Create an SRT File From Scratch

Inside an SRT block

SRT, short for SubRip Text, is one of the oldest and most widely accepted subtitle formats, and it is simple enough to write in Notepad. Each subtitle is a block of four parts:

The counter

A whole number on its own line, starting at 1 and going up by one per subtitle.

The timing line

Start and end time, separated by a space, an arrow made of two hyphens and a greater-than sign, and another space. Each time is written as hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds, for example 00:01:04,250, with a comma before the milliseconds.

The text

One or two lines of words. A third line is possible but covers much more of the picture.

A blank line

It closes the block. A blank line inside the text would close it too early, so never leave one there.

That is the whole format. The guide to SRT files covers its history and quirks; what follows is about producing one.

Two ways to make one

Type it yourself

Full control over every word and every break, no cost and no account. Comfortable for short clips, videos with a script, or anything with little speech. Slow for long interviews or lectures.

Generate it from the speech

AI subtitles transcribe the audio with Whisper and time each line for you. They need a Google sign-in and cost 1 credit per minute of video, with a 5-credit minimum. Quick for long videos, but the draft needs a careful read before it is finished.

Many people combine them: let AI draft the bulk, then type over its mistakes and add the lines it missed. Typing in the editor is covered in depth on adding subtitles manually; if you only need a generated file and not the editing, the AI subtitle generator gives you an SRT download straight from the video.

Making the file in the editor

1. Decide how the text will be written before choosing a video. "Write the subtitles automatically with AI" is switched on by default; leave it on for a generated draft, or switch it off to type every line yourself.
2. Choose the video file: MP4, MOV, M4V, WebM or MKV. Until it is loaded the editor shows only the "Choose a video" box, and the toolbar with the export buttons appears after that.
3. If AI is on, sign in when asked and wait for the lines to appear, then read through them and correct names, numbers and anything misheard.
4. If you're typing, play the video and pause where a sentence begins. Press Enter to create a subtitle at the playhead; it lasts 2 seconds, or less if another subtitle starts sooner. Type the words.
5. Set each end time by dragging the right edge of the block on the timeline, or by typing in the row's end field, which accepts forms like 62.5 or 1:02.500.
6. Clear the warnings shown under any flagged rows, such as lines that are too fast to read or that overlap their neighbours.
7. Click Export SRT. The file downloads with the video's name and an .srt extension.

What Export SRT writes for you

The export builds a fresh file from the lines in the editor, so the parts people usually get wrong by hand come out right:

• The counter starts at 1 and follows time order, however you added the lines.
• Every time is written in full as hh:mm:ss,mmm, hours included, with the comma SRT expects.
• The file is UTF-8 with a byte order mark and Windows line endings, which editing apps and video platforms read without guessing the encoding.
• Lines with no text, and lines whose end is not after their start, are left out.
• Only words and times are written. There are no italics, colours or position codes, because the format's styling tags aren't supported consistently anyway.

If a platform wants WebVTT instead, Export VTT sits next to it; SRT versus VTT explains when each one fits.

Five checks before you send the file anywhere

1. Open it in a plain text editor. The first line should read 1, and the timing lines should use commas, not dots.
2. Compare the last counter with the number of lines in the editor. Any difference should be accounted for by empty or zero-length lines you meant to drop.
3. Import it back with the same video. The count should match and no new warnings should appear; Ctrl+Z or Cmd+Z then restores what you had before the test.
4. Check the extension. On Windows, hidden extensions can turn a hand-saved file into captions.srt.txt, which many tools refuse.
5. Try it where it's going: upload it to YouTube, import it into Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve, or put it next to the video for a player. Platforms and players sometimes expect a language code in the name, as described in naming subtitle files.

For a closer look at anything those checks flag, checking an SRT for errors explains every warning.

No video to hand?

The editor won't open a subtitle file without a video, so here are the realistic alternatives:

• Write it in a text editor. In Windows Notepad, choose Save as, set the type to All files, set the encoding to UTF-8 and end the name in .srt. On a Mac, TextEdit needs Format, then Make Plain Text, before saving. Timing from a script alone is guesswork, so check the file against the video once you have it.
• Start from the audio. If you have the recording but not the video, audio to SRT produces a timed file from a sound file.
• Start from a transcript. There is no automatic alignment of untimed text here, so a transcript still needs the video to be timed line by line.

Three files, three routes

If the subtitles need to be in another language than the one spoken, choose it under "Subtitle language" before the AI run; translation works from the video's speech, and translated subtitles covers that route on its own. For more ways to generate a file, the SRT generator is the format-focused tool.

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