How to create automatic subtitles for free and get the SRT file
Updated: November 8, 2026
Writing subtitles by hand takes hours. Today speech recognition does most of the work in minutes, for free and with very good accuracy in English and Spanish. You just need to review them and upload the file to your video.
Option 1: Subtitle Edit with Whisper (Windows, free)
Whisper is an open-source speech recognition model: it runs on your own computer, without uploading the audio to any service.
- 1Download Subtitle Edit, free and open source.
- 2Open your video and go to Video → “Audio to text (Whisper)”.
- 3Choose the language and a model (larger ones are more accurate but slower) and let it process on your computer.
- 4Review the text and timings in the line list and save as SubRip (.srt).
Option 2: CapCut
- 1Import the video and use the auto captions feature.
- 2Review and fix the text on the timeline.
- 3Export the captions as an SRT file. Depending on the version, some export features may require its paid plan.
Always review them
- Names, brands and technical terms are the most common mistakes.
- Fix the punctuation: it makes reading much easier.
- Avoid very long lines: two lines of about 40 characters at most.
Upload them to your video
- 1In your dashboard, open the video and go to Subtitles.
- 2Upload the .srt (or .vtt) and set the language. You can add several languages and choose a default.
- 3Viewers turn them on from the player, including embedded players.
Frequently asked questions
Yes: translate the .srt text (keeping the timings) and upload it as another language. Subtitle Edit has tools to help.