How to create SRT subtitles from any video (free)
Subtitles are one of the highest-leverage things you can add to a video: they boost watch time, make content accessible, and let people watch on mute. The standard format is SRT: a simple text file of numbered, timestamped captions that YouTube, TikTok, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and virtually every video platform accepts.
Here's how to generate one for free with FreeTranscribe's video-to-SRT tool, with no account, and your video is never uploaded.
Step 1: Transcribe the video
Drop your video into the transcriber. The Whisper AI model runs directly in your browser and produces phrase-level timestamps alongside the text.
Step 2: Switch to the SRT tab
When transcription completes, click the SRT subtitles tab. You'll see standard SRT cues:
1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,240 Hey everyone, welcome back to the channel. 2 00:00:03,240 --> 00:00:06,980 Today we're looking at three ways to speed up your edits.
Step 3: Edit if needed
The output box is editable, so fix names, brands, or jargon before downloading. For heavier editing, any subtitle editor (or plain text editor) opens .srt files.
Step 4: Download and use it
- YouTube: YouTube Studio → Subtitles → Add → Upload file → With timing.
- Premiere / Resolve / CapCut: import the .srt straight into your timeline as a caption track.
- Web players: download the VTT tab instead; it's the same thing in the web-native format for
<track>tags.
SRT vs VTT: which do you need?
SRT for video platforms and editing software. VTT for HTML5 video on websites. FreeTranscribe exports both from the same transcription, so grab whichever you need, or both.