Generate Subtitles
Browser-based AI subtitle generator that turns video and audio into editable SRT, VTT or TXT files with translation.
Buy-by-the-hour transcription with a genuinely usable free tier — you can finish a real 30-minute job before spending anything. The $0.99/hour credit that never expires beats a monthly seat for anyone who captions sporadically, and the Video Importer removes the download-and-reupload step most rivals leave to you. Pro adds speaker identification with suggested names, a synced subtitle editor, two DeepL translations instead of one, parallel files and 10 GB uploads. Skip it if you need live captioning or reviewer workflows; Sonix or Rev fit those jobs better.
Verified 5d ago · liveness 72/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/generate-subtitles
- Creators and editors who need accurate SRT/VTT files without a monthly subscription
- Students and researchers transcribing lectures or interviews on a tight budget
- Journalists turning interview audio into searchable, translatable transcripts
- Marketers pulling videos straight from a pasted URL with the Video Importer
- Live or real-time captioning during a call or stream — processing happens after upload
- Teams needing shared workspaces, reviewer comments or role permissions
- Anyone expecting a mobile app or offline desktop client — it runs in the browser
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Skip Subtitles.app if your captions need to appear live during a call or stream, or if you need shared team workspaces, reviewer comments or role permissions on the file.
Full-length and additional 1080p video exports bill separately at $1.00 per hour of video on top of the $0.99/hour transcription credit — the site notes the exact price is shown before the export starts.
The $0.99/hour credit model sits below subscription suites like Sonix or Rev for anyone captioning in bursts, and above free-only tools for accuracy, DeepL translation and export options. Free Use covers a real 30-minute job monthly. Pro credit suits solo creators and freelancers who would rather prepay $4.99 for 5.04 hours than commit to a monthly seat; heavy daily captioners and teams needing shared workspaces are better served elsewhere.
In short
Generate Subtitles — Browser-based AI subtitle generator that turns video and audio into editable SRT, VTT or TXT files with translation. Best for Creators and editors who need accurate SRT/VTT files without a monthly subscription, Students and researchers transcribing lectures or interviews on a tight budget, Journalists turning interview audio into searchable, translatable transcripts. Free to start; paid plans from $0.99.
What people actually say about Generate Subtitles — is it worth it?
We ran a structured research pass across product reviews, community discussions, and post-purchase forum threads to surface the patterns vendors won't publish themselves. Below: the recurring strengths, the hidden costs people mention most, and the cohort that consistently regrets adopting this tool.
94 mentions across 6 sources (Hacker News, YouTube, Bluesky, Stack Overflow, GitHub, Lemmy) · researched Jul 15, 2026.
Average across the 6 sources that answered — each source counts once, not each post.
- +No account or login required for free tier.
- +Uses OpenAI Whisper large-v2 for accurate transcription.
- +Supports over 100 input languages with auto-detection.
- +Free for files up to 1 hour and 300 MB.
- +Paid credits at $0.99 per hour are competitively priced.
- −Upload fails frequently, even for common audio formats.
- −Processing gets stuck with no progress feedback.
- −Paid users report no support or refunds for issues.
- −Free translation limited to 8 languages, not 91.
- −Subtitles not easily downloadable without streaming video.
- • Credits purchased in bundles – minimum spend not stated, but no refunds reported.
Viability Score
How well maintained and how widely used is Generate Subtitles? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: October 2026
How we score →Key Features
- AI transcription of MP4, MKV, MOV, MP3, WAV and FLAC into timestamped text
- Auto-detect source language across roughly 100 languages
- Translate subtitles into 120 languages (1 on Free Use, 2 via DeepL on Pro)
- Download subtitles as SRT, VTT or TXT files
- Export video with burned-in subtitles (full-length 1080p at $1.00 per hour of video)
- Video Importer fetches media by pasted URL from 1,100+ sites
- Speaker identification with automatically suggested names (Pro)
- Subtitle editor keeps transcript edits in sync across every export file (Pro)
- Ask this video — query the content without scrubbing
- Searchable transcript with word-level jump and speaker filter
- Media player with adjustable subtitle size, spacing and background
- Parallel transcription of multiple files at once (Pro)
- API access for connecting your own software via API key (Pro)
- Runs in any modern browser with no installation
- Pay-as-you-go credit at $0.99/hour that never expires
About Generate Subtitles
Subtitles.app, which also runs at freesubtitles.ai, is a browser-based transcription and captioning service. You drop in an MP4, MKV, MOV, MP3, WAV or FLAC, or paste a URL and let the Video Importer pull media from 1,100+ sites, and you get a timestamped transcript you can edit and download as SRT, VTT or TXT. Nothing to install and no subscription — the whole workflow runs in a browser tab. File language is auto-detected across about 100 languages, and translation covers 120 via a dropdown of named languages (one free translation on Free Use, two through DeepL on Pro). Speaker identification labels every line and suggests names automatically on Pro. The subtitle editor keeps corrections in sync across every export file, and a searchable transcript gives you word-level jump and speaker filtering. A media player lets you adjust subtitle size, spacing and background, and an Ask this video feature answers questions about the content without scrubbing. Pricing splits cleanly. Free Use handles files up to 1 GB and 30 minutes, allows 1 upload a day without signing in (3 with an account), and gives you one watermarked 5-minute 720p subtitled clip per video. Pro runs on credit at $0.99 per hour — the first hour costs $0.99, then top-ups start at $4.99 for 5.04 hours or $9.99 for 10.09 hours, with a $5 minimum after the first purchase. Pro lifts files to 10 GB, removes the duration cap, allows parallel transcription, adds speaker identification and the subtitle editor, includes full-length 1080p exports at $1.00 per hour of video, and opens API access. Credit never expires. The site reports 861,000+ files and 250,000+ hours transcribed, and is operated by Saint Technology Inc. It fits creators, students, journalists and marketers who caption in bursts and would rather buy hours than carry a monthly subscription. Against monthly suites like Sonix or Rev, the per-hour credit model is the differentiator; against free-only tools, the accuracy and export options are. What it is not built for is live captioning or shared team workspaces.
Behind the Verdict
Subtitles.app's pitch is simple and it holds up: pay for the hours you actually process rather than renting a seat every month. The first hour is $0.99, then credit is sold in blocks of 5.04 hours for $4.99 and 10.09 hours for $9.99, with a $5 minimum after that first purchase. Credit never expires, which matters if you caption in bursts — a quarterly product launch, a semester of lectures, a batch of interviews — rather than on a daily schedule. The Free Use tier is not a demo. You get Standard accuracy, files up to 1 GB and 30 minutes, 1 upload a day without signing in (3 with an account), auto-detected source language, one translated language, SRT/VTT/TXT downloads, the searchable transcript with word-level jump and speaker filter, Ask this video, and one watermarked 5-minute 720p subtitled clip per video. That is enough to finish a real half-hour job without a card. The catches are real too: 30-minute processing-one-file-at-a-time, media and transcripts wiped about 30 minutes after processing, and a watermark on that clip. Pro is where the working tools live. Highest accuracy models instead of Standard, files to 10 GB with no duration limit, parallel transcription across several files, speaker labels with names suggested automatically when the conversation makes them clear, a subtitle editor that keeps every export file in sync, two DeepL translation languages instead of one, Ask this video without the Free Use question cap, an unwatermarked 5-minute 720p clip per video, and API access. Media is retained up to one month and transcription files indefinitely unless you delete them — a meaningful change from Free Use's 30-minute wipe. Full-length and additional 1080p exports bill separately at $1.00 per hour of video, and the site says the exact price shows before an export starts. Payment runs through Stripe with major cards plus Apple Pay and Google Pay, and checkout sends you back with a unique Pro link by email. Purchases are non-refundable, though the site says refund requests are reviewed case by case. The honest limits: processing happens after upload, so there is no live or real-time captioning during a call or stream. There are no shared team workspaces, reviewer comments or role permissions. It runs in a browser tab — no mobile app, no offline desktop client — and it is not a multi-track editor you finish a project in. If you caption most days, a flat monthly plan will often cost you less than metered hours; that is a buying decision, not a defect. Against Sonix and Rev, the differentiator is the credit model; against free-only tools, it is the export options, DeepL translation and speaker labels.
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Real-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Generate Subtitles actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
Drops an MP4 podcast episode into the browser, lets auto-detect pick the language, runs Standard accuracy on Free Use, then fixes the transcript in the editor and downloads SRT.
Outcome: A timestamped SRT in hand without a subscription, having spent nothing on the Free Use tier.
Tops up credit, enables Highest accuracy and speaker identification, pastes a Drive or YouTube URL into the Video Importer, and translates the interview into a second language with DeepL.
Outcome: A speaker-labelled, searchable, bilingual transcript retained indefinitely in their account for $0.99 per transcribed hour.
Uploads a webinar recording, lands a 5-minute 720p subtitled clip without the watermark on Pro, and adds a burned-in full-length export at $1.00 per hour of video.
Outcome: A captioned teaser and a full subtitled master from one upload, billed per the export price shown before the render.
Use Cases
- Transcribe a podcast interview for editing
- Generate SRT subtitles for a YouTube video in English and Spanish
- Translate a lecture transcript from English to Chinese for students
- Convert a recorded meeting to searchable text notes
- Create a .txt transcript of an audio diary for archival
- Download a YouTube video and transcribe it in one go via the Video Importer
- Export a watermark-free 5-minute 720p subtitled clip on Pro for a social teaser
- Batch-transcribe several interview files at once with parallel transcription on Pro
Models Under the Hood
as of 2026-10-15
Limitations
- Free Use caps files at 1 GB and 30 minutes and allows 3 uploads a day when signed in (1 without), processing one file at a time.
- Translation is limited to 1 language on Free Use and 2 on Pro, and the Highest accuracy model, speaker identification and the subtitle editor are Pro-only.
- Free Use media and transcripts are automatically deleted about 30 minutes after processing; Pro retains media up to one month and transcription files (SRT/VTT/TXT/JSON) indefinitely unless deleted.
- Video export is capped at one 5-minute 720p clip per video (watermarked on Free Use, clean on Pro); full-length and additional 1080p exports consume credit at $1.00 per hour of video.
as of 2026-10-13
Verification history
We have re-verified Generate Subtitles 10 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
Showing the 6 most recent of 10 verification passes.
Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Plans compared
For each published Generate Subtitles tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.
Free Use
$0
Ideal for
Solo creators, students and journalists testing transcription quality on one 30-minute file before spending anything
What this tier adds
Free entry point: 1 GB / 30-minute files, 1 upload a day without signing in (3 with an account), Standard accuracy, one watermark clip
Pro
$0.99/hour
Ideal for
Creators, freelancers and researchers processing longer or multiple files who would rather prepay credit than carry a monthly subscription
What this tier adds
Adds Highest accuracy models, 10 GB files with no duration limit, parallel files, speaker identification, the synced subtitle editor, 2 DeepL languages, unwatermarked 1080p exports and API access
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Generate Subtitles's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
The $0.99/hour credit model sits below subscription suites like Sonix or Rev for anyone captioning in bursts, and above free-only tools for accuracy, DeepL translation and export options. Free Use covers a real 30-minute job monthly. Pro credit suits solo creators and freelancers who would rather prepay $4.99 for 5.04 hours than commit to a monthly seat; heavy daily captioners and teams needing shared workspaces are better served elsewhere.
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Generate Subtitles — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
Free Use: under two minutes to first value — drop a file, pick accuracy and language, press Start Transcription. Pro: a few minutes on top of that, since checkout via Stripe sends a unique Pro link by email, and your first $0.99 credit purchase unlocks Highest accuracy, speaker identification and the subtitle editor.
Switching to or from Generate Subtitles
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From manual transcription: upload the original video or audio and let auto-detect generate the first transcript draft.
- →From a monthly captioning suite: switch to per-hour credit and paste source URLs into the Video Importer instead of downloading files first.
- →From a free-only caption tool: move across for DeepL translation, SRT/VTT/TXT exports and speaker identification on Pro.
- ↗To Sonix or Rev: export your SRT/VTT/TXT files first, since Pro retains transcriptions indefinitely and nothing is locked in.
- ↗To a live-captioning tool: nothing to export — Subtitles.app processes after upload and does not do real-time captioning.
Integrations
Resources & Guides
Tutorials & Learning
YouTube returned 6 videos for “Generate Subtitles”, and we withheld 6: 6 did not mention Generate Subtitles. We are showing none, because we could not prove any of them are about Generate Subtitles.
Official links
Tools that pair well with Generate Subtitles
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Generate Subtitles, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
Sonix
Sonix transcribes audio and video at 99% accuracy in 54+ languages, then layers AI analysis, speaker diarization, and cited answers across
Soniox
Soniox speech-to-text API delivers real-time STT, TTS, and translation in 60+ languages through one unified developer platform.
Sarvam AI
Sarvam AI is India's sovereign Indic-language speech, translation and document AI platform.
Featured Head-to-Head Comparisons
Generate Subtitles vs Storyfile
If you need affordable, fast subtitles or translations for audio/video, Generate Subtitles is your tool — it's free for basic use and simple. But if you want to create an interactive, authentic conversational experience with a real person (like a family member or historical figure), StoryFile is unmatched, though it requires a budget and professional setup.
Generate Subtitles vs Splice
Choose Splice if you're a music producer who needs a huge, royalty-free sample library and the option to rent-to-own expensive plugins. Choose Generate Subtitles if you need fast, accurate transcription or translation for video/audio files without spending money upfront.
Generate Subtitles vs Landr Mastering
If you need free, instant subtitles and translations for audio/video with no account required, choose Generate Subtitles. For professional, affordable AI music mastering with stem mastering (now on Studio Pro) and a DAW plugin, choose LANDR Mastering. They serve entirely different needs—transcription vs. audio mastering—so your choice depends on whether you're creating captions or polishing a recording.
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