How to make SRT subtitles from a video for free

November 8, 2026 · All posts

Subtitles help people who watch with the sound off, viewers who do not speak the language well, and anyone who wants to search a long video for one moment. The standard file for that is SRT: a plain text file with numbered cues and start and end times. This guide shows how to make one from a video with Echoteka transcription, what a good subtitle file looks like, and how to add it to YouTube or a video editor.

What an SRT file is

An SRT file is plain text. Each cue has a number, a time range and one or two lines of text:

12
00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:07,900
We recorded the vocal at home,
in a small room with a blanket.

VTT is the web version of the same idea. It starts with the line WEBVTT and writes times with a dot instead of a comma. YouTube and most video editors read both. If you are unsure, take SRT.

Step by step: from a video to an SRT file

1. Open transcription and upload the video. MP4, MOV, WEBM and MKV work. Only the sound is taken; the video itself is not kept.
2. Pick the language or leave it on Auto. English, German, French and Spanish are supported, and Bulgarian is in beta.
3. Add names and terms that the speaker uses: people, brands, product names. Recognition uses the list as a hint, which saves you fixes later.
4. Press Transcribe. A long video runs in the background. You can close the tab; we email you when the text is ready, and it stays under My transcripts.
5. Read the text with the player. Click any word to jump to that moment and listen. Fix names, numbers and anything the speaker swallowed.
6. Download SRT or VTT.

Why you should check the text before you download

Automatic recognition is good on clear speech and weaker on names, numbers, overlapping voices and speech over music. Two minutes of reading usually catch the mistakes that viewers notice most: a misspelled guest name, a wrong figure, a brand written as a common word.

Editing does not break the timing. When you change a word, its paragraph keeps its start and end, and the words inside the paragraph are spread across that time again.

What makes subtitles readable

The subtitle file follows the rules that most broadcasters and platforms use:

Adding the file to YouTube

In YouTube Studio, open the video, go to Subtitles, choose the language and upload the file "with timing". Check a few cues in the preview and publish. The steps in Studio change from time to time, but the option to upload a subtitle file with timing has been there for years.

Adding the file to a video editor

Most editors import SRT as a subtitle or caption track: DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro (through a caption import), CapCut on desktop and others. After import you can style the text and, if you want, burn the subtitles into the picture on export.

Common problems

• Music under the voice. Recognition gets harder. If you have the voice track without music, upload that instead. For a music video or a song, split the vocal first with the vocal remover.
• Two people talking at once. The text may have gaps in those places. Speaker labels are not in the first version.
• A long video and few free minutes. Cut the part you need first with the audio cutter; a shorter file uses fewer minutes.
• The subtitles lag behind the speech. Check that you uploaded the same cut of the video that you are publishing. If you trimmed the start after transcription, every cue shifts by that amount.

What it costs

Transcription is free within a daily limit: 30 minutes a day when signed in and 5 minutes without an account, reset at midnight UTC. Without an account the text is shown on screen, and file downloads, SRT included, need sign-in. The audio is deleted right after transcription, the text is kept for 30 days, and Delete removes it at once. Later, beyond the free daily minutes, 1 credit per started hour of recording.

More about the tool, the formats and the languages: audio to text. If you are transcribing a call or an interview rather than a video, see how to transcribe a meeting or an interview.