How to add subtitles to a video: SRT and VTT step by step

SRT (SubRip) is the most widespread format: a number per subtitle, start and end times with a comma before the milliseconds (00:00:01,000) and the text. Almost every program exports it.

VTT (WebVTT) is the browsers’ native format. It starts with a WEBVTT line, uses a dot before the milliseconds (00:00:01.000) and supports positions and styles. If you have an SRT, converting it to VTT is instant with our converter.

WEBVTT

00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:04.000
Hi, welcome to the course.

00:00:04.500 --> 00:00:07.000
Today we’ll see how to upload a video.

• By hand, with a free subtitle editor such as Subtitle Edit or Aegisub: type the text and set the timings over the audio waveform.
• With automatic transcription: many tools generate an SRT from the audio; always review it, since names and technical terms are often wrong.
• By translating an existing SRT to get another language; keep the timings and change only the text.

1. 1Open the video in your dashboard and go to the subtitles section.
2. 2Upload the .srt or .vtt file and choose its language.
3. 3Repeat for every language you want to offer.
4. 4Viewers turn them on from the player, including on videos already embedded on other sites.

• At most two lines per subtitle and about 40 characters per line.
• Keep each subtitle on screen for at least 1 second and no more than 7.
• Save the file as UTF-8 so accents and special characters display correctly.
• If the original video is an MKV with built-in subtitles, you can extract them with ffmpeg (see the MKV to MP4 guide).