Where the English comes from

The right first move depends on what is spoken in the video and whether anyone has already written the words down.

English speech: Leave "Subtitle language" on "Same as spoken (auto-detect)". Whisper hears the English and returns timed English lines.
Speech in another language: Set "Subtitle language" to English. The speech is recognised in its own language and the lines arrive translated, from Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, Japanese, French, German, Korean or any other supported language.
An English subtitle file: Turn the AI switch off and choose "Import SRT / VTT". The file is used word for word, and without AI neither the video nor the text leaves your computer.
No source at all: Stop the playhead where a sentence begins, press Enter and write it. Practical for a short clip or a handful of on-screen notes.

Putting English subtitles on a video

Open the editor on this page and choose the file. MP4, MOV, M4V, WebM and MKV all open; there is no import from a link, so download the video first if it lives online.
With "Write the subtitles automatically with AI" switched on, pick auto-detect for English speech or English for anything else, then press AI subtitles and sign in with Google.
Read every line while the video plays. Click a line's text to correct it; when you are not typing, the Up and Down keys step through the list without the mouse.
Open the Style tab. Classic gives white Inter text with a black outline; YouTube gives Roboto on a dark box. Adjust size and position on the preview.
Press Render video, look over the summary, and download the MP4 once your browser has finished encoding it. Export SRT too if you will upload a caption track anywhere.

An 8-minute video costs 8 credits (0.8¢) for the AI pass, and the 100 free credits a new account receives cover twelve videos of that length. Typing or importing costs nothing.

Transcribing English versus translating into it

These are two different jobs with different weak spots, and it helps to know which one you are reviewing.

When the speech is already English, the words come straight from recognition. Errors are mostly about hearing: a product name heard as two common words, "their" written for "there", a number spelled out when you wanted digits, a quiet aside lost under music. Strong regional accents and people talking over each other raise the error count, so give those videos more review time; how accents affect speech recognition explains why.

When the speech is in another language, the English is a translation of what was recognised, so a mistake can come from either stage. A misheard word turns into a confident but wrong English sentence, idioms come out literally, and a name may be spelled two ways in one video. Translated lines are also cut by text length, so their start and end times sit close to the speech rather than exactly on it; drag the edges of any line that shows up early or hangs on. Burning translated subtitles walks through that review in detail.

There is one English option, not separate US and UK versions, so spellings such as color and colour, or organize and organise, may not match your house style. Scan the list for them before you render.

Line length and reading speed in English

Most subtitle guidance was written with English in mind, and the editor's warnings follow the common limits: a line over 42 characters gets flagged (it still wraps on screen), and so does a subtitle that asks viewers to read more than 21 characters per second. AI subtitles arrive as single short lines of roughly 32 characters, each held for up to about 2.6 seconds and starting on the first spoken word of the phrase. That rhythm suits phone viewing and feeds where the sound is off.

If you prefer fuller two-line subtitles for a lecture or a short film, use Merge to join a line with the one after it, then check the reading-speed warning. Going the other way, Split cuts the selected line at the playhead. Advice on where a sentence should break is in subtitle segmentation.

Inter, Roboto and the other faces

English asks nothing special of a font, which leaves you free to choose on looks and legibility.

Inter and Roboto were drawn for screens and stay crisp at small sizes. Inter is the default in Classic and Minimal; Roboto is the face of the YouTube preset.
Condensed display faces such as Bebas Neue, Anton and Oswald fit more letters per line, which helps long English words on vertical video, but they tire the eye over a ten-minute talk.
UPPERCASE suits short, punchy social clips. For anything longer, sentence case reads faster.
Loanwords such as café, naïve and résumé keep their accents in every bundled font.

Size is relative to the shorter side of the frame, so a setting that looks right on a 1080p landscape video scales correctly to a 4K file. For faces compared side by side, see fonts for subtitles; to match the familiar platform look, YouTube-style subtitles.

What English subtitles here won't include

Speaker names. The AI doesn't label who is talking; add a name or a leading dash by hand where it matters.
Sound descriptions. Bracketed cues such as [applause] or [door slams] aren't generated. For deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers, add them yourself, following SDH subtitles.
A switchable track inside the MP4. The rendered file has the English drawn into the picture. If a platform wants a separate caption file, upload the exported SRT or VTT.
A translation of an imported file. Translation runs on the video's speech, so a Spanish SRT you import stays Spanish; run AI on the video with English selected instead.

Three English jobs

Spanish cooking video for a wider audience

Set "Subtitle language" to English, check every ingredient name and quantity, and render with the YouTube preset. Keep the English SRT for the YouTube upload as well.

English interview clip for LinkedIn

Most people scroll the feed with the sound off. Auto-detect, fix names and job titles, raise the text above any lower third, and render the square or 4:5 cut.

Japanese documentary with a translator's English file

Switch AI off, import their SRT, use "Shift all by" if the whole file runs early or late, and render. No account and no credits.

If you only need an English subtitle file and no new video, the English subtitle generator stops at the SRT. For a full English transcript, use English video to text, and when English viewers would rather listen than read, the English video translator dubs the speech.

About the subtitle editor on this page

Opens: MP4, MOV, M4V, WebM, MKV videos your browser can decode
Subtitles from: AI (from the speech, optionally translated into one of 21 languages), an SRT or VTT file, or typing them in
You download: An MP4 with the subtitles drawn into the picture at the original resolution and frame rate, plus SRT and VTT files
Cost: Editing, styling, rendering and SRT/VTT export are free, with no account and no watermark. AI subtitles cost 1 credit per minute (5-credit minimum per video); signing in with Google gives 100 free credits and accounts get 10 free credits a day
Privacy: The video never leaves your device and is rendered in your browser. Only for AI subtitles is the audio sent, over HTTPS, and it is deleted within 30 minutes of delivery
Rendering needs: Chrome or Edge 94+, Safari 16.4+, or Firefox 130+ on a computer. Editing and SRT/VTT export work in any current browser

Subtitle tools

Frequently asked questions

Can I add English subtitles to a video in another language?

Yes. Choose English under "Subtitle language" before you start AI subtitles. The speech is recognised in its own language and comes back as English lines, which you should read through for names and idioms.

Is there a choice between American and British English?

No. English is a single option, so spelling follows whatever the recognition or translation produces. Check words like colour, centre and organise against your style before you render.

How much does it cost to put English subtitles on a 30-minute video?

The AI pass is 30 credits (3¢) at 1 credit per minute. Editing and rendering are free, and importing an English SRT or typing the lines costs nothing at all.

Can viewers turn the English subtitles off?

Not in the rendered MP4, because the text is part of the picture. For switchable subtitles, publish the original video with the exported SRT or VTT as a caption track.

Why are some translated English lines slightly out of sync?

Translated subtitles are timed by splitting the text by length, so each line's start and end are approximate. Drag the line's edges on the timeline, or type exact times in the list, to line it up with the speech.

Add English Subtitles to a Video