What Is a .VTT File? SRT vs VTT Subtitles Explained (With Examples)

A .vtt file is a plain-text caption file in the WebVTT format. A .srt file is a plain-text caption file in the older SubRip format. Both hold the same basic thing: lines of dialogue, each with a start time and an end time. You can open either in Notepad or TextEdit and read it like a script.

What is a .vtt file?

WebVTT stands for Web Video Text Tracks. It is a W3C specification for putting timed text on web video, and it is the format a browser reads when you add a <track> element to a <video> tag. The files use the .vtt extension and the text/vtt MIME type, and the spec requires UTF-8 encoding.

Because VTT was designed for the web, it can carry more than dialogue: cue positioning, a few text styles, speaker names, comments and chapter or metadata tracks. Most people only ever see the simple version, which looks almost like an SRT file.

WEBVTT

00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:04.200
Welcome back. Today we're covering spaced repetition.

00:00:04.200 --> 00:00:08.500
It's a simple idea: review a fact just before you'd forget it.

What is a .srt file?

SubRip (SRT) is one of the oldest and most widely accepted subtitle formats. Every entry has four parts: a counter, a timecode line, the text (which can run over several lines) and a blank line to finish the entry. There is no header, no styling and no positioning, which is exactly why almost every video editor, player and upload form accepts it.

1
00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:04,200
Welcome back. Today we're covering spaced repetition.

2
00:00:04,200 --> 00:00:08,500
It's a simple idea: review a fact just before you'd forget it.

SRT vs VTT: the real differences

Look at the two samples above and you can already spot most of the differences. This table covers all of them.

A VTT file using the extras

This is what the extra features look like. The NOTE block is ignored by players, <v> names the speaker, and the settings after the timestamp move the caption.

WEBVTT

NOTE Interview, cleaned up on 2026-03-07

intro
00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:04.200 align:left position:10%
<v Host>Welcome back. <i>Today</i>: spaced repetition.

00:00:04.200 --> 00:00:08.500
<v Guest>Review a fact just before you'd forget it.

Which platforms want which?

Most big platforms take both, so the format rarely blocks you. YouTube's help page on supported subtitle files lists SubRip (.srt) and WebVTT (.vtt) among many others. It notes that for SRT only the basic version is supported, with no style markup, and the file must be plain UTF-8. For WebVTT it says positioning is supported but styling is limited to bold, italic and underline.

If you are adding captions to your own site with a <video> tag, VTT is the one the browser expects. For anything else, check the upload screen: it normally says which extensions it accepts, and SRT is the safe default.

How to open a .vtt or .srt file

1. 1

   To read or edit it, use a text editor

   Right-click the file and open it with Notepad (Windows), TextEdit (Mac, set to plain text) or any code editor. Save as plain text in UTF-8 so accents and non-Latin characters survive.

2. 2

   To watch it with the video, load it in a player

   VLC and most desktop players can load a subtitle file next to a video, usually from a Subtitle menu or by naming it the same as the video file. Browsers play .vtt through a <track> element.

3. 3

   To see the text without the timestamps, paste it into a document

   Open the file as text and strip the number and timing lines, or use a transcript tool that gives you paragraphs directly.

How to convert SRT to VTT (and back)

For a small file, you can do it by hand in a text editor. Going from SRT to VTT:

Going back is the reverse: remove the header, put commas back, and number every cue from 1. For long files a find-and-replace on , inside timestamp lines is error-prone, because commas also appear in the dialogue, so use a converter or subtitle editor for anything beyond a few lines.

Getting an SRT or VTT file from a video

If the video already has captions, you do not have to type any of this. UpSolo's free YouTube transcript tool lets you pick SRT or VTT as the output format and download the file, with no account. The same format picker is on the Vimeo and TikTok transcript tools. One thing to know: the downloaded subtitle file ends with a short extra cue reading "Generated with upsolo.me", so delete that last entry if you want a clean file.

A tool can only export captions that exist. If you are not sure whether a video's auto-generated captions are good enough to use, read auto-captions vs a real transcript first. And if all you want is the text, how to get the transcript of a YouTube video covers the quickest routes.

Common problems

• •Strange characters instead of accents: the file was saved in the wrong encoding. Re-save as UTF-8.
• •Captions drift out of sync: the file was timed against a different cut of the video. A subtitle editor can shift all cues by a fixed offset.
• •Nothing shows in the browser: a .vtt file missing the WEBVTT first line, or a <track> missing kind and srclang, is the usual cause. Pages also generally need to serve the file from the same origin or with the right CORS headers.
• •Upload rejected: check the file really contains cues and not an empty body, and that you saved plain text rather than rich text.

Turn the transcript into something you can study

Subtitle files are great for players. If you are learning from the video, UpSolo can also turn its transcript into a summary, flashcards and a tutor chat.

Try UpSolo