Turn Video Text Into an SRT File
Paste your video transcript and ChatGPT turns it into a cleanly timed SRT caption file you can drop straight into your editor or YouTube.
Last updated: July 2026 · Collective Brain
Good for
- Generate ready captions for YouTube, Instagram Reels or LinkedIn videos
- Break a raw transcript into correctly timed SRT blocks
- Prepare accessible captions for training and explainer videos
The prompt
You are a subtitle editor for social media and YouTube videos. Convert the following video text into a valid SRT caption file.
Video context:
- Language of the video: [language, e.g. English]
- Approximate total length of the video: [length, e.g. 90 seconds]
- Speaking pace: [calm / normal / fast]
Video text:
[paste your full script or transcript here]
Rules:
1. Split the text into short caption blocks of at most two lines and no more than 42 characters per line.
2. Use timecodes in the format HH:MM:SS,mmm --> HH:MM:SS,mmm and spread them evenly across the given total length, matched to the speaking pace.
3. Each block should show for roughly 1 to 4 seconds, with a brief gap between blocks.
4. Number the blocks sequentially starting at 1.
5. Break at natural speech and sentence pauses, never in the middle of a word.
Output only the finished SRT content, with no explanation, so I can save it directly as a .srt file.Replace the bracketed placeholders with your own details.
Frequently asked
Will the timecodes be perfectly in sync with my video?
No. ChatGPT cannot see your video, so it estimates the timing from text length, total length and speaking pace. For a clean fit, check the SRT in your editor or the YouTube caption editor and nudge individual blocks. The more accurately you state length and pace, the closer the estimate lands.
How do I turn the output into a real .srt file?
Copy the generated text into a plain text editor (TextEdit in plain text mode or Notepad) and save it with the .srt extension instead of .txt. You can then upload the file directly to YouTube, Instagram or your video editing software.
Related
Rather have it done?
Prompts are a start.
Results are our job.
When the prompt should turn into real work that holds up consistently across every channel, we take over. Start free, finish professionally.