What Is an SRT File? How to Make an SRT File (With a Sample)

If you want to know how to make an SRT file, the good news is that you need nothing more than a plain text editor and your video. An SRT file is a small text file that tells a video player which words to show on screen, and exactly when.

This guide explains the format line by line, gives you a sample you can copy, and shows three ways to build one: by hand, inside YouTube Studio, and with an auto caption tool.

What is an SRT file?

An SRT file is a plain text subtitle file. SRT stands for SubRip Subtitle, named after SubRip, an old Windows program that pulled subtitles out of DVDs and saved them in this simple layout.

The file holds no video and no audio. It only holds text and timestamps, so it stays tiny, often just a few kilobytes for a full video. So almost every platform and editor reads it, from YouTube to Premiere Pro.

A caption file (also called a sidecar file) is a separate file that travels next to the video instead of being burned into the picture. Viewers can switch it on or off. If you are not sure which term fits your use, our guide on captions vs subtitles sorts it out in plain words.

What does an SRT file look like inside?

Every SRT file is a list of blocks. Each block is one caption, and each block has exactly four parts.

1. A counter. The caption number, starting at 1 and going up by one.
2. A timing line. Start time, a space, an arrow made of two hyphens and a greater than sign, a space, then end time.
3. The text. One or two lines of words that appear on screen.
4. A blank line. This tells the player that the block is over.

The timecode format is hours:minutes:seconds,milliseconds. So 00:01:05,250 means 1 minute, 5 seconds and 250 milliseconds. Note the comma before the milliseconds. That small comma is the most common reason a home made file fails.

A sample SRT file you can copy

Here is a short sample. Copy it into your editor, then change the times and words to match your own video.

1
00:00:00,500 --> 00:00:02,800
Aaj main aapko ek simple trick dikhata hoon

2
00:00:02,900 --> 00:00:05,400
It takes less than one minute

3
00:00:05,500 --> 00:00:08,000
पहले वीडियो को ध्यान से सुनिए

The first cue is Hinglish (Hindi written in English letters), the second is English and the third is Hindi in Devanagari. One file can mix them, as long as you save it with the right encoding. More on that below.

How to make an SRT file by hand

Manual work suits short clips, such as a 30 second reel or a one minute ad. First, write out every word that is spoken. Then follow the steps for your computer.

How to make an SRT file in Notepad on Windows

1. Open Notepad. Use Notepad, not Word or WordPad, because those add hidden formatting.
2. Type the first block. Enter 1, the timing line, your caption text and a blank line.
3. Repeat for each caption. Play the video in another window and note when each line starts and stops.
4. Choose File, then Save as. Set “Save as type” to All files so Notepad does not add .txt.
5. Name it and pick the encoding. Type a name ending in .srt, such as reel-01.srt, and check that Encoding shows UTF-8. Recent versions of Notepad use UTF-8 by default.

On a Mac with TextEdit

1. Open TextEdit and start a new document. It opens in rich text mode by default.
2. Switch to plain text. Choose Format, then Make Plain Text, as described in Apple’s TextEdit guide.
3. Type your blocks. Use the same number, timing, text, blank line pattern.
4. Save with .srt. Choose File, then Save, and type a name ending in .srt. If macOS asks, choose to use .srt rather than .txt.

How do I make an SRT file from YouTube Studio?

If your video is already on YouTube, you can let YouTube do the timing. According to YouTube’s help page on adding subtitles, Studio offers three routes: upload a file, auto-sync a transcript, or type captions while the video plays.

1. Open Subtitles in YouTube Studio. Select Subtitles from the left menu and pick your video.
2. Add a language. Click Add language, choose it, then click Add under Subtitles.
3. Pick Auto-sync. Paste the words spoken in the video, or upload a plain transcript.
4. Save and wait. YouTube matches the words to the audio. This can take a few minutes.
5. Download the track. Once it is ready, open the track’s options menu and download it as .srt.

Auto-sync needs the transcript to match the spoken language, and YouTube says it is not recommended for videos over an hour or with poor audio. For mixed Hindi and English speech, it often struggles, so check every line.

SRT vs VTT vs TXT: which file do you need?

YouTube’s list of supported caption files says only basic SRT is supported and style markup is ignored. It also asks for plain UTF-8 text. So if you want bold yellow words on a reel, an SRT file is not the tool. You need captions burned into the video instead.

How to make an SRT file work for Hindi and Hinglish

Most guides skip this part, but Indian creators hit it every week.

• Save as UTF-8, always. Devanagari, Tamil, Bengali or Gurmukhi letters turn into boxes or question marks if the file is saved in an old encoding such as ANSI.
• Pick one script per audience. Devanagari reads well for Hindi-first viewers. Hinglish in English letters suits mixed urban audiences who type that way on WhatsApp.
• Keep lines short. Aim for about 32 to 42 characters per line and no more than two lines. Hindi words joined with matras can look longer on a phone, so cut earlier.
• Spell English words the way viewers expect. In a Hinglish line, write “phone” and “video”, not a phonetic Hindi spelling that nobody searches for.
• Keep each caption up long enough. As a rough guide, 1.5 to 6 seconds per cue works for most speech. Faster talkers need shorter lines, not shorter display times.

Common mistakes when you make an SRT file (and fixes)

Before you upload, always test the file. Open the video in a desktop player such as VLC, load the subtitle file through its subtitle menu, and watch the first minute. Then check that the last line still lines up.

How do I make an SRT file automatically?

Typing timecodes for a ten minute video can take hours. So for longer clips, an auto caption tool is faster: it transcribes the speech, sets the timing, and you fix the wrong words.

GetNixa is one option, built first for Indian creators. Our free SRT generator page explains the details, but the flow is short.

1. Upload your video. Open the GetNixa web app or the Mac or Windows app and add your clip.
2. Pick the spoken language. Choose from 30 languages. For Hindi, choose Devanagari output or Hinglish in English letters.
3. Fix any word. Click or double-click a word to correct it. The timing stays tied to the voice.
4. Export the SRT. SRT export is on every plan, including Free, with no watermark on video exports either.

The Free plan gives you 30 caption minutes a month for videos up to 2 minutes, which covers most reels and shorts. If you want the captions on YouTube, our YouTube subtitle generator page covers that path. And if you edit in Adobe, see how SRT files fit into Premiere Pro captions.

Decision guide: which method should you use?

• Use Notepad or TextEdit if the clip is under a minute, the speech is clear, and you want full control over every line.
• Use YouTube Auto-sync if the video is already on YouTube, you have a clean transcript, and the speech is in one language.
• Use an auto caption tool if you post often, speak Hindi, Hinglish or another Indian language, or need both an SRT file and styled captions for reels.

Once your file is ready, the next step is putting it on the video. Our guide on how to add subtitles to a video covers phone, PC and online methods.

Wrapping up

An SRT file is just numbers, times, text and blank lines saved as UTF-8 with a .srt ending. Learn the pattern once and you can build or fix any caption file in minutes, by hand or with a tool doing the heavy lifting.

Frequently asked questions