How to add subtitles to a YouTube video

Option 1: YouTube’s automatic captions

YouTube generates captions for most languages a few hours after upload. They are free and need no work, but they have no punctuation control, mishear names and jargon, and you cannot edit them before they appear. Fine as a fallback, weak as the main version.

Option 2: upload your own subtitle file (recommended)

An uploaded SRT file is accurate from the first minute and you control every word. To make one without typing:

1. Open the auto subtitle generator and drop your video. The Whisper speech model runs in your browser, so the video is not uploaded anywhere.
2. Pick the language (or let it detect) and choose Better accuracy for final videos.
3. Read through the text and fix names, brands and numbers.
4. Download the SRT.

Then in YouTube Studio: Subtitles → your video → Add language → Add → Upload file → With timing, and choose the SRT. Done.

Option 3: burned-in captions for Shorts and social

Shorts, Reels and TikToks usually show captions inside the picture, styled and animated. Import the SRT into your editor (Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve and CapCut all accept it) and style it there, keeping it inside the safe zone.

Fixing format and timing problems

• Wrong format: some platforms want VTT or YouTube’s SBV. The subtitle converter switches between SRT, VTT, SBV and plain text.
• Captions early or late: usually caused by trimming the video after the captions were made. Shift every line at once with the subtitle shifter.
• Lines too long: keep each caption under about 42 characters. The generator has a setting for this.

Questions