Gallery captions tell visitors what they’re looking at: the place, the product, the person behind the shot. You can build a WordPress image gallery with captions for free in two ways. Use the built-in Gallery block, or a plugin like Modula, where titles and captions are part of the free version.
The short answer
- No plugin: in a Gallery block, click a photo, then Add caption in its toolbar. The caption sits over the photo.
- With Modula: click a photo in the preview and fill in Title and Caption. Then switch them on in Layout → Captions and pick On the image or Under the image.
The Gallery block is fine for a few short captions. Want them under the photos, with titles, or in the lightbox that opens on click? That’s where it stops. We make Modula, so here’s where each route ends.
Why captions are worth the extra minute
Gallery captions answer where, what and who before anyone asks. A photo without words leaves people guessing.
Captions are real text, so screen readers read them out and people who zoom in can read them too. At least 2.2 billion people have a near or distance vision impairment (WHO, 2026).
Search engines read them as well. Google says it “extracts information about the subject matter of the image from the content of the page, including captions and image titles” (Google Search Central, 2026). More in how to get Google to index your images.
Title, caption and alt text: what each one does
In a Modula gallery, the title names a photo, the caption gives it context and the alt text describes it for screen readers. Modula saves all three to the image’s Media Library entry:
| Field | Its job | Saved in the Media Library as | Good example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Title | A short name | Title | Alpine panorama |
| Caption | Context people can see | Description (not Caption) | Sunset over the ridge line |
| Alt text | What the photo shows, for screen readers and search engines | Alt Text | Hazy ridge lines under an orange sunset sky |
Alt text is the one people skip: WebAIM found images without it on 53.1% of the top million home pages (2026). The usual mistakes:
- A file name as the title. IMG_4821 tells nobody anything. Titles are plain text, too, so keep formatting for the caption.
- A caption that repeats the photo. Beautiful sunset adds nothing. Twenty minutes after the last cable car left does.
- Alt text stuffed with keywords. Describe the photo the way you would on the phone.
Tip
Write the caption for people who can see the photo, and the alt text for people who can’t.
What a good caption sounds like
- Portfolio: Lights coming on downtown (title: City at blue hour)
- Shop: Speckled mug, 12 oz. Glazed by hand, so no two match. Link the name to the product page.
- Travel: Hallstatt at 6:40 a.m., an hour before the first tour bus.
- Credit: Photo: Mara Lind, CC BY 4.0
One line that adds what the photo can’t say on its own is plenty.
Captions in the WordPress Gallery block (no plugin)
WordPress can do gallery captions on its own. In WordPress 7.1:
- Add a Gallery block and pick your photos. Captions from the Media Library’s Caption field come along.
- Click one photo, then Add caption in its toolbar.
- For one line under the whole gallery, select the Gallery block and click its own Add caption.
For a single WordPress image with a caption, the Image block has the same button.
WordPress 7.1.3’s code shows where the block stops:
- Captions sit on the photo. Small white text over the bottom, so long captions cover the shot.
- Titles never show. The block displays captions only.
- No style controls. No caption color, size or font settings in the block. Your theme decides, or you write CSS.
- The lightbox drops the caption. With Enlarge on click, visitors see the bigger photo without it.
One quirk: WordPress’s stylesheet moves the caption under the photo for images with a border or the Rounded style. Themes can override that, so check.
For long captions with links, forum regulars suggest rows of Columns, Image and Paragraph blocks. That works, but it’s no longer a gallery.
Make a WordPress image gallery with captions in Modula
Free Modula has a title and caption field for every photo, plus the Captions settings that display them. Install it from Plugins → Add Plugin, or start with how to create an image gallery in WordPress.
- Go to Modula → Content and open your gallery, or click + for a new one and add photos with + Add.
- Click a photo in the preview. Its panel opens on the left: Image 1 of 12.
- Fill in Alt text, Title and Caption.
- Use the arrows next to the count to move on.
There’s no Save button: the top bar shows All changes saved as you type.
Write many captions at once (Modula Pro)
Clicking through 300 wedding proofs one by one gets old fast. With Modula Pro, click Bulk edit above the preview. You get one table with Title, Alt text and Caption for every photo, plus bold, italic and link buttons for captions. See how to bulk edit your images.
Let Modula AI write a first draft
Write text with AI, at the top of the image panel, suggests an alt text, title and caption. It uses Modula AI credits, which come with every paid plan (Starter 250, Trio 1,000, Business 2,500). Read what it writes: it sees a mountain, but you know which mountain.
Show captions on the photo or under it
Modula shows titles and captions only once you switch them on in Layout → Captions, where you also choose where they sit. Turn on Show image title, Show image caption and, for the gallery’s name, Show gallery title.
On the image or under it?
Choose on purpose:
- Under the image when the words matter: portfolios, a potter’s product shots, anything with a price or credit. It never covers the photo, and you also get Text alignment, Space under the image and Padding around text.
- On the image when the photo is the point: full-width photo walls, travel grids, one-word titles. Whether the text stays visible or appears on hover depends on the hover effect under Motion (see Modula hover effects). Phones have no hover, so test on yours.
Bubble on small images is on by default, for both placements. On tiles below the When smaller than size (240 px by default), the title and caption move into a bubble that opens on hover or a long-press. A phone column of landscape photos often counts as small, so turn Bubble off to keep captions under every photo.
Placement isn’t offered for the Slider, Story, Showcase, BnB, Parallax and Video gallery types. Step by step: captions and titles under the images.
Style the text
Title style and Caption style each have Color, Size (desktop and mobile) and Boldness. Gallery title tag makes the gallery’s name a paragraph or a heading, from Heading 1 to Heading 6.
Watch out
Watch the color. The text is white by default: fine on a photo, hard to read under the image on a light page. Pick a darker color there.
For your own font, see add a custom font for captions and titles. Every setting is in caption and title configuration.
Hide the title on one photo
Click the photo and turn on Hide title. That hides the title on its gallery tile only, not in the lightbox. Hide in lightbox, right above it, leaves the photo out of the lightbox instead.
Show captions in the lightbox
In the lightbox, free Modula 3.0 shows the caption but not the title. To get there, make sure What happens when an image is clicked (in Lightbox) says Open in lightbox or Lightbox, or link when set.
Modula Pro adds lightbox Show title and Show caption switches, plus Where title and caption sit (left, right or center). Each gets its own color, size and boldness.
The Lightbox section doesn’t appear for the Slider, Story and Video gallery types. More in Lightbox & Links.
Captions in sliders and video galleries
Modula’s Slider (Trio plan and up) has its own caption switch, Show title and caption, while the Video gallery type (Starter plan and up) has no Captions section. The Slider’s Caption placement menu offers Above the slide, Top of the slide, Below the slide and Bottom of the slide. More in our image carousel guide.
If your video clips need context, write it around the gallery: a heading above, a line of text below.
Add the gallery to your page
A Modula gallery goes on a page through its shortcode or the Modula block, once its status says Published. Click Embed and copy the shortcode (it looks like [modula id="89"]). Paste it into a Shortcode block, or add the Modula block and pick the gallery. Elementor, Divi and Beaver Builder have Modula modules too. See the gallery shortcode guide.
Then open the page on your phone, tap a photo and read your captions the way visitors will. Want sharing? See social sharing for image galleries.
Captions not showing? Check these first
Missing Modula captions have nine common causes:
- The switch is off. Turn on Show image caption (and Show image title) in Layout → Captions.
- They only show on hover. Your hover effect may reveal text only under the mouse.
- They sit in a bubble. Small tiles, common on phones, use Bubble on small images. Turn it off.
- White on white. White text under the image vanishes on a white page. Change the Color.
- One photo has no title. Its Hide title switch is on.
- It’s a Slider. Sliders use their own Show title and caption switch.
- It’s a Video gallery. That type has no Captions settings.
- You edited the Media Library caption. Modula’s Caption is saved as the photo’s Description. The Media Library’s Caption only shows while Modula’s Caption is empty.
- The page is cached. Clear your caching plugin, then reload.
Frequently asked questions
Select the image in the block editor and click Add caption in its toolbar. Or fill in the Media Library’s Caption field before you insert it. In a Modula gallery, click the photo in the preview and type in Caption.
Yes. Free Modula (160,000+ active installations) lets you write, place and style titles and captions, and shows captions in the lightbox. Seven of its 14 gallery types are free, and all seven can put captions on or under the photos.
It depends on your photos and budget, and we’re biased. For captions, check three things: captions under the photos, separate phone sizes and captions in the lightbox. Free Modula has all three. Our WordPress gallery plugin guide compares the main options.
Yes, on the gallery: captions take links, bold and italics. Titles are plain text. Modula 3.0’s lightbox escapes caption HTML, so don’t count on a clickable link there. To link the whole photo, set its On click to Custom link (see gallery custom links).
Not in Modula: it has no caption templates or field placeholders, so a caption can’t pull in an ACF field by itself. Type the text in Caption, or in Bulk edit (Modula Pro) for many photos.
Put it in the caption, like Photo: Mara Lind, with a link to the photographer. Image Licensing (Trio plan and up) also adds a license to your images, including as structured data for search engines. See the guide to image licensing.
There’s no phone-only switch. You can give titles and captions a smaller mobile Size (12 px and 10 px by default, down to 8 px), and Bubble on small images tucks text into a bubble on small tiles. Turn it off to keep the text in place.
