Free YouTube
Subtitle Generator , Editable .SRT Files in 16 Languages

What Is an SRT File and Where Do You Use It

An SRT file is a plain text file of numbered subtitle cues. Each cue has a start time, an end time and the words to show in between. Because it is only text, almost every player and editor can read it, which is why a YouTube subtitle generator usually hands you one. Open a youtube srt file in any text editor and it looks like this:

1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,400
Welcome back to the channel.

2
00:00:02,400 --> 00:00:05,100
Today we are testing three budget mics.

Times are written as hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds, with a comma before the milliseconds, and cues are separated by a blank line. You use the file wherever you want captions that viewers can switch on and off: as a caption track in YouTube Studio, inside an editor like Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve, or next to a video file in a desktop player. It is the opposite of burned-in text. If you want the words painted into the picture with your own styling, the Caption Maker does that and gives you an MP4 instead.

How to Upload an SRT File to YouTube Studio

Once the srt generator has given you a file, adding it to your video takes a minute. These are the steps from YouTube Help for a file that already contains timing:

1. 1Sign in to YouTube Studio and choose Subtitles in the left menu.
2. 2Click the video you want to add subtitles to.
3. 3Click Add language and pick the language of your file.
4. 4Under Subtitles, click Add, then choose Upload file.
5. 5Select With timing, click Continue, choose your .srt or .vtt file and click Save.

Choose "With timing" because the file already carries start and end times. The other option expects a plain transcript and asks YouTube to set the timing itself. If the video is on a channel you have connected to TubeWizz, you can skip the manual upload: the finished subtitle page has a push option that adds the file to that video as a caption track, as long as the video belongs to that channel. Source: YouTube Help, upload subtitles and captions.

SRT vs VTT vs SBV: Which Format YouTube Accepts

YouTube accepts all three, so the choice depends on where else the file is going. YouTube Help sorts caption files into basic formats, which include .srt and .sbv, and advanced ones, which include .vtt, .ttml and .dfxp. It also accepts broadcast formats such as .scc.

SRT is the safe default: it opens in video editors, desktop players and every upload form that takes subtitles. A vtt file is the format browsers use for HTML5 video tracks, so pick it when the subtitles are going onto your own website player. SBV is a simpler YouTube format you will mostly meet when you download captions from Studio. This tool writes SRT or VTT, with 3, 5, 7 or 10 words per cue, and seven as the default. Shorter cues suit vertical clips, longer ones suit talking-head videos watched on a big screen.

Translate Your Subtitles Into 16 Languages

You can keep the subtitles in the spoken language or translate them into one of 16: English, Turkish, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Dutch, Polish and Swedish. Translation happens after you have reviewed and corrected the original transcript, so a fixed brand name stays fixed in every language. The cue timings do not move, which means the translated file lines up with the video exactly like the original.

The same run also translates the video title and the start of its description, which is handy because YouTube supports translated titles and descriptions next to subtitle tracks. YouTube can auto-translate captions for viewers too, but an uploaded file lets you check the wording first. To localize the rest of the package, Thumb Translate redraws the text on your thumbnail, and the timestamp and chapter generator gives you a timestamp list you can translate for the description. When you only need to download YouTube subtitles in the original language, pick "Keep original language" and skip translation entirely.