VTT file: what it is, how to open it, and how to make or convert one free
A VTT file (WebVTT, Web Video Text Tracks) is a plain-text caption file: the word WEBVTT on the first line, then each caption with its start time, its end time and its words. It is the caption format web browsers play beside a video. Any text editor opens one. To make one timed to the voice, drop your video here: Burncaps writes VTT, SRT, ASS and text files, free for recordings up to ten minutes, and the video never leaves your browser.
- Free, no sign-up
- VTT, SRT, ASS or text
- Video never uploaded
Live preview, rendered on this page by the same engine that burns your video.
What is a VTT file?
WebVTT is a format written up by the W3C, the body that publishes the web's standards. Its specification says the main use is captions and subtitles for a video on a web page, played through the HTML track element, and that the same format can also carry chapters, descriptions of the picture and other timed notes.
Plain text, always UTF-8
A VTT file is text you can read, saved in UTF-8, the encoding the specification requires, so accented letters and every script display as typed. Its media type is text/vtt and its file ending is .vtt.
It starts with WEBVTT
Every VTT file begins with the word WEBVTT, then an empty line. The specification tells a player to stop reading a file that does not start with it, so a VTT file without that line plays no captions at all.
Captions are called cues
Each caption is a cue: a line of times, start --> end, then its words, then an empty line. Times are written 00:01:02.500, with a full stop before the milliseconds; the hours may be left out.
From the W3C specification WebVTT: The Web Video Text Tracks Format (Candidate Recommendation Draft, 20 May 2026) and MDN's Web Video Text Tracks Format, both read on 8 November 2026. If either has changed since, it is the authority.
A real VTT file, line by line
This is the start of a VTT file exactly as Burncaps exports it, from 7.7 seconds of a baking video: the speech model's words with their own times, grouped into captions you can read.
| Line in the file | What it is |
|---|---|
| WEBVTT | The first line. Nothing else is needed above the captions. |
| (an empty line) | Ends the header. |
| 00:00:00.480 --> 00:00:01.500 | When the first caption shows and hides: hours, minutes, seconds, a full stop, then milliseconds. The times are the spoken words' own, so the caption appears as the voice starts. |
| Morning, everyone. | The words. A caption never runs across the end of a sentence, so this one is short. |
| (an empty line) | Ends the caption. |
| 00:00:01.720 --> 00:00:04.300 | The next caption, with no number above it: VTT does not need one. |
| Today I'm baking a Victoria | Up to two lines, each of up to 42 characters. |
| sponge from scratch. | The second line of the same caption. |
| (an empty line) | Ends the caption. |
| 00:00:04.900 --> 00:00:07.700 | A caption stays up for at most 7 seconds, and for at least 1 second unless the next one starts sooner. |
| It takes about forty | The third caption: one whole sentence, on two lines. |
| minutes, start to finish. | Its second line. |
What a Burncaps VTT file leaves out
The words as heard, and any word you corrected, with their times: nothing else. No caption positions, no styling and no comments: the look of a burned-in caption stays in the MP4. A translation goes into the SRT, VTT and ASS files, their names ending with the language's code. The spec allows positions (line, position, size, align), styles held as CSS, comments (NOTE) and speaker names; the SRT file format guide shows each of those line by line.
How to open a VTT file
A VTT file is plain text, so you can read it anywhere. What you open it with depends on whether you want to read the words, change them, or watch them with the video.
On Windows
Right-click the file, choose Open with, then Notepad. You see WEBVTT, the times and the words. Save it from Notepad as UTF-8 and keep the .vtt ending, or a player may not take it.
On a Mac
Control-click the file, choose Open With, then TextEdit. It opens as plain text; keep it that way, and keep the .vtt ending, when you save a change.
On a phone, or to edit times
Open the free SRT editor in your phone's or computer's browser and pick the file. It opens VTT as well as SRT, shows every caption with its times, shifts or syncs them, and saves VTT or SRT. The file is read in the page and never uploaded.
To watch it with the video
On a web page, a VTT file plays through the HTML track element, the job the format was made for. YouTube and Vimeo take a VTT file as captions for a video you have uploaded (their help pages are linked below). To get the words out without the times, convert the file to TXT, below.
VTT vs SRT, in three lines
| What | VTT | SRT |
|---|---|---|
| First line and numbers | WEBVTT; caption numbers not needed | The first caption's number; every caption numbered |
| Times | 00:01:02.500, a full stop | 00:01:02,500, a comma |
| Extras | Positions, CSS styles, comments, a W3C specification | None in the format; no formal specification |
Every other difference, from encoding to which sites take which file, is in one table on the SRT file format guide. Turning one into the other takes a second in the subtitle converter.
Where a VTT file is asked for
| Where | What its own help says, read 8 Nov 2026 |
|---|---|
| A video on your own web page | The HTML track element reads WebVTT: the format's main use (W3C WebVTT, MDN) |
| YouTube | Takes .vtt; positions are read, styling only bold, italic and underline (YouTube Help: supported subtitle and closed caption files) |
| Vimeo | Takes SRT and WebVTT and recommends WebVTT; the file must be UTF-8 (Vimeo Help: add captions or subtitles) |
| PowerPoint | Captions from a .vtt file in PowerPoint for Windows from Office 2016, for Mac from version 16.63, and for the web; SRT too from version 2411 on Windows and 16.91 on a Mac (Microsoft Support: closed captions in PowerPoint) |
| Zoom | A cloud recording's audio transcript is saved as a separate VTT file, in English only (Zoom KB0065911); computer recordings have a setting to save closed captions as a VTT file (KB0063640) |
| Asks for an SRT, not a VTT, to add captions to a video post; its page says it was last updated 5 years ago (LinkedIn Help a552177) |
If a page has changed since, it is the authority. A Zoom transcript VTT is text you can read in any editor; to make one from a Zoom recording that has none, see Zoom recording transcript.
Make, edit or convert a VTT file, free
Make one from a video or audio file
Drop the file in the box at the top of this page. Burncaps listens, times every word to the voice, and shows the script: correct a word once and every other time it was heard changes too. Then download VTT, SRT, ASS or text. Subtitle files are free without limit for recordings up to ten minutes, with no sign-up.
Edit one you already have
The SRT editor opens a VTT file in your browser: change words, move every caption earlier or later at once, sync a drifting file from two points, then save it as VTT or SRT.
Convert it to SRT or text
The subtitle converter turns VTT into SRT, SBV or TXT, and SRT into VTT, in your browser, and says what it left out or fixed on the way.
VTT to Word or PDF
There is no Word or PDF download here. Convert the VTT to TXT in the subtitle converter, then paste the text into Word or Google Docs and save it from there.
What it costs
Free: 2 videos every 30 days, each with captions and up to 3 clips, no watermark, no sign-up. Then try Pro free for 7 days, no card. Pro is $29 a month for unlimited clips and captions; Starter is $9.98 a month or $49 once. A longer recording, up to three hours, gives its script and subtitle files too: the first ten minutes free, all of it as one of your free videos, in the trial or with a plan.
Questions, answered plainly
What is a VTT file?
A VTT file (WebVTT, Web Video Text Tracks) is a plain-text caption file written up by the W3C. It starts with the line WEBVTT, then lists captions, each with a start and end time written 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:03.500 and its words. It must be UTF-8, its media type is text/vtt, and web browsers play it beside a video through the HTML track element.
How do I open a VTT file?
It is plain text, so any text editor opens it: Notepad on Windows (right-click, Open with, Notepad) or TextEdit on a Mac. To edit its captions and times, or to open it on a phone, use the free SRT editor on this site, which reads VTT in your browser and saves VTT or SRT without uploading the file.
What is the difference between VTT and SRT?
A VTT file starts with WEBVTT, puts a full stop before the milliseconds and needs no caption numbers; it can also hold positions, CSS styles and comments, and it has a W3C specification. An SRT file numbers every caption, puts a comma before the milliseconds and has no formal specification. Web pages play VTT; YouTube and Vimeo take both.
How do I convert a VTT file to SRT or text?
Drop it on the free subtitle converter on this site. It writes SRT, SBV or TXT in your browser: for SRT, the WEBVTT line goes, numbers are added and the full stops in the times become commas; for TXT, each caption's words go on a line of their own, with or without its start time. It converts SRT to VTT too.
How do I create a VTT file from a video?
Drop the video or recording on Burncaps. It listens, times every word to the voice, lets you correct any word in the script, and downloads a VTT file, along with SRT, ASS and text if you want them. Subtitle files are free without limit for recordings up to ten minutes, and the video never leaves your browser.
Can I turn a VTT file into a Word document?
Not directly here: there is no Word or PDF output. Convert the VTT to TXT in the free subtitle converter, which drops the times and keeps the words, then paste the text into Word or Google Docs and save it from there.
Burncaps facts, checked 8 November 2026
What it is: a browser tool that burns animated word-by-word captions into a talking video, or finds the best moments of a talk, podcast or interview and gives them back as ranked, captioned 9:16 clips.
Price: free for 2 videos every 30 days, each one recording with its captioned video and up to 3 clips, no mark and no sign-up; then the free 7-day Pro trial, no card (your email only); then Pro, $29 a month, gives unlimited clips and captioned videos, or Starter, $9.98 a month or $49 once, gives unlimited captioned videos. Starter paid once is not a subscription.
Privacy: the video never leaves your browser. The sound goes only to our speech service, on a phone unless you switch it off, on a computer only if you choose it. Because the video never reaches us, we cannot keep it or train AI on it, and we train no AI on anything you make.
Files: MP4 or MOV in, MP4 out. Captions on the whole video: up to ten minutes. Clips: up to three hours, on a phone or a computer. SRT, VTT, ASS and text files are free without limit for recordings up to ten minutes; a longer recording, up to three hours, gives its script and those files (the first ten minutes free, all of it as one of your free videos, in the trial or with Pro or Starter) and its clips (every one found and shown before you sign up; up to 3 from each free video exported free, every one in the trial or with Pro).
Clips: about one clip for every two minutes of talk, up to 30, ranked, the ones we would post first circled, each showing the words it opens and ends on and the reason it was chosen; each cut to 9:16 with ums and dead air removed, an opening card and captions, framed on whoever is talking. Every clip of the whole recording is found and shown, free and with no sign-up; each free video exports up to 3 of them, and the 7-day trial and Pro export every clip, unlimited.
Languages and styles: captions in the language spoken, twelve Indian languages heard on your device, translation into 59 languages, 60 caption styles.
After it listens: correct any word (one click changes it everywhere), add or cut words, one to six words at a time, position, size, text and highlight colours, and names this browser remembers, all free and without listening again.
Made by: Jordan Labs Ltd, UK company no. 17358646.
Against other tools: sixteen caption tools compared, from the vendors' own pages.