covered
ISO 9001 & 14001
Certified processes
24–48h
Typical turnaround
Subtitling rates
Professional Kazakh subtitling
For single videos and straightforward content where accurate, well-timed subtitles are what you need.
- Native Kazakh subtitler
- Alphabet and version agreed
- Frame-accurate timing
For longer content and recurring projects, including transcription, SDH, burned-in subtitles and multiple output formats.
- Everything in Standard
- Transcription and template
- SDH and burnt-in
- Multiple output formats
Every project is quoted individually and backed by our Price Match Promise. Send us your video for an exact, no-obligation quote.
Not sure what your Kazakh subtitles will cost?
Send us the video — or just its running time — and we come back with an itemised quote: running time, languages and output formats priced line by line, with nothing hidden. No obligation, and if you find a like-for-like price lower, we will match it.
- Free, itemised quote
- No obligation
- Price Match Promise
Trusted by global brands
We have used GoLocalise on a regular basis for projects in a number of languages. The service we receive is great. The team is always friendly and professional. The voiceovers we receive are of a very high quality and the turnaround is extremely quick. We are very happy to recommend GoLocalise to other businesses.
It was a pleasure to work with David and the team at GoLocalise. David gave me lots of help and advice, guiding me through my first subtitling project. He really knows his stuff! The experience was completely pain-free. I would not hesitate to recommend GoLocalise – outstanding work at a good price.
They're reliable, adaptive and obsessed with quality. And while you can never be 100% guaranteed of perfection, you can be sure GoLocalise will go the extra mile to get it right every time. We've worked with them now for over 5 years and we are truly thankful to have such a strong localisation partner for our business.
Related services
The rest of your Kazakh project
Subtitling & captioning in more languages
Native subtitlers for corporate video, eLearning, streaming, documentary and advertising. Browse another language, or ask us about yours.
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Most common questions
Which alphabet should our Kazakh subtitles use?
Start from what your audience reads today, which for most Kazakh viewers is still Cyrillic, then weigh what your organisation publishes in. Government-facing and education material increasingly wants the current Latin alphabet; consumer video usually does not yet. Whichever we agree, we name the version on the handover so the next person in the chain is not left guessing.
We have Kazakh Latin material from a few years ago. Is it still current?
Possibly not, and it is quick to tell. If the text leans on apostrophes it is the 2017 version, and if it uses acute accents it is the 2018 one. Both were replaced by the alphabet adopted in 2021, so reusing them puts withdrawn spelling on screen. We can bring existing files up to the current version rather than starting again, which is normally the cheaper route.
Is the switch to Latin finished?
No, and it is not meant to be yet. The original target of 2025 was moved to 2031 and the changeover is deliberately staged, so for the rest of this decade both alphabets are in legitimate use and plenty of organisations run the two side by side. That is why we treat the choice as a brief decision with a date attached rather than as a setting that can be assumed.
Do you subtitle Kazakh for audiences outside Kazakhstan?
Yes, and it is worth flagging early that they may not share a script. Kazakh is official in the Altai Republic in Russia, and over a million Kazakh speakers in Xinjiang read a Perso-Arabic version of the language rather than Cyrillic or Latin. If your reach includes them, that is a separate deliverable, and we would rather say so at the brief than after the budget is fixed.
What is the price of a minute of Kazakh subtitling?
Twenty pounds a minute of running video is the starting point. Running time drives most of it; after that come transcription if the audio has not been typed up, an accessibility version or a burnt-in master if you want one, and the length of the format list. Settling the alphabet and holding it across a series is inside the rate. Quotes come itemised, with the Price Match Promise attached.
Can you caption Kazakh footage rather than translate it?
Yes, and we do it often. Same-language captions and SDH carry the dialogue plus speaker labels and the sounds a viewer cannot hear, which is what an accessibility review is looking for. The alphabet question does not go away on a same-language job, because it is a question about the reader rather than about the source — the speaker's Kazakh is the same either way.
We have an existing Kazakh SRT. Can it be reused?
Often, and the first thing to establish is which alphabet and which version it is written in, because that decides whether it goes straight onto the timeline or needs converting first. Our subtitlers then spot it to picture and rebuild the lines. Where you have nothing yet, we type the Kazakh audio up here and start from that instead.
Do the files work in our editing suite?
Yes, in SRT, VTT, STL or TTML, into Premiere, Resolve, Final Cut, Avid and the platforms' own caption editors. One point applies specifically to the current Latin alphabet: check that your preview font carries its full set of marked letters, because an editor that falls back partway through makes consistent text look inconsistent. A burnt-in master sidesteps it if you would rather not.
Ready to subtitle your video in Kazakh?
Send us your video and we'll come back with an exact, itemised quote.
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