Video subtitles: SRT or burned-in? How to choose

The two types of subtitles

• Subtitle file (SRT): A separate text file that includes the start and end time for each line. The video player displays subtitles over the image, and viewers can turn them on or off.
• Burned-in subtitles (also called "hardcoded" subtitles): The text is added directly to the video image. It’s always visible, no matter where you watch, and can’t be turned off or edited later.

What an SRT file looks like

An SRT file is plain text that you can open in Notepad. Each subtitle includes a number, a time range, and the text:

1
00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:03,500
Hello, today I’ll show you how to do it.

Because it’s text, it’s easy to edit, translate, and reuse. And since platforms and search engines can read the file, the video’s spoken content becomes searchable.

Where each option works

SRT is the best choice when the platform accepts subtitle files:

• YouTube and other video platforms that let you upload subtitles.
• Online course platforms and corporate video platforms.
• Players like VLC for watching on a computer or TV: just give the SRT the same name as the video and save it in the same folder.

Burned-in subtitles are necessary when there’s nowhere to upload a file:

• WhatsApp Status and videos sent in chats.
• Short videos on social media when you want to control how the text looks and where it appears (many platforms offer their own auto-captions, but they aren’t always accurate).
• Videos shown on large screens and waiting-room TVs with no playback controls.

Generating subtitles automatically

1. Open Generate video subtitles (SRT) and select your video.
2. Choose the spoken language. Speech recognition runs with AI in your browser; the first time, the model downloads and is saved on your device.
3. Download the .srt file.
4. Review it. Open the SRT in a text editor and fix names, technical terms, and punctuation without changing the timestamps.

If you only need the plain text (for a description, script, or post), Transcribe audio to text gives you both text and an SRT file.

And what if you want to burn the subtitles into the video?

Once you have a reviewed SRT, you can burn the subtitles into the video with a video editor. Most editors, on phones and computers, let you import an SRT or create auto-captions, then "burn" the text into the video when you export it. Choose a large font, a light color with an outline or a dark background, and place the text near the bottom without covering faces.

Tip: generate subtitles after trimming the video. If you trim the beginning afterward, all the SRT timestamps will be off. Trim the video first with Trim video, then generate the subtitles.

Subtitle best practices

• Use no more than two lines at a time, with short sentences.
• Leave each subtitle on screen long enough to read comfortably.
• Put important sounds in brackets, like [laughter] or [music], for viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing.
• Spell names and brands correctly; mistakes there are the most noticeable.

Subtitles help people who are deaf or hard of hearing, people watching without sound while commuting, and people who don’t speak the language fluently. They make your video more accessible and help it reach more people.

Here’s a strategy that combines both: publish on YouTube with the SRT file (so viewers can turn subtitles on or off, and search engines can find the content), then use burned-in subtitles for short social media clips, generated from the same reviewed SRT. That way, you only have to review the text once.

Frequently asked questions