Translate an SRT or VTT subtitle file into another language without uploading it. The text goes through the translator built into Chrome 138 and later, which runs on your own device, and the start and end time of every cue is copied across unchanged, so the translated file lines up with the video exactly as the original did. Sixteen target options are offered, from Spanish and French to Japanese, Arabic and Hindi, and the source language can be detected from the file. In a browser without the built-in translator, the page says so and stops rather than sending your subtitles to a server.
How it works
- Open the page in Chrome 138 or later and drop one .srt or .vtt file. Translation works on one file at a time; if you drop several, the first one is used.
- Choose the language under To. From can stay on Detect automatically, which reads the first five cues, or be set by hand.
- Translate & download. If Chrome does not have the language pack yet, it downloads it first, with a progress bar. The translated file keeps the original format and gets -translated added to its name.
Questions
- Which languages can I translate subtitles into?
- English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Russian, Arabic, Hindi, Dutch, Polish and Turkish, and the same list is offered for From. Whether a particular pair works is up to Chrome’s translator. When it cannot do one on your device, the page names the pair that failed instead of quietly using an online service.
- Can I translate subtitles in Firefox or Safari?
- Only in a browser that has the built-in Translator API, and today that means Chrome 138 or later. The page checks when it opens: where the API is missing, the language menus are disabled, a note says why, and nothing is sent anywhere as a fallback. Converting, shifting and resyncing subtitles need no translator and work in other browsers.
- Is machine translation good enough for subtitles?
- For following a film in a language you do not speak, usually yes. For subtitles you plan to publish, treat it as a first draft. Each cue is translated on its own, without the lines around it, so sentences split across two cues, running jokes, names and the way characters address each other can all come out inconsistent. A fluent reader should check it against the video.
- Does my file get uploaded?
- No. The models and all processing run inside your browser on your own device. You can verify this yourself: open your browser’s DevTools, watch the Network tab, and process a file: there are no uploads. After the first visit most tools also work fully offline.
- What is a two-point resync?
- A fixed shift fixes subtitles that are uniformly early or late, but not ones that drift further out over the runtime (a frame-rate mismatch). Pin the first and last line to their correct moments and every cue between them is stretched linearly. That is the standard fix, done locally.
- How does on-device translation work?
- Recent Chromium browsers ship a built-in translator that downloads language packs and runs locally. Where your browser offers it, this tool uses it, subtitle text included, and nothing is sent to a service. Where it does not, the page says so instead of quietly uploading.
- Burned-in vs a subtitle file: which do I want?
- A separate .srt/.vtt can be toggled and edited, and players render it crisply, so prefer it where you control playback. Burn-in re-encodes the video with the text drawn into the frames: it plays everywhere and cannot be turned off.