Free tool · runs in your browser

Caption Formatter

Clean up auto-generated captions or raw transcripts in seconds. Paste your text, choose a max line length, and get readable caption blocks ready for burning in or pasting into your video editor.

Paste a transcript above to break it into caption-style cues. No timing is added — this is formatting only.

How to use this tool

  1. 01

    Paste your transcript

    Raw text from auto-captions, a transcription service, or your own notes — SRT noise is stripped automatically.

  2. 02

    Adjust line and cue limits

    Defaults match industry standards (42 characters per line, 2 lines per cue); lower them for Shorts and Reels.

  3. 03

    Copy the formatted output

    Use it as a starting point for adding timings or directly as a guide for caption editors.

Why this matters

Auto-captions and raw transcripts arrive as one unbroken blob — or worse, an SRT littered with timestamps and cue numbers — with line breaks landing mid-phrase. Since the large majority of social video plays start muted, those captions are the primary reading experience for most of your audience, and bad breaks quietly cost you retention.

Reflowing this by hand in a text editor is tedious and inconsistent. This tool enforces the broadcast standard (42 characters × 2 lines), strips SRT noise, and groups text into cues at clause boundaries — instantly and entirely in your browser. It deliberately stops at formatting; pair it with the Caption Duration Calculator when you're ready to time each cue.

Related tools

SRT to VTT

Convert SubRip (.srt) caption files into WebVTT (.vtt) for HTML5 <track> tags. Comma-to-period millisecond conversion, WEBVTT header included.

Open tool→
VTT to SRT

Convert WebVTT (.vtt) caption files back to SubRip (.srt). Strips cue settings, fixes numbering, switches periods to commas.

Open tool→
SRT Timing Shifter

SRT timing shifter — move every cue in an SRT file forward or back by a custom millisecond offset. Negative shifts clamp at 00:00:00. In your browser.

Open tool→

FAQ

Subtitle research found ~42 characters is the most comfortable reading width at typical broadcast font sizes and viewing distances — long enough to avoid choppy breaks, short enough to read in one glance. The BBC subtitle guidelines and US FCC/CEA-708 captioning conventions both center on roughly 32–42 characters per line, which is why it's the default here.

Explore the full toolkit

94 free tools covering titles, tags, thumbnails, scripts, captions, embeds, schema, and in-browser video processing.

Browse all tools →