How to add subtitles to any video

One subtitle file works everywhere — YouTube, CapCut, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, VLC, even your own website. Here's how to generate it once and attach it on every platform, step by step.

Step 0: get a subtitle file

Everything below starts with a subtitle file — SRT for platforms and editors, VTT for the web (here's the full SRT vs VTT breakdown). Typing one by hand means timestamping every sentence; don't. Upload your video to ScribeGrab and it transcribes the speech and hands you both SRT and VTT, free, no daily cap, no watermark. Give the file a one-pass proofread — automatic transcription is very good on clear speech, but names, numbers and jargon deserve a check.

01YouTube

1. Open YouTube Studio → Subtitles in the left menu (or, on the video's edit page, Subtitles).
2. Pick your video and language, click Add → Upload file.
3. Choose With timing and select your .srt file, then publish.

Your uploaded captions override YouTube's rougher auto-captions, and viewers toggle them with the CC button. Uploading captions in other languages works the same way — one SRT per language.

02CapCut

1. In CapCut (desktop), open your project and go to the Text panel → Captions.
2. Choose Import captions (in Local captions) and select your SRT file — cues land on the timeline as text, already timed.
3. Style them once (font, size, position) and apply to all; export as usual.

Note: exporting from CapCut burns the captions into the pixels (open captions) — good for TikTok/Reels feeds where soft subtitles aren't supported, but viewers can't turn them off.

03Premiere Pro

1. File → Import your .srt; drag it from the Project panel onto the sequence — Premiere creates a caption track above the video.
2. In the Captions/Text workspace, set the format (subtitle) and adjust styling with Essential Graphics.
3. On export, choose Create sidecar file (a separate .srt next to the video) or Burn captions into video.

04DaVinci Resolve

1. File → Import → Subtitle and pick your SRT; it appears in the Media Pool.
2. Drag it onto the timeline — Resolve adds a dedicated subtitle track; style it in the Inspector.
3. On the Deliver page, choose whether to export subtitles as a separate file, embed them, or burn them in.

05VLC (just watching)

No editing needed: give the SRT the same name as the video (talk.mp4 + talk.srt) in the same folder, and VLC loads it automatically. Or drag the SRT onto the playing video, or use Subtitle → Add Subtitle File…. Most TVs and media players (Plex, Kodi) follow the same same-name convention.

06Your own website

Browsers require the VTT format here. Put the .vtt file next to your video and reference it with a <track> element:

<video controls width="720" src="/demo.mp4">
  <track kind="captions" src="/demo.vtt"
         srclang="en" label="English" default>
</video>

kind="captions" tells the browser it's a caption track, default switches it on initially, and you can add multiple <track> elements for multiple languages. The browser renders the cues natively and viewers toggle them in the player controls — no JavaScript required.

Why bother? Reach, accessibility, SEO

• Sound-off viewing. A large share of social video is watched muted — in feeds, offices, public transport. No captions often means an instant scroll-past.
• Accessibility. Captions make your content usable for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers, and easier for non-native speakers to follow. For many public-sector sites it's a legal requirement (WCAG).
• SEO. Speech in a video is invisible to search engines; a caption file or transcript turns every spoken word into indexable text. Better comprehension also lifts watch time — a ranking signal on YouTube.
• Editing bonus. A timed transcript doubles as a searchable index of your own footage — find the quote, jump to the timestamp.

Generate your subtitle file now

Upload your video once to ScribeGrab and you get the transcript (TXT) plus both subtitle formats (SRT + VTT) in one go — free, no account, files up to 90 minutes, deleted right after processing.

Get SRT + VTT for your video →

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