Free tool
TXT to SRT converter
Paste plain text here to convert TXT to SRT: the text is cut into captions that fit two lines on screen and each one gets a start and end time, at a speaking pace or spread across your video’s length.
- Free
- No sign-up
- Nothing is uploaded
Nothing is uploaded: your browser reads the file.
Have the recording as well as the text? NoteOwl transcribes it on your Mac and saves an SRT file timed from the speech itself, so every caption lands on its words.
How it works
How do you convert a text file to SRT?
Paste the text or open the .txt file. The converter splits it into captions, keeping sentences together where they fit, and gives each caption a time. Pick a speaking pace or enter the video’s length, then download the .srt file.
- 1
Add your text
Paste a script or transcript, or open a .txt file. Leave a blank line wherever a new caption must start.
- 2
Set the timing
Choose a speaking pace and the time the first caption appears, or type the video’s length to spread the captions over it.
- 3
Download the captions
Save an .srt file, or VTT or SBV, and load it with your video. Fine-tune any caption in the subtitle editor.
What does the converter make of a paragraph of text?
This is a short script and the SRT made from it at the average pace of 130 words a minute, starting at 0:00. Each caption holds at most two lines of 42 characters, and each sentence starts a new caption.
Thanks for joining this short tour of the dashboard. On the left you'll find your projects, sorted by the date they were last changed. Click any project to open it. The timeline at the top shows every task and who it belongs to.
1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,154 Thanks for joining this short tour of the dashboard. 2 00:00:04,154 --> 00:00:11,077 On the left you'll find your projects, sorted by the date they were last changed. 3 00:00:11,077 --> 00:00:13,846 Click any project to open it. 4 00:00:13,846 --> 00:00:19,846 The timeline at the top shows every task and who it belongs to.
How does it decide each caption’s times?
From the words, as a text file has no times. At a speaking pace, each caption stays up as long as its words take to say, from 5/6 of a second to 7 seconds, then the next follows. Fitted to a length, each caption starts where its words fall.
- Slow, 110 words a minute
- Use it whenA careful talk or a narration with pauses
- Average, 130 words a minute
- Use it whenMost presentations, tutorials and explainers
- Fast, 160 words a minute
- Use it whenLively conversation, a podcast, a quick vlog
- Fit to the video’s length
- Use it whenThe text covers the whole video: captions are spread over it by word count, each up for 7 seconds at most
| Timing | Use it when |
|---|---|
| Slow, 110 words a minute | A careful talk or a narration with pauses |
| Average, 130 words a minute | Most presentations, tutorials and explainers |
| Fast, 160 words a minute | Lively conversation, a podcast, a quick vlog |
| Fit to the video’s length | The text covers the whole video: captions are spread over it by word count, each up for 7 seconds at most |
How long should a subtitle line be?
About 42 characters per line at most, and two lines a caption. Those are Netflix’s limits for English subtitles, which also set a reading speed of up to 20 characters a second and 5/6 of a second to 7 seconds on screen. The converter follows them.
Shorter lines suit small screens and vertical video: choose 32 or 37 characters, or one line a caption. The two lines of a caption are balanced, with the break after a comma where one falls naturally.
Will the captions match the speech in my video?
Closely enough to start from, not to the word: the times come from word counts, not from listening to the audio. Pauses and changes of pace move the real speech away from the estimate.
To bring them into line, set the first caption’s time to when the speech starts, then adjust single captions in the subtitle editor, or move them all with the subtitle shifter. For a video already on YouTube, YouTube Studio’s Auto-sync can match a transcript to the speech for you.
How do you get captions timed from the audio itself?
Transcribe the recording instead of timing text. NoteOwl imports an audio or video file on your Mac, transcribes it with on-device AI models and exports an SRT file in which every caption starts when its words are spoken. How NoteOwl makes SRT files.
FAQ
Questions about converting TXT to SRT
Can I convert text to SRT without the audio?
Yes. NoteOwl’s TXT to SRT converter needs only the text: it cuts it into captions and times them at a speaking pace you choose, or across a video length you type. The times are estimates you can fine-tune.
How many characters should a subtitle have?
Up to 42 characters a line and two lines a caption is the common limit for English, and the one Netflix sets. Shorter lines of 32 or 37 characters read better on phones and in vertical video.
How do I make each line of my text its own caption?
Tick One caption per line of my text. Each line becomes one caption, split further only if it is too long to fit in two lines. A blank line always starts a new caption, whichever way you split.
Can I start the captions later than 0:00?
Yes. Type the time the first caption should appear in First caption at, such as 0:12. Every caption after it follows from there.
Can I make a VTT file from text instead?
Yes. Choose VTT or SBV under Save as. The captions and times are the same; only the file format changes.
Is my text uploaded?
No. The TXT to SRT converter runs in your browser, so the text, the captions and the download stay on your device.
Keep exploring
More subtitle converters
- Subtitle converterConvert subtitles between SRT, VTT, SBV and ASS, or to plain text, in your browser; SSA scripts and meeting transcripts work too
- SRT to VTT converterConvert SRT to VTT, VTT to SRT, or either to clean text with each speaker’s lines merged, in your browser; Zoom and Teams transcripts work
- SBV to SRT converterConvert YouTube’s SBV caption files to SRT in your browser: numbered cues, SRT times, every caption kept
- SBV to VTT converterConvert an SBV caption file to WebVTT for an HTML5 video player, in your browser
- SRT to SBV converterConvert an SRT file to SBV, the SubViewer caption format YouTube lists, in your browser
Related
- Online subtitle editorEdit an SRT or VTT file in your browser: change text and times, add and delete captions, catch overlaps and over-fast captions, download
- Subtitle shifterMove every caption in an SRT, VTT, SBV or ASS file earlier or later, or re-sync it from two points; only the times change
- Speech time calculatorHow long a speech takes to say from its word count, at a slow, average or fast pace, and how many words fit in a set time
- Audio to text converterTranscribe audio to text free: drop in an MP3, M4A, WAV or other recording and get an AI transcript with times, as text, SRT, VTT or Word; nothing is stored
Subtitles timed from the recording, on your Mac
Free to download. Runs entirely on your Mac.
macOS 26 or later · Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) · 16 GB memory minimum, 24 GB recommended
About NoteOwl
NoteOwl is private AI meeting notes and memory for the Mac. It captures meetings without a bot joining the call, labels every speaker, writes summaries and action items, and builds a memory of every conversation that you can chat with — fully offline, because the speech recognition and the AI run on the Mac itself. Dictation into any app is free; Pro is a one-time purchase.
NoteOwl pricing: what’s free and what Pro adds
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