SRT vs VTT: what is the difference and which should you use?

Two formats for the same job

SRT and VTT are both plain-text subtitle files. Each caption has a start time, an end time and the words to show, and you can open either one in a text editor. Their main difference is where they came from. SRT comes from SubRip, a program that read subtitles off DVDs, and it never had an official specification. VTT, short for WebVTT, is a W3C standard written for subtitles and captions on the web.

The files look almost the same. An SRT caption starts with a number, then a line such as 00:01:02,500 --> 00:01:05,000, then the text. A VTT file starts with the word WEBVTT, uses a dot instead of a comma before the milliseconds, and does not need caption numbers.

Where SRT works best

SRT is the format almost every desktop player, TV, media server and video editor understands. If you want to watch a film with subtitles in VLC, load captions into a video editor, or upload subtitles to most video platforms, SRT is the safe choice. Its formatting is limited to italic, bold, underline and, in some players, font colors.

Where VTT works best

Web browsers only show subtitles from VTT files. If you add captions to a video on your own website with the HTML track element, you need VTT. WebVTT can also position captions on screen, align them, and style them with CSS, though players outside the browser often ignore those extras.

Many streaming and e-learning platforms accept both formats. When a platform lists VTT first, it is usually because its player runs in a browser.

Converting between them

Because the two formats store the same information, converting SRT to VTT or VTT to SRT keeps every timing and line break. The converter on this site keeps italic, bold and underline too. VTT position and style settings have no SRT equivalent, so they are left out when you convert to SRT; the words and timings are unaffected.

Renaming a file from .srt to .vtt is not enough: the header and the time format have to change as well. Open the file in the converter, choose the format you need and download the new file.