Burn SRT subtitles into your video

The studio opens ready for your subtitle file, so a video waits for it instead of going to transcription. There are 2 ways to add the files:

• both at once: drag the video and the .srt or .vtt file onto the dropzone together, or select both in Choose from device
• one at a time: add the subtitle file or the video first, then the other

1. 1Open the studio in Chrome, Edge or Safari. There is nothing to install.
2. 2Add your .srt or .vtt file and the video. ReelCaption reads the file in your browser and puts each subtitle on the timeline, with no transcription.
3. 3Read through the captions. Click a word to fix a typo, or drag a caption on the timeline to move it.
4. 4Pick a preset, then change the font, color, outline and position.
5. 5Export the MP4. Your browser draws the captions into every frame and keeps the video’s width and height.

ReelCaption takes the words and the times from your file. It drops any positions, italics or color tags in the file, and you style the captions in the studio:

• Fonts: 16 fonts, at any size, weight and color.
• Outline and glow: a colored outline, a glow or a box behind the text, so white captions stay readable on a bright sky.
• Finishes: glass and metallic text.
• Motion: fade, slide up, pop, zoom and blur presets as each caption appears.
• Position: put the captions anywhere in the frame, clear of the buttons TikTok and Reels lay over the bottom.
• Single words: give any word its own size and color, for a name or a punchline.
• Line breaks: each subtitle keeps the lines it had in your file.
• Word highlight: a color or a pill on the word being said. A subtitle file only times each line, so ReelCaption spreads the line across its words by their length. If the highlight drifts from the voice, turn it off.

Many online subtitle burners upload your video to their server, burn the subtitles in there and send the file back. You wait for the upload, and footage a client has not cleared sits on someone else’s server.

ReelCaption does that work in your browser. It decodes the video, draws the captions onto each frame and encodes the MP4 on your device. With your own subtitle file there is nothing to transcribe, so the video, its audio and the file all stay on your device.

If you choose to have ReelCaption transcribe the video instead, only the audio track, about 1 MB a minute, goes to Groq, which runs Whisper, and it is not stored.

A subtitle file sits next to the video, and the player draws the text. Viewers have to turn it on, and each player decides how it looks. Burned-in captions are part of the picture, so they show on every feed, with or without sound, in the style you chose.

Burn them in for TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, where many people watch with the sound off and nobody turns subtitles on. Keep the .srt or .vtt file for a long YouTube video, where viewers choose and you may want to fix a typo later. The studio exports both.

SRT vs burned-in captions: which to use and when

Which subtitle files can I burn in?

SRT and VTT, in files ending .srt or .vtt. ReelCaption reads the format from what is inside the file, so a file from YouTube, a transcription service or another editor works as long as it has timed lines.

How big can the files be?

2 MB for the subtitle file and 1 GB for the video, as MP4, MOV or WebM. When you bring your own subtitle file, ReelCaption sets no limit on how long the video is.

Does burning in an SRT file use my minutes?

No. With your own subtitle file ReelCaption skips transcription, so it uses none of your minutes or free clips. The studio opened from this page waits for your subtitle file, so a video you add first is not transcribed.

Which browsers can export the MP4?

Chrome, Edge or Safari. They can encode the MP4 on your device. In other browsers you can still edit the captions and download them as .srt and .vtt files.

Why are my subtitles out of sync?

Usually because the file was timed to a different cut of the video. ReelCaption uses the times in the file as they are. Drag a caption on the timeline to move it, or drag its edges to change how long it shows. If the whole file is early or late by the same amount, or drifts further out as the video goes on, fix it with the free subtitle time shift tool on this site and add the file again.

What if the SRT file is longer than the video?

ReelCaption cuts it to fit. Subtitles that start after the video ends are removed, one that runs past the end stops with the video, and the studio tells you how many it changed. If every subtitle starts after the end, ReelCaption turns the file away, because it is probably the wrong one.

Is there a watermark?

No. The MP4 has no logo on it, on any plan.

Open the studio and add the .srt or .vtt file and the video. No account, no card and no minutes used.