Free tool

MP4 translator

This MP4 translator gives an MP4 video subtitles in another language: your browser takes the sound out of the file, the speech is transcribed and translated, and the translation comes back as SRT or VTT subtitles timed to the moments it was spoken.

  • Free
  • SRT and VTT
  • The video stays on your device

Choose your MP4 video

MP4, MOV, M4V, MKV, 3GP or WebM video. Up to 30 minutes of each file, 3 free files a day.

Publishing MP4s every week? NoteOwl imports them on your Mac, transcribes them with unlimited transcription and saves SRT subtitles with each speaker’s name.

Download free for MacSend to my Mac

How it works

How do you translate an MP4 video?

Drop the MP4 on the page and pick the language for the subtitles. Your browser takes out the sound track and leaves the picture alone; the speech is transcribed in short pieces, translated, and laid out as subtitles at the times it was spoken. Then download the SRT.

  1. 1

    Choose the MP4

    From a phone, a Zoom or Webex recording, a screen recorder or a video editor’s export.

  2. 2

    Set the subtitle language

    Translate into starts on English; Spoken in is detected unless you set it. Up to 30 minutes of each video.

  3. 3

    Download the subtitles

    SRT first, VTT beside it, named after the video with the language code, such as demo.de.srt.

What does the translator take from an MP4?

Only the sound track, AAC in almost every MP4. The picture is never decoded or sent, so file size doesn’t matter: in our test, a 1 GB and a 62 MB copy of the same talk each sent just 2.4 MB of sound.

How quickly does an MP4 get translated subtitles?

In seconds, for a short video. An MP4 with 2 minutes 19 seconds of English speech came back with French subtitles in 6 seconds in our test. The French ran longer, so it was laid out as more subtitles than the English, each one starting with its words.

English, as spoken
How many34
Time—
French, first run
How many38
Time6 s
French, second run
How many37
Time18 s

Where can you use the translated SRT?

Almost anywhere an MP4 goes. Upload it beside the video on YouTube, import it into a video editor, or open it in a desktop player next to the file. The MP4 itself is never changed: the subtitles are a separate file.

YouTube
What to doIn YouTube Studio, add the language under Subtitles and upload the SRT with timing.
Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro
What to doImport the SRT as a caption track, then style it or burn it into the picture.
A desktop player
What to doOpen the SRT alongside the MP4, for example from VLC’s Subtitle menu.
Your own website
What to doUse the VTT download in the video element’s track tag.

Why would an MP4 fail to translate?

For one of two reasons in our tests. Either the MP4 has no sound track, and the page says “This file has no sound”, or its sound is Dolby Digital (AC-3), which browsers can’t decode. MP4s with AAC sound, the usual kind, open normally.

For an MP4 with Dolby Digital sound, export a copy with stereo AAC sound from your video editor and drop that in instead.

Publishing MP4 videos with subtitles every week?

NoteOwl imports MP4 video on your Mac, transcribes it there with unlimited transcription and saves SRT subtitles with each speaker’s name. For subtitles in the language spoken, use the SRT generator; for a transcript, MP4 to text.

Already have subtitles for the video? The subtitle translator translates the file and keeps every timestamp as it was.

FAQ

Questions about translating MP4 videos

Is the MP4 translator free?

Yes. Translate 3 MP4 videos a day, up to 30 minutes of each, with no account and no watermark on anything.

Does my MP4 get uploaded?

No. The browser opens it on your device and takes out the sound. Short pieces of that sound go to a cloud AI transcription service and the transcript’s text to a cloud AI translation service; each deletes what it was sent. The picture never leaves.

Will the translation have the same number of subtitles as the original?

Not always. The translation is cut into subtitles after it’s translated, by its own sentences and pauses, at most 2 lines each, so a language that runs longer can need a few more. Each still starts when its words are spoken.

Can I get subtitles in the language spoken, too?

Yes. Switch the result from the translation to Original and download that SRT as well. Publishing both lets each viewer choose.

What if the MP4 is longer than 30 minutes?

The first 30 minutes get subtitles, and a note says where they stop. Trim the video into parts in an editor and translate the parts one by one.

Does the MP4’s picture format matter?

No. H.264 and HEVC MP4s both opened in Chrome and in Safari’s engine in our tests, and the picture isn’t decoded anyway. What counts is the sound: AAC works, Dolby Digital doesn’t.

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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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