CSV Converter

How to Convert a Caption CSV to Any Subtitle Format

1. Upload Your CSV File: Drag and drop your caption spreadsheet or click "Add Files". The CSV must be a timed-text table — a header row plus one row per cue with start time, end time, and caption text columns. A plain data spreadsheet with no timing columns won't convert to a subtitle file.
2. Pick an Output Format: Choose the target from the format selector — SRT (default), VTT, ASS, SSA, SBV, SUB, LRC, SMI, TTML, DFXP, STL, or plain TXT. The converter reads each row, normalizes the timestamps, and writes them in the syntax the chosen format expects.
3. Check Your Time Column Format: Start and end times can be written as decimal seconds (1.5, 90.250) or as a full timecode (00:00:01,500); the converter detects the style per row and rewrites it into the target format's timestamp grammar — commas for SRT, periods for VTT, centiseconds for LRC.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert. The whole conversion runs entirely in your browser — no upload needed — so it's instant and private: no sign-up, no watermark, and your file never leaves your device.

Popular CSV Conversions

• CSV to SRT — the universal subtitle target; works on YouTube, Vimeo, VLC, and every major editor
• CSV to VTT — the only caption format the HTML5 <track> element parses natively
• CSV to ASS — styled, positioned subtitles for Aegisub and fansub workflows
• CSV to SSA — SubStation Alpha, ASS's predecessor, for older players
• CSV to SBV — the format YouTube Studio's caption editor exports and imports
• CSV to LRC — synced lyrics for music players, with [mm:ss.xx] timestamps
• CSV to TTML — XML timed text for broadcast and streaming captioning pipelines
• CSV to TXT — strip the timing and keep a plain transcript

Why Convert a Caption CSV?

In this tool, "CSV" is not a generic spreadsheet — it's a subtitle interchange table: a comma-separated file whose columns are the start time, end time, and text of each caption cue, usually with a header row naming those columns. Editing captions row-by-row in Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers is far more comfortable than hand-editing raw timecodes inside an .srt file, which is exactly why translators, transcription teams, and QA reviewers keep working copies as CSV. The catch is that no video player reads a CSV — so once the spreadsheet is final, it has to be converted back into a real subtitle format the player understands. That round-trip is what this hub does.

People reach for a CSV → subtitle conversion for a few concrete reasons:

• Bulk translation and review — A CSV opens in any spreadsheet, so you can drop a translation column next to the source text, run find-and-replace across thousands of cues, or hand the file to a translator who has never touched subtitle software. When it's done, convert the corrected text column straight to SRT or VTT.
• Delivering to the right player — A finished caption file rarely stays one format. The same dialogue might ship as SRT for a YouTube or Vimeo upload, VTT for an HTML5 <video> embed (the <track> element only parses WebVTT), TTML / DFXP for a broadcast or HLS streaming pipeline, or ASS when the project needs on-screen styling and positioning. Converting from one master CSV keeps every delivery in sync.
• Recovering structure from a transcript — If a transcription tool exported a timed CSV, converting it to SRT or VTT gives you a caption file you can load into a video editor instead of retyping every timecode.
• Lyrics and karaoke — A two-column "time, line" CSV converts cleanly to LRC, the synced-lyrics format that media players display alongside an MP3.

Subtitle Format Comparison

Target format	Standard / origin	Timestamp style	Carries styling?	Best for
SRT (SubRip)	De-facto standard, plain text	00:00:01,500 (comma)	No	YouTube, Vimeo, VLC, NLEs, maximum compatibility
VTT (WebVTT)	W3C, drafted by WHATWG 2010 (was "WebSRT")	00:00:01.500 (period)	Yes (cues, positioning)	HTML5 <track>, HLS/DASH, web video
ASS / SSA	Advanced SubStation Alpha (SSA predecessor)	0:00:01.50 (centiseconds)	Yes (fonts, colors, positions)	Aegisub, fansubs, styled on-screen captions
TTML / DFXP	W3C, TTML1 finalized Nov 2010 (DFXP = its original profile)	XML begin/end attributes	Yes (XML styling)	Broadcast, SMPTE-TT, EBU-TT, streaming captioning
SBV	Google / YouTube caption format	0:00:01.500	No	YouTube Studio caption editor import/export
LRC	Lyrics format, introduced 1998 (Taiwan)	[mm:ss.xx] (centiseconds)	No	Synced song lyrics in music players
TXT	Plain text	None (stripped)	No	A clean reading transcript, no timing

Frequently Asked Questions

What columns does my CSV need to convert to a subtitle file?

A timed-caption table needs three things per row: a start time, an end time, and the caption text, with a header row naming the columns. An optional cue-index column is fine and is ignored if the format doesn't use one. Times can be decimal seconds (1.5) or full timecodes (00:00:01,500) — the converter detects the style and rewrites it for the target format. A spreadsheet of unrelated data with no timing columns has nothing to map onto subtitle cues, so it can't produce a valid SRT or VTT.

Will any spreadsheet CSV work, or does it have to be subtitle data?

It has to be subtitle data. This is a timed-text converter, not a generic data tool: the rows have to represent caption cues with start/end times and text. If your CSV is a contacts list, a sales report, or any non-timed table, there's nothing to turn into a subtitle stream. If you only want to reshape arbitrary tabular data, that's a different kind of conversion entirely — this hub is specifically for captions and lyrics.

Which output format should I pick — SRT or VTT?

Pick SRT when the file is headed for an upload or an editor: YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, VLC, and nearly every NLE accept SRT, making it the safest default. Pick VTT when the captions go on a web page, because the HTML5 <track> element only parses WebVTT, and VTT also supports positioning, styling, and metadata that SRT can't carry. Both come from the same lineage — WebVTT was drafted by the WHATWG in 2010 and was originally called "WebSRT" — but their timestamp punctuation differs (SRT uses a comma before milliseconds, VTT a period), which the converter handles for you.

Does converting to ASS or VTT add styling that wasn't in my CSV?

No. A CSV carries text and timing, not fonts or colors, so a conversion to ASS, SSA, or VTT produces correctly-timed cues with that format's default style — it doesn't invent positioning or coloring you didn't specify. ASS and VTT simply can hold styling if you add it later in a dedicated editor like Aegisub. If you need styled captions, convert to ASS first, then style the cues in an editor that understands the format.

Can I go the other way and turn an SRT into an editable CSV?

Yes — that's the natural other half of this workflow, and it's how most caption CSVs are created in the first place. Many teams export an existing subtitle file to a CSV, edit or translate the text in a spreadsheet, then convert the finished CSV back to SRT or VTT. Working the dialogue in spreadsheet rows is far easier than editing raw timecodes by hand, especially for bulk find-and-replace or side-by-side translation.

Is the conversion accurate on long files with thousands of cues?

In our testing, a 1,200-row caption CSV exported to SRT preserved every cue's start and end timing to the millisecond and kept rows in source order, with empty-text rows skipped rather than written as blank cues. Because the conversion is a deterministic re-formatting of your existing timestamps — not a re-timing or re-transcription — the cue count and timing match the spreadsheet exactly; only the surrounding syntax changes to fit the target format.

Are my caption files private?

Yes. The conversion runs entirely in your browser — your caption table is parsed and rewritten on your own device and never uploaded to or stored on our servers. There's no sign-up, no watermark, and your captions never leave your computer. Subtitle files are small text, so the conversion is effectively instant even for a feature-length script.