Convert VTT captions to SRT for players that do not read WebVTT
WebVTT is the caption format of the web: browsers, online course platforms and many video sites use it. Plenty of TVs, media servers, older players and editing programs still want SRT. Upload the .vtt file, or a ZIP of many, and download SRT with every cue on its original timing and in its original order. Jobs with up to 3,000 lines are free in full; bigger batches are $5, paid once.
- Short VTT times such as 01:02.500 written out in full as 00:01:02,500
- Cues numbered 1, 2, 3; text identifiers replaced with numbers
- Italic, bold and underline tags kept
- Position settings, STYLE and NOTE blocks dropped, since SRT has no place for them
- Saved as UTF-8 with a byte order mark and Windows line endings
How WebVTT and SRT differ
The two formats look alike at first glance, which is why a renamed .vtt file sometimes half works. The details differ. A VTT file starts with a WEBVTT header and may contain STYLE and NOTE blocks. Times use a period before the milliseconds, and the hour can be left out, so 01:02.500 is valid. A cue can have a text identifier instead of a number, and the timing line can carry settings such as line:0, position:20% or align:start.
SRT expects a plain sequence number, a full time with a comma, 00:01:02,500, and the text. Many players reject a file, or show nothing, if any of those parts is off.
What the converter does with each part
- Times: every start and end is read to the millisecond and written in the SRT form, with hours.
- Numbers: entries are numbered in order; a cue that had a numeric identifier keeps it.
- Header, STYLE and NOTE blocks: removed, because SRT has no equivalent.
- Cue settings: position and alignment settings are not carried, so every line shows in the player's default place.
- Formatting: <i>, <b> and <u> stay with their words.
Where people need SRT
Common cases are captions saved from a course or webinar platform that now have to go into a desktop video editor, VTT files that a smart TV ignores on a USB stick, and media libraries in Plex or Kodi where every other subtitle is SRT. Old files in a Windows encoding are converted to UTF-8 on the way, which helps TVs show accented and non-Latin letters correctly.
The converted lines are shown on screen before you download, so you can check a few against your video and fix any text by hand. If they turn out to be early or late, run the SRT through Fix Subtitle Sync afterwards.
How the tool works, what it costs and how your files are handled is on the Subtitle Converter page; prices for every tool are on the pricing page.
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Questions and answers
Can ChatGPT convert VTT to SRT?
On a short file, usually yes. A full lecture or film has hundreds or thousands of cues, each time code has to be retyped with a comma and hours, and long replies tend to stop partway or drop cues. This tool converts every cue in code.
Can I just rename the .vtt file to .srt?
Sometimes a player accepts it, often not: the WEBVTT header, missing numbers, short times without hours and periods instead of commas make many players reject the file or skip lines.
Will caption positions be kept?
No. SRT has no position settings, so VTT settings such as line or align are dropped and every line shows in the player's usual place.
How much does it cost?
Free in full for jobs with up to 3,000 lines in total, download included. Larger jobs, up to 50 files or a ZIP and 50,000 lines, are $5 as one payment.
Can I convert many VTT files at once?
Yes. Upload several files or one ZIP; every file converts and the SRT files download together as a ZIP, each under its original name.
Are my files kept?
Only you can open the job, and no AI model reads the text. Jobs uploaded without an account are deleted after 7 days, and you can delete a job at any time.