How to See Lyrics on Spotify

Yes — Spotify shows lyrics, and it shows them on the free tier as well as Premium. On an iPhone, play a track, tap the Now playing bar at the bottom, scroll down to the Lyrics card, then tap it for a full-screen view. On the desktop app and the web player, click the microphone icon in the playback bar. The one screen that stays blank is your car's: Spotify's CarPlay interface has no lyrics view, so getting the words onto the dashboard takes a separate app such as Lyricast.

That's the short answer. The rest of this guide covers the exact taps, the Lyrics preview setting most people never touch, what to do when the Lyrics card simply isn't there, and the CarPlay gap. Spotify's own View lyrics help page is worth knowing on two points before you start: lyrics are available across both the free and Premium tiers, and they may not be available on all songs and devices, because availability shifts over time and between markets depending on agreements with rights holders.

Step 1: Open the Now playing bar

Start the song you want the words for. At the bottom of the Spotify app there's the Now playing bar — the thin strip carrying the album art, track name and play button. Tap it to expand the full Now Playing view. On a tablet there's no bottom bar; tap the album artwork in the side menu instead.

Step 2: Scroll down to Lyrics

In the expanded view, swipe up. Below the album art and the playback controls sits the Lyrics card, with each line highlighting as the track plays. If you scroll past the credits and the queue without hitting a Lyrics card, that track has no lyrics on Spotify yet — the missing-card section below covers what to do.

Step 3: Tap the lyrics for full screen

Tapping the card opens the lyrics full screen, which is the view you actually want if you're singing along — bigger type, nothing else competing for the screen. From here you can share a few lines too: tap the share icon at the bottom, tap the lines you want highlighted, then tap Share and pick an app.

Step 4: Switch Lyrics preview on or off

Lyrics preview is the small real-time snippet Spotify shows under the album art — or over the Canvas video — without you opening the card at all. It's on by default. To change it, open the Now Playing view, tap the three-dot menu, then tap Lyrics. The setting applies to every track that has lyrics available, and music videos don't get a preview either way.

See lyrics on Spotify for desktop and web

On the Mac and Windows apps and in the web player the flow is shorter: play a song, then click the microphone icon at the bottom of the window, near the volume and queue controls. The lyrics panel opens beside the player and scrolls in time with the track. Spotify also allows lyrics on some other connected devices, but flags in the same help page that they may not be available on all of them — so treat that one as device-dependent rather than guaranteed.

When the Lyrics card is missing

A missing Lyrics card is nearly always about the track rather than your account — the feature went out to both tiers, so a free plan is not the explanation. Work through these in order:

• The song has no lyrics yet. Spotify adds new lyrics every day and says they may not be available on all songs — play a well-known track to confirm the feature itself is working for you.
• The app is out of date. Update Spotify in the App Store, then fully close and reopen it.
• You're playing a local file or a podcast. Neither carries synced lyric data, so no card appears.
• You're in a market or on a device where the feature isn't offered. Spotify states plainly that availability varies between markets and across devices depending on its agreements with rights holders.

Why Spotify lyrics don't show on your car screen

This is the gap people hit hardest, and it's a real one. Spotify's lyrics live in the phone app: the help page documents them for mobile, tablet, desktop and the web player, while Spotify's Spotify in the car page — the one covering CarPlay, Android Auto and Bluetooth — doesn't mention lyrics anywhere. Plug into CarPlay and the dashboard gives you the track title, the artist and the artwork. That's it.

iOS can carry lyrics to that screen, though — just not through Spotify. Live Activities, the system behind Lock Screen and Dynamic Island updates, lets a third-party app push the current line to the car display while Spotify keeps playing. That's what Lyricast does: listed on the App Store as Dynamic Lyrics: Car Widget, it reads the track playing from Spotify or Apple Music and shows the matching line, in time, on the CarPlay screen. It's free to install with in-app purchases, and Live Activities needs iOS 16.1 or later.

If that's the setup you want, our guide on how to get lyrics on CarPlay walks through it end to end, CarPlay Live Activities lyrics explains the mechanism behind it, and best CarPlay lyrics apps compares the handful of apps that support it, Musixmatch included.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you need Spotify Premium to see lyrics?

No. Spotify's help page states that lyrics are available to users across both the free and Premium tiers. If a song shows no lyrics, the cause is the track, your device or your market — not your plan.

Why do some songs have no lyrics on Spotify?

Lyrics depend on agreements with rights holders, so Spotify says they may not be available on all songs and devices, and that availability can vary over time and between markets. New lyrics are added every day, so a track without them now may get them later.

Can you see Spotify lyrics on CarPlay?

Not from Spotify itself — its CarPlay screen shows the track, artist and artwork, with no lyrics view, and Spotify's in-the-car help page doesn't list lyrics as a feature there. To get the words on the dashboard you need an app that pushes them through Live Activities, such as Lyricast, set up as described in our how to get lyrics on CarPlay guide.

How do you turn off the lyrics preview on Spotify?

Open the Now Playing view, tap the three-dot menu, then tap Lyrics to switch the preview off. It's on by default, and the change applies to every track that has lyrics available. Music videos never show a preview.

How do you share lyrics from Spotify?

Open the lyrics full screen, tap the share icon at the bottom, tap the lines you want to highlight, then tap Share and choose the app to send them to.