What is an SRT file?

An SRT file is a plain-text subtitle file. It holds the words that appear on screen and the exact time each line should show up and disappear. The file ends in .srt, and almost every video player, editor and video platform can read it — which is why SRT is the most common subtitle format in the world.

SRT stands for SubRip Subtitle. SubRip was a Windows program from the early 2000s that pulled subtitles off DVDs and saved them as simple text. The program faded away; the format it created became the standard.

The SRT file format

An SRT file is a list of numbered blocks, one per subtitle. Every block has the same four parts:

1. A number — the subtitle’s position in the file: 1, 2, 3 and so on.
2. A timing line — the start and end time, separated by -->.
3. The text — one or two lines of subtitle text.
4. A blank line — which ends the block.

Timestamps are written as hours:minutes:seconds,milliseconds, with a comma before the milliseconds: 00:01:23,450 means 1 minute, 23.45 seconds into the video.

SRT file example

Here is what a short SRT file looks like when you open it in a text editor:

1
00:00:00,500 --> 00:00:03,000
This is a sample SRT subtitle file.

2
00:00:03,200 --> 00:00:06,400
Each subtitle has a number,
a start time and an end time.

3
00:00:06,600 --> 00:00:09,800
Times are written as
hours:minutes:seconds,milliseconds.

The first subtitle shows from half a second to three seconds. The second has two lines of text, which players show stacked. That’s all there is to it — no headers, no settings, no hidden data.

Download a sample SRT file

Want to test a player or an upload form? Download this sample SRT file — six subtitles, 20 seconds long, saved as UTF-8 with the standard line breaks.

What SRT files are used for

• Adding subtitles to videos on YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, LinkedIn and X.
• Video editing — Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro and CapCut import SRT files and turn them into caption tracks.
• Watching movies and shows — VLC, MPC-HC, Plex, Kodi and most smart TVs load an SRT file that sits next to the video.
• Translation — subtitle translators work on SRT files and keep the timing intact.
• Accessibility — captions make video usable for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers, and for anyone watching with the sound off.

How to open an SRT file

To read or edit the text, open it in any plain-text editor: Notepad on Windows, TextEdit on Mac (choose Format → Make Plain Text), or a code editor. Don’t use Word — it can change the formatting.

To watch it with a video, give the SRT the same name as the video and put them in the same folder, for example holiday.mp4 and holiday.srt. VLC and most players load it automatically. In VLC you can also drag the SRT onto the playing video.

To get just the words, use an SRT to TXT converter. It removes the numbers and timestamps and joins the lines into readable paragraphs.

How to create an SRT file

There are two ways.

By hand. Open a text editor, type the blocks in the format above, and save the file as name.srt with UTF-8 encoding. It works, but timing each line by ear takes a long time — roughly ten minutes of work per minute of video.

Automatically. A speech-to-text tool listens to the video and writes the SRT for you, timing each line to the speech. Corbeia’s SRT file generator does this in your browser for free: drop in the video or audio, and download the .srt a few minutes later. Nothing is uploaded, and there is no limit on length.

SRT vs other subtitle formats

Format	Extension	Used by	Notes
SubRip	.srt	Almost everything	Simplest and most compatible
WebVTT	.vtt	HTML5 video, Vimeo, course platforms	Like SRT with a header and styling
Advanced SubStation	.ass	Anime fansubs, Aegisub	Rich styling and positioning
SubViewer	.sub	Older DVD rips	Rarely needed today
TTML / DFXP	.ttml, .dfxp	Broadcast, Netflix delivery	XML-based, verbose

If a platform asks for WebVTT, you can convert SRT to VTT in one click, and VTT to SRT the other way.

Common SRT problems and fixes

• Strange characters like é instead of é — the file isn’t saved as UTF-8. Open it in a text editor and save it again with UTF-8 encoding.
• Subtitles are early or late by the same amount — the whole file needs shifting. Most players have a subtitle delay setting (in VLC, press G or H).
• The player ignores the file — check that the name matches the video and the extension is really .srt, not .srt.txt.
• Upload rejected — a missing blank line between blocks or a period instead of a comma in a timestamp will break strict parsers.

Summary

An SRT file is the simplest way to store subtitles: a numbered list of lines with start and end times, saved as plain text. Every major player and platform supports it, you can edit it in Notepad, and you can create one in minutes with an SRT file generator instead of typing it by hand.