VideoText workflow guide
Create accurate captions for your TikTok videos using AI. Upload your video (or the original file before posting to TikTok) and get timed SRT subtitles — or burn captions permanently into the video for guaranteed visibility on any platform. More accurate than TikTok's built-in auto-captions. Free tier.
Upload the video or paste a public URL. Word-level timestamp alignment produces more accurate line breaks than sentence-level alignment — each subtitle break falls at a natural pause rather than a word boundary mid-phrase.
Flag any line above 17 CPS and split it. An 8-word subtitle in a 1.2-second window hits approximately 24 CPS — unreadable for most viewers. Merge subtitle lines shorter than 0.8 seconds, which display too briefly to register.
Subtitle overlap — where the next block starts before the previous one ends — causes display flicker in most players. Any gap shorter than 0.1 seconds between adjacent subtitles should be merged or widened to prevent rendering artifacts.
Export SRT for YouTube, Vimeo, and video editors. Export VTT for HTML5 web players and streaming platforms that support caption positioning. Choose burned-caption output for Instagram Reels, TikTok clips, and any social context where autoplay without sound is expected.
Standard timed subtitle format: sequence number, timestamp pair (00:00:00,000 → 00:00:00,000 with comma separator), and one or two lines of caption text per block. Supported by YouTube, Vimeo, LinkedIn, most video editors, and accessibility workflows.
WebVTT format with period timestamp separators (00:00:00.000 → 00:00:00.000). Used by HTML5 video players, streaming services, and accessibility platforms. Unlike SRT, VTT supports <cue> positioning metadata, text styling, and karaoke-mode highlighting.
Permanently embedded caption text rendered directly into the video frame — cannot be toggled off by the viewer. Required for platforms that strip external caption tracks. Font rendering, shadow depth, and vertical position all need QA review after encoding because video compression can degrade caption legibility.
Generate SRT for YouTube upload, export burned captions for Instagram Reels, and produce VTT for course platform embeds — all from the same subtitle pass without reformatting timing.
Produce synchronized captions that meet WCAG 2.1 timing and reading-speed requirements. CPS validation catches lines that fail accessibility guidelines before the video goes live.
Export SRT or VTT for import into Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, or Final Cut Pro. Accurate word-level timestamps eliminate the need to manually re-sync caption timing after import.
Eight words spoken in 1.2 seconds: "we need to fix this before the deadline" at 24 CPS. The line must be split into two display segments within the same timing window to hit the readable 14–17 CPS range.
Block ending at 00:01:23,500 overlapping a block starting at 00:01:23,200 causes display flicker and rendering failure in most SRT players. A subtitle validator catches this before upload.
A two-line subtitle with 44+ characters per line at default font sizes clips at the bottom of mobile video frames. The safe area for mobile subtitles is a single line, 38 characters maximum, positioned at 85% vertical height.
Font stroke weight, drop shadow depth, and subtitle vertical position all shift slightly after H.264 encoding. Captions that look correct in preview may become harder to read in the encoded file — requires a post-encode QA pass before publishing.
UTF-8 encoding required. Maximum 1,500 subtitle blocks per file. Timestamp format: 00:00:00,000 (comma separator, not period). Files over 1,500 blocks need splitting before upload. YouTube auto-syncs uploaded SRT to audio — small timing offsets are corrected automatically.
TikTok generates its own auto-captions and displays them over uploaded SRT files in most cases. Burned captions are the reliable method for ensuring accurate captions appear on TikTok content. SRT upload works but TikTok may override it.
Instagram does not display soft subtitle tracks during autoplay in Feed or Reels. Burned captions are the only reliable method for ensuring captions appear for silent autoplay viewers. Instagram's built-in auto-caption feature can also be used after upload, but accuracy varies.
VTT uses period timestamp separators (00:00:00.000) while SRT uses commas (00:00:00,000). Swapping the separator character breaks parsing in most players. VTT files must begin with the WEBVTT header line — SRT files must not.
For permanent captions: upload your video to VideoText, generate SRT subtitles, then use Burn Subtitles to permanently embed them in the video. Upload the captioned video to TikTok. Or use TikTok's auto-caption feature after uploading (lower accuracy).
TikTok auto-captions have reasonable accuracy for English but are less accurate for accents, technical vocabulary, and non-English content. VideoText uses Whisper large-v3 for significantly higher accuracy (98.5%+) — generate captions before uploading for better results.
Yes. Upload your video to VideoText and download the SRT file. TikTok's web editor accepts SRT uploads for closed captions. Alternatively, burn the captions into the video using VideoText's Burn Subtitles tool.
Yes. Free tier includes 3 uploads per day, no credit card required. Includes SRT generation and subtitle burning.
Burned-in captions are visible everywhere — in feed, on reposts, in embeds — without the viewer needing to toggle them on. TikTok's closed captions can be disabled. For maximum reach, burn captions into the video before uploading.
