How to import an SRT into your video editor
You have an SRT and you want it on a subtitle track, sitting exactly where the words are spoken. Every editor can do that, and every editor hides it somewhere different. This page is the short version: what each one needs, and where to go for the click-by-click.
1. How importing actually works
An SRT is a plain text file: numbered cues, a start and end time for each, and the words. It carries no fonts, no colours and no positioning - only text and timing. When you import it, the editor reads those timestamps and places one caption per cue on a track. That is the whole mechanism, and it explains both of the classic failures.
If every subtitle lands in one block, the file's structure was lost, usually its line endings. If the cues are all offset by the same amount, the editor measured them from somewhere other than zero. And if the cues are in the right order but each one is slightly out, nothing is wrong with the import at all - the timings in the file were estimated rather than measured, which is a different problem entirely.
2. What each editor needs
| Editor | Line endings | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| DaVinci Resolve | CRLF | Timeline must start at 00:00:00:00, and you must add the subtitle track yourself first |
| Premiere Pro | Either | Pick caption type Subtitle, and Start Point "Source timecode" |
| CapCut | Either | Desktop only - the mobile app can't import. Under Text → Local captions |
| iMovie | n/a | No subtitle import at all. Burn the subtitles in beforehand instead |
Line endings are the invisible one. A file written with Unix endings (\n) collapses into a single run-on block in Resolve, while Windows-style \r\n imports correctly - and no text editor shows you the difference. Our subtitle generator offers both variants on the download menu, labelled for the tools that want each.
3. Step-by-step for your editor
Each of these walks the whole route with screenshots, from importing the footage to cues sitting on the track:
- DaVinci Resolve - creating the timeline at the right start timecode, adding the subtitle track, and inserting by timecode. Also covers why Resolve's own auto-captions are missing from the free version.
- Premiere Pro - New Sequence From Clip, the captions drop zone, and which of the three caption types to choose. Plus styling and burning in on export.
- CapCut - Local captions on desktop, including the hover-only + button that everyone misses. Also covers auto captions and fixing what they mishear.
- iMovie - what to do given it cannot import subtitle files at all.
4. If the cues land in the wrong place
Check whether the error is constant or growing, because they have different causes. A constant offset - everything late by the same amount - is a start-point setting, and the fix is in your editor. An error that grows through the video means the timings themselves were estimated by a speech-to-text tool, and no import setting will save it. In that case, re-time the file: drop your video and your existing SRT into our generator together and every word is re-aligned to the audio, with your wording left exactly as it is.