SubtitleMedic

Convert VTT to SRT

Turn WebVTT captions into SubRip for TVs, media players and video editors.

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How to convert VTT to SRT

  1. Open your .vtt file

    Drop one WebVTT file into the box above, or click to browse. It’s read by your browser and never uploaded.

  2. Check what changes

    The file text is shown before and after, side by side: the header that goes away, the commas in the timestamps, the new cue numbers, and a count of the formatting SubRip can’t keep.

  3. Download the .srt file

    Save the converted file. It keeps the original name with the new extension, so lecture.vtt becomes lecture.srt.

What WebVTT has that SubRip doesn’t

WebVTT (.vtt) was built for the browser, on top of the much older SubRip (.srt). It kept the same idea, a block of text with a start and an end time, and added what web video needed. Going back to SubRip means letting those additions go.

The header and its blocks. A WebVTT file starts with WEBVTT, and can follow it with STYLE blocks holding CSS for the captions and REGION blocks that define boxes on screen. SubRip has no header. All of it is removed, and each STYLE or REGION block counts as one formatting item in the notice above the Download button.

Cue settings. After the timing, a WebVTT cue can say where it goes: line:10% position:50% align:start. This is how captions move out of the way of on-screen text. SubRip has no agreed way to place a line, so the settings are dropped and the line appears at the bottom like every other.

Tags. Italic, bold and underline are written the same in both formats and are kept. Voice tags (<v Maria>), class tags (<c.yellow>), language tags and the timestamp tags used for karaoke are WebVTT only and are removed, leaving the words inside them.

Character references. WebVTT writes &amp; for an ampersand and &lt; for a less-than sign, because it uses angle brackets for tags. SubRip writes the characters themselves, so they are decoded: Tom &amp; Jerry becomes Tom & Jerry.

Numbers instead of names. Every SubRip block needs a number. The cues are numbered from 1 in the order they appear, and any cue name in the WebVTT file is dropped.

When you need an .srt file

TVs and set-top boxes. A subtitle file next to a video on a USB stick is read by nearly every smart TV when it is .srt, and by few when it is .vtt.

Media servers and desktop players. Plex, Jellyfin, Kodi and VLC all pick up movie.en.srt automatically. WebVTT support exists in some of them, but it is uneven.

Video editors. Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve and Final Cut Pro import SubRip captions. Captions downloaded from a web platform as .vtt usually need converting before an editor will take them.

Translation and subtitle tools. Most subtitle editors and translation services are built around SubRip, and a plain .srt is the safest file to hand over.

If you need the opposite, a SubRip file for a web player, use Convert SRT to VTT.

Tips for a clean conversion

Look at the count before you download. A notice such as “3 formatting items can’t be kept in SubRip” is normal for captions made for the web. If the number is large and positions matter, for example captions placed at the top to avoid covering text, keep the .vtt file as well.

Check the encoding. WebVTT is always UTF-8, so accented letters should look right. If they don’t, the file was saved wrongly somewhere along the way; Fix Subtitle Encoding can repair it.

Subtitles out of sync as well? Converting never changes the timing. If the lines appear too early or too late, fix them with Shift Subtitle Timing.

Frequently asked questions

Why did some formatting disappear when I converted VTT to SRT?

SubRip can only store text, timing and simple italic, bold and underline. Positions, alignment, STYLE and REGION blocks, voice and class tags have nowhere to go, so they are removed. The tool tells you how many items before you download, and your words are never touched.

Will converting change my subtitle timing?

No. Only the way timestamps are written changes, from a period before the milliseconds to a comma. A WebVTT file may leave out the hours (01:02.345); the .srt file always writes them (00:01:02,345), which is the same moment.

My TV or editor doesn’t open .vtt files. Will the .srt work?

Almost certainly. SubRip is the most widely supported subtitle format there is. Smart TVs, Plex, Jellyfin, VLC, Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve all read it, while many of them ignore WebVTT.

What happens to cue names and notes in the WebVTT file?

A WebVTT cue can have a name on the line above its timing, and the file can hold NOTE comments. SubRip has neither. Names are replaced by numbers counting from 1, and notes are left out, since they were never shown on screen.

Are my subtitle files uploaded anywhere?

No. The file is read and converted by JavaScript in this browser tab. It never leaves your device, and the tool keeps working if you go offline after the page has loaded.

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