SRT is the world’s most common subtitle format — a simple text file that pairs numbered cues with timestamps. If you have ever uploaded captions to YouTube, you have used one.
Anatomy of an SRT file
Each cue has four parts: a sequence number, a start and end timestamp (hours:minutes:seconds,milliseconds), one or two lines of text, and a blank line. That is the entire format — human-readable and editable in any text editor.
How to create an SRT
You could type one by hand, but AI is faster: upload your video to Captiq, auto-generate captions, fix any errors, and download a broadcast-ready .srt file. The timing, numbering, and UTF-8 encoding are handled for you.
Where SRT files work
YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, LinkedIn, VLC, and most video players and editors accept SRT uploads. Unlike burned-in captions, sidecar SRTs let viewers toggle subtitles on or off.
Editing existing SRTs
Import an SRT into Captiq’s subtitle editor to fix text, retime cues, or translate the whole track — then re-export. Common fixes include merging over-split lines and shifting all timestamps to match a new cut.