Why captions are no longer optional
Most social video is watched with the sound off, which means an uncaptioned clip is a silent one to a large part of its audience. Platforms know this and reward captioned video with longer watch time, and viewers who cannot hear the audio at all are simply excluded without them.
A separate SRT file is the right way to supply them. Burning words into the picture locks them there forever, so a typo means re-exporting the whole video, and viewers who want captions off have no way to turn them off. A sidecar file avoids both problems.
Where the SRT goes once you have it
Video platforms accept an SRT upload alongside the video and handle the display themselves. Editing software imports it as a caption track you can restyle without touching the timings. Desktop players find it automatically when it sits beside the video with a matching filename.
Because the file is plain text, correcting a misheard name takes seconds in any editor. Leave the numbered cue and timing lines exactly as they are, change only the words underneath, and every player will still read the file correctly.
Frequently asked questions
Should I upload SRT or VTT to my video platform?
SRT is accepted almost everywhere and is the safer default. VTT is what web players expect for video embedded directly in a page. We export both from one transcription, so take whichever you need.
Will the captions match if I edit the video afterwards?
Not if you cut or reorder anything, since every cue is timed against the version you uploaded. Caption last, after the edit is locked, or shift the timings afterwards with our free subtitle tool.
How long can the MP4 be?
Your free first file covers ten minutes, a free account raises the file size limit, and Pro handles two gigabytes and five hours, which covers nearly any single video.