Vimeo plays any caption track you attach to a video. Make that track here from the video's speech, check it, and upload it: WebVTT is the format Vimeo recommends.
How it works
Upload the same file you are putting on Vimeo, or just its audio. For a video already there, download it from your Vimeo library first.
Correct names and terms on the transcript, then download .vtt (or .srt).
Open the video's settings, go to the captions and subtitles panel, pick the language and the type, upload the file and switch the track on.
Captions or subtitles
The upload dialog has a Type choice, and it changes how the track is labelled in the player:
A file made here from English speech is an English captions track. Translate it from the download menu and the Spanish file you get is a Spanish subtitles track. Upload each with its own language and type. The distinction is explained further in captions vs subtitles.
After the upload
Starting from a video that is already on Vimeo and belongs to someone else? See Vimeo to SRT for what can and cannot be downloaded.
Sample output
WEBVTT 00:00:34.680 --> 00:00:46.500 fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation conceived in in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition 00:00:46.500 --> 00:00:50.300 that all men are created equal. 00:00:50.300 --> 00:00:57.500 Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived 00:00:57.500 --> 00:01:01.620 and so dedicated, can long endure. 00:01:01.620 --> 00:01:07.920 We are met on a great battlefield of that war we have come to dedicate a portion of that field 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:14.240 as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that their nation might live 00:01:15.360 --> 00:01:18.800 it is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this
Real output, unedited: a public-domain LibriVox reading of the Gettysburg Address (2 min 41 s) transcribed here in October 2026. The repeated word and the missing capitals are what came back; you would fix those on the transcript before downloading.
Before you rely on it
Each cue is a phrase from the transcript with its start and end time. Most run a few seconds. A passage spoken without a pause can come out as one long cue of up to about half a minute, so split those in your editor if your platform wants two short lines at a time.
Cue times are taken from the recording itself, so the file lines up with the video or audio you uploaded. If you trim the start of the video afterwards, shift the cues by the same amount in your editor.
On public test recordings, about 7 words in 100 differed from the reference for clean English read speech, between 4 and 9 in 100 for Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, French and German, and about 21 in 100 for Hindi. Noisy rooms, music and crosstalk do worse. Method and every number: the benchmark.
Open the transcript, correct a misheard name or number on its line, and the SRT and VTT you download carry the correction with the timing unchanged.
You get the subtitle file. Fonts, colours, position and captions drawn into the picture are done in your video editor or player, which reads this file.
Up to 10 hours or 5 GB per recording. The box on this page takes files up to 500 MB; larger ones continue on the upload page. 99+ languages, detected automatically.
Pricing
The preview is free. When the full transcript needs a pack, one-time packs are $4 for 500 minutes, $8 for 1,000 minutes, $12 for 2,000 minutes, $24 for 5,000 minutes. Credits never expire, which comes to about $0.29 to $0.48 per hour of audio.
| Recording | $4 or $8 pack | $12 pack | $24 pack |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2-minute brand film | $0.02 | $0.01 | $0.01 |
| 30-minute talk | $0.24 | $0.18 | $0.14 |
| 90-minute webinar | $0.72 | $0.54 | $0.43 |
Figures are the share of a pack each recording uses. A button opens secure checkout for that pack. Every export format is included; full details on the pricing page.
FAQ
Vimeo recommends WebVTT (.vtt) and also accepts SRT, DFXP/TTML, SCC and SAMI files.
Open the video's settings on Vimeo, go to the captions and subtitles panel, choose the language and type, upload the VTT or SRT file, and switch the track on.
The track is probably uploaded but not switched on. Enable it in the captions panel; it then appears under the CC button.
Yes. Upload one file per language. With credits on the account you can translate the subtitles here into 35 languages and upload each as a subtitles track.
Vimeo offers automatic captions on some plans. Upload your own file when you need a language it does not cover, corrected names and terms, or a track you have reviewed for accessibility.
Every page in this set uses the same upload box and the same export. All subtitle pages
Free preview. VTT and SRT from the same upload; packs from $4.