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Glossary

What Is a VTT File?

A VTT file (WebVTT, Web Video Text Tracks) is a text file of timed captions for web video. It starts with WEBVTT and can carry position and styling.

WebVTT is a W3C format; its specification begins “This specification defines WebVTT, the Web Video Text Tracks format.” A file must start with the word WEBVTT, then holds cues: a time line such as 00:01.000 --> 00:03.500, with a dot before the milliseconds, and the words to show. Cue settings can set the position, line, size and alignment, and styling uses CSS.

It is the caption format of the web: the HTML <track> element reads it, so browsers can show VTT captions over a video. YouTube lists .vtt among its advanced formats, says positioning is supported and styling is limited to bold, italic and underline.

For a creator, VTT and SRT carry the same words and timings; pick the one the place you upload to asks for. Converting one to the other is mostly a change of header and of the comma or dot in the times.

A VTT file can also hold notes and named regions, which SRT cannot, and a cue can carry a voice tag that says who is speaking. Most platforms read only the words and the times, so a file made for one site may lose its positions on another.

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Questions

What does VTT stand for?

Video Text Tracks, from WebVTT, the Web Video Text Tracks format defined by the W3C.

Is VTT better than SRT?

VTT can carry positions and styling, which SRT cannot. For plain captions both work; use what the platform asks for.

Does YouTube accept VTT files?

Yes. YouTube lists WebVTT among its advanced formats, with positioning and limited styling.

How do I convert SRT to VTT?

Add WEBVTT as the first line and change the comma before the milliseconds to a dot. Many tools, Clip-Short’s Auto Caption among them, export both.

How do I open a VTT file?

In any text editor, since it is plain text. Browsers show it through the HTML track element, and most video players read it.

Sources

Related terms

SRT file

An SRT file is a plain-text caption file: numbered lines, each with a start and end time and the words shown then. YouTube takes it as a basic subtitle format.

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Captions vs subtitles

Captions write out a video’s speech and key sounds for people who cannot hear it; subtitles give the speech in a language the viewer reads, often a translation.

Open

Closed captions

Captions kept apart from the picture: the platform draws them over the video and viewers can turn them off. Burned-in captions are called open captions.

Open

Burned-in captions

Burned-in captions, also called open or hardcoded captions, are part of the video picture itself, so everyone sees them and no viewer can turn them off.

Open