Free tool
Chinese to English video translator
This Chinese to English video translator turns the Mandarin in a video into English subtitles: the speech is transcribed in Chinese characters, translated, and laid out as English subtitles that appear while each line is spoken.
- Free
- English SRT and VTT
- The video stays on your device
Drop your Chinese video here, or Choose your Chinese video
MP4, MOV, M4V, MKV, 3GP or WebM video. Up to 30 minutes of each file, 3 free files a day. Translates Chinese speech into English.
Mandarin videos every week? NoteOwl transcribes Chinese on your Mac with unlimited transcription and saves SRT subtitles with each speaker’s name.
How it works
How do you get English subtitles for a Chinese video?
To translate a Chinese video to English, drop it here. Your browser takes out the sound, the Mandarin is transcribed in simplified characters, and each line is translated and laid out as English subtitles within the seconds it was spoken. Save the SRT for your player or channel.
- 1
Drop in the Mandarin video
A course, a product review, a talk or a family video, as MP4, MOV, MKV or WebM.
- 2
English subtitles appear
Transcribed, translated and timed, for up to 30 minutes of each video.
- 3
Keep the .en.srt
Or VTT. Switch to Original for the Chinese subtitles at the same moments.
Why do English subtitles need so much more text than Chinese?
Chinese packs a sentence into about a third of the characters English uses. So the English is laid out on its own terms, in lines of up to 42 characters read at 17 a second, and its subtitles needn’t match the Chinese ones one for one.
How well does Mandarin speech come through in English subtitles?
Well. In our test of whole recordings turned into English, Mandarin came out good, and names were often exact: “transferred to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge”, “James Paget Hospital in Great Yarmouth”. The slips we saw came from words that sound alike.
One test clip spoke of red cabbage juice, 红甘蓝汁; the transcript wrote characters that sound the same but name something else, and the English subtitle followed them. When a subtitle makes no sense in its scene, compare it with the Chinese subtitle at the same moment.
What happens to place names and quoted names?
Most come back in their English form, and some are translated word by word. 六旗镇 became “Six Flags town in St. Louis, Missouri”, where the park is simply Six Flags St. Louis, and a storm named “弗雷德” came back as “Fred”, quotation marks kept.
- “弗雷德”目前正以每小时 105 英里（每小时 165 公里）的风速向西北方向移动。
- English subtitle text"Fred" is currently moving northwest at a wind speed of 105 miles per hour (165 kilometers per hour).
- 当时，大巴车正在开往密苏里州圣路易市的六旗镇……
- English subtitle textAt the time, the bus was heading to Six Flags town in St. Louis, Missouri…
| Chinese | English subtitle text |
|---|---|
| “弗雷德”目前正以每小时 105 英里（每小时 165 公里）的风速向西北方向移动。 | "Fred" is currently moving northwest at a wind speed of 105 miles per hour (165 kilometers per hour). |
| 当时，大巴车正在开往密苏里州圣路易市的六旗镇…… | At the time, the bus was heading to Six Flags town in St. Louis, Missouri… |
Can you keep the Chinese subtitles alongside the English?
Yes. The Original switch gives Mandarin subtitles in simplified characters, 16 to a line, timed to the same speech. Publish both tracks, or keep the Chinese to check any English subtitle against what was said at that moment.
Working with Mandarin video every week?
NoteOwl understands Chinese on your Mac: it imports MP4 videos, transcribes Mandarin with unlimited transcription and saves SRT subtitles naming each speaker. For Chinese subtitles of Chinese speech, try the Chinese subtitle generator.
FAQ
English subtitles for Chinese videos: questions
Is the Chinese to English video translator free?
Yes. 3 videos a day, each up to 30 minutes long, with no account or watermark; English and Chinese subtitle files are both yours.
How do I watch the video with the English subtitles?
Load the .en.srt from your player’s subtitle menu, or give it the same name as the video and keep both in one folder, which many players pick up by themselves.
Will the video be dubbed in English?
No. The page makes subtitles only; nothing is spoken and the video file isn’t changed.
Are speaker names shown in the subtitles?
No, only the words. NoteOwl on a Mac writes each speaker’s name into the SRT files it saves.
Is the video sent to a server?
The video isn’t. Your browser takes out the sound and sends short pieces to a cloud AI transcription service, then the Chinese text to a cloud AI translation service; both discard it after answering. The picture stays on your device.
Keep exploring
More video translator tools
- Video translatorA free video translator: drop in a video and download subtitles in another language, timed to the speech, as SRT or VTT; only the sound is sent, nothing is stored
- Hungarian to EnglishTranslate a Hungarian video into English subtitles free in your browser: the speech is transcribed in Hungarian, translated and timed as SRT or VTT; only the sound is sent, nothing is stored
- Hindi to EnglishTranslate a Hindi video into English subtitles free in your browser: the speech is transcribed in Hindi, translated and timed as SRT or VTT; only the sound is sent, nothing is stored
- Estonian to EnglishTranslate a Estonian video into English subtitles free in your browser: the speech is transcribed in Estonian, translated and timed as SRT or VTT; only the sound is sent, nothing is stored
- Latvian to EnglishTranslate a Latvian video into English subtitles free in your browser: the speech is transcribed in Latvian, translated and timed as SRT or VTT; only the sound is sent, nothing is stored
The same in other tools
Related
- Chinese subtitle generatorMake Chinese subtitles from a video or recording free in your browser, with the language set to Chinese; SRT, VTT or text; nothing is stored
- Chinese speech to textChinese dictation, meetings and imported recordings transcribed on your Mac, with a real NoteOwl transcript of a sample recording
Mandarin video, transcribed 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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