MotionShine01 / Header
WEBVTT on top
A VTT file starts with the word WEBVTT. SRT has no header, just numbered blocks.
Free tool
SRT to VTT, and back.
Web video players and many course platforms want WebVTT; editors and TV players usually want SRT. Drop your subtitle files or paste the text and get the other format at once. Drop a VTT and it turns into SRT. It also makes YouTube SBV and plain text, and can move every time if the subtitles run early or late.
Leave at 0 to keep the times. A minus number makes the subtitles come earlier.
To fix single lines or check them on your video, open the result in the subtitle editor.
The subtitles are converted in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
The difference
Nearly the same, not quite.
02 / Times
Dot or comma
VTT writes 00:00:01.500, SRT writes 00:00:01,500. One wrong character and a player skips the line.
03 / Numbers
Optional in VTT
SRT needs a number above every line; VTT does not. The converter adds or drops them for you.
Questions
Good to know.
Which one does YouTube want?
YouTube takes SRT, VTT and its own SBV, so any of them works for an upload.
Which one does an HTML5 video player want?
WebVTT. The <track> element in a web page only reads VTT, which is why sites ask for it.
Does it keep italics and styling?
Tags such as <i> and <b> are kept, since both formats understand them. VTT positions and style blocks are left out, because SRT has no place for them. Plain text removes every tag.
Can I convert many files at once?
Yes. Drop them together; each is converted and downloaded with its own name. The preview shows the first one.
What about letters with accents or other alphabets?
Files are saved as UTF-8, which every modern player reads. An old SRT saved in another encoding may show odd characters; open it in a text editor, save it as UTF-8, and convert again.
Is anything uploaded?
No. The text is read and rewritten by your browser.