SRT to VTT and VTT to SRT converter
Convert SRT to VTT or VTT to SRT by dropping in the file and downloading the other format. The converter reads the format from what is inside the file, so YouTube’s older SBV files work too, and the file stays on your device. Below: how the formats differ, what VTT loses as SRT, and how encodings are handled.
How to convert SRT to VTT
- 1Drop an .srt, .vtt or .sbv file up to 2 MB onto the box above, or choose it from your device. A .txt file works if it holds one of those formats.
- 2Check what the converter found: the format, the number of subtitles and the text encoding. SRT becomes VTT, and VTT or SBV becomes SRT. Pick the other format under Convert to if you want it.
- 3Turn on Remove tags if you want plain text, with no italics, color or position tags.
- 4Read the notes on what the new format leaves out, check the preview and download the file.
SRT, VTT and SBV: what each format is
An .srt file, also called SubRip, is plain text: a number, a start and end time, and the words for each subtitle. It has no formal standard, but almost every video editor reads it, and YouTube accepts it. The Library of Congress format description sets out the layout.
A .vtt file, WebVTT, is the subtitle format of the web. The HTML <track> element that adds subtitles to a video on a web page takes .vtt files, so web players and HTML5 video use it. The W3C WebVTT spec defines it.
An .sbv file is SubViewer, the format of older caption downloads from YouTube. YouTube still lists it as supported, next to SRT and VTT.
Library of Congress, SubRip Subtitle format (SRT)
How SRT and VTT differ
The two formats hold the same thing, timed lines of text, and differ in the details:
- Header: a VTT file starts with the word WEBVTT on its first line. An SRT file starts with its first subtitle.
- Times: SRT puts a comma before the milliseconds, 00:00:01,500. VTT uses a full stop, 00:00:01.500.
- Numbers: SRT numbers each subtitle. VTT can give a subtitle a label on the line above its time, or nothing.
- Position: VTT can place each subtitle with cue settings after its time, such as align:start or line:10%. SRT has no standard way to do this.
- Styling: VTT can carry STYLE blocks of CSS. Both formats use tags such as <i> inside the text. YouTube reads only basic SRT files and limits VTT styling to bold, italic and underline.
- Comments and regions: VTT has NOTE blocks for comments and REGION blocks for areas of the screen. SRT has neither.
What VTT loses when you convert it to SRT
Converting VTT to SRT keeps every subtitle, its text, its line breaks and its times. It leaves out what SRT has no place for: cue settings that position or align a subtitle, STYLE, NOTE and REGION blocks, labels above the times and the lines after WEBVTT.
The converter counts each of these and tells you before you download, so you know when a subtitle that sat at the top of the screen will sit at the bottom. From SRT to VTT, the only thing left out is an SRT position hint such as X1:100, which VTT players do not read.
Tags inside the text, such as <i> or <c.yellow>, stay as they are unless you turn on Remove tags. Some SRT players show VTT’s own tags, such as <v Speaker>, as text, so the converter says when a file has them.
Two things change in every file: an .srt file comes out numbered from 1, whatever numbers the original had, and every time is written with hours, so 01:05.000 becomes 00:01:05.000.
Text encoding: why letters turn into question marks
A subtitle file is text saved in an encoding, the table that turns bytes into letters. The WebVTT spec requires UTF-8. SRT has no set encoding, and files from older Windows editors are often saved as Windows-1250 for central European languages or Windows-1252 for western ones. A player that expects UTF-8 then shows ą or é as a question mark.
The converter reads a byte order mark first, then tries UTF-8, then picks Windows-1250 or Windows-1252 from the letters in the file. It tells you when the file was not UTF-8 and which encoding it used. The file you download is always UTF-8.
If accented letters still look wrong in the preview, the guess was wrong. Open the file in a text editor, save it as UTF-8 and drop it in again.
Your subtitle file stays on your device
The converter runs in your browser. It reads the file, converts it and builds the download on your device, so the subtitle text is not uploaded to ReelCaption. ReelCaption counts that a file was converted, with its format, encoding and number of subtitles, but never its text.
If you open the converted file in the studio, it stays in your browser there too. With your own subtitle file there is no transcription, so the video and its audio stay on your device as well.
Keep the subtitle file or burn it in
A subtitle file sits beside the video, and viewers turn it on. That suits a long YouTube video or a player on your own site, where you may want to fix a typo later. For TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, where many people watch with the sound off, burned-in captions drawn into the picture show every time.
The comparison of SRT and burned-in captions below goes through when to use each.
Questions about SRT and VTT files
- How do I convert SRT to VTT?
- Drop the .srt file onto the converter at the top of this page and download the .vtt file. The converter adds the WEBVTT header and changes the comma in each time to a full stop. The text and times stay as they were.
- Can I convert VTT to SRT without losing anything?
- Yes, for the text and the times. Positions, alignment and STYLE, NOTE and REGION blocks have no place in SRT, so they are left out, and the converter tells you how many before you download.
- How do I convert SBV to SRT?
- Drop the .sbv file in. It becomes SRT unless you pick VTT under Convert to. SBV holds only times and text, so nothing in it is left out.
- Does YouTube accept SRT or VTT files?
- Both. YouTube Help lists SubRip (.srt), SubViewer (.sbv) and WebVTT (.vtt) as supported. It reads only basic SRT files, and for VTT it supports positions but limits styling to bold, italic and underline.
- Why do my subtitles show strange characters?
- The encoding. The file was saved in an older encoding such as Windows-1250 and the player reads it as UTF-8. The converter finds the encoding, says which one it was and writes a UTF-8 file.
- Is my subtitle file uploaded?
- No. Your browser reads and converts it, and the file stays on your device.
Sources
- W3C, WebVTT: The Web Video Text Tracks Format, checked October 11, 2026
- MDN, the <track> element, checked October 11, 2026
- YouTube Help, supported subtitle and closed caption files, checked October 11, 2026
- Library of Congress, SubRip Subtitle format (SRT), checked October 11, 2026