What is an SRT file?

SRT (SubRip Subtitle) is the most widely supported subtitle format on the web. It's a plain-text file with timed lines that any modern editor or player can read.

Generate an SRT from your video →

The format in one paragraph

An .srt file is a numbered list of subtitle entries. Each entry has three parts: an index number, a start–end timestamp, and one or two lines of text. A blank line separates entries. That's it — no proprietary container, no special encoding.

What an SRT looks like

1
00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:04,200
Welcome to the EditCrafted Subtitle Generator.

2
00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800
Upload a video or audio file to get started.

How timestamps work

Timestamps are in the format HH:MM:SS,mmm — hours, minutes, seconds, and milliseconds, with a comma (not a dot) before the milliseconds. The arrow --> separates the start time from the end time. The text shown on screen appears between those two times.

00:00:01,000 = 1 second in
00:01:30,500 = 1 minute 30.5 seconds in
01:23:45,678 = 1 hour 23 minutes 45.678 seconds in

Where SRT files are used

YouTube — uploaded as a sidecar subtitle track to a video.
Vimeo, Wistia, and other hosts — accept SRT for closed captions.
Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro, CapCut — import SRT and convert it into editable captions on the timeline.
VLC, MPV, Windows Media Player — play an .srt automatically if it sits next to the video file with the same name.
LMS / course platforms — many platforms (Moodle, Thinkific, Teachable, etc.) accept SRT for accessibility.

How to use an SRT file

With a video file on your computer

Save the .srt next to your video using the same base name (for example lesson-01.mp4 and lesson-01.srt) and open the video in VLC. The subtitles appear automatically.

On YouTube

In YouTube Studio: Subtitles → Add → Upload file → With timing. See our YouTube subtitles guide for the full walkthrough.

In a video editor

Most editors have a "Captions" or "Subtitles" panel with an Import SRT option. The lines appear on the timeline as text clips you can restyle, retime, or burn into the final export.

SRT vs. burned-in captions

An .srt is a separate file that the player overlays on your video. It's clean, editable, and toggleable by the viewer. Burned-in captions are baked into the video pixels and cannot be turned off — better for vertical short-form social where the platform may not display sidecar subtitles.

If you need burned-in animated captions for TikTok, Reels, or Shorts, use Captions AI. For traditional .srt subtitles, this generator is the right tool.

Other subtitle formats you may see

VTT (WebVTT) — similar to SRT, used on the web with HTML5 <video>. Most converters can turn an SRT into a VTT.
ASS / SSA — advanced subtitle format with styling, popular for anime.
SBV — older YouTube format, replaced in practice by SRT.

For most creator and business use cases, SRT is enough.

Privacy

When you use the subtitle generator on this site, your file is uploaded only to produce the subtitles. The uploaded media and the generated .srt are deleted from our server after the response is sent. Full details are in the Privacy Policy.