How to make subtitles (SRT) from a video on a Mac
The short answer
A Mac can make subtitles from the speech in a video three ways. Final Cut Pro’s Generate Captions creates captions in the timeline on a Mac with Apple silicon, in U.S. English only, which you convert to SRT and export with File → Export Closed Captions. The open Whisper model writes SRT and VTT files from Terminal. iMovie and QuickTime Player do not make subtitles. Flit, a local dictation app for Mac, takes the video on its Transcribe tab and exports SRT or VTT with timestamps, in any language its voice model covers, on the Mac.
How to make subtitles in Final Cut Pro
- Open your project in Final Cut Pro.
- Choose Edit → Generate Captions → Closed Captions, or press Shift-Command-C.
- The first time, Final Cut Pro downloads its language model, which needs an internet connection once.
- Check the captions in the timeline and correct any words.
- Convert the captions to SRT, since generated captions are made in the iTT format.
- Choose File → Export Closed Captions, pick SRT, and save the file.
Generate Captions needs a Mac with Apple silicon and works in U.S. English only.
A subtitle file is plain text: each line of speech with the time it starts and ends. SRT and VTT are the two common formats, and VTT is the one web video players read. The table compares the three ways to make one on a Mac.
Three ways to make subtitles on a Mac
| Way | What it needs | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Final Cut Pro | $299.99 once, Apple silicon, speech in U.S. English | Captions in the timeline, exported as SRT or iTT, or burned in as titles |
| Whisper in Terminal | Python, ffmpeg and a pip install | SRT, VTT and text files, in the languages Whisper knows |
| Flit | macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon | SRT and VTT with one line per sentence, plus text and Markdown |
Final Cut Pro: Generate Captions
Final Cut Pro is the only Apple app that makes subtitles from speech. Apple’s guide names the feature Generate Captions and states its limits plainly: it requires a Mac with Apple silicon and is available in U.S. English only. Earlier versions called it Transcribe to Captions.
Generated captions are created in the iTT format. To get SRT, convert them first, then use File → Export Closed Captions, which writes a separate file for each language you select. The SRT export has an Include Formatting checkbox.
For text burned into the picture instead of a separate file, choose Edit → Generate Captions → Subtitles, or press Shift-Command-S. Apple’s page on subtitles describes these as title clips in the timeline.
What Final Cut Pro costs and needs
Final Cut Pro is $299.99 as a one-time purchase, or part of Apple Creator Studio at $12.99 a month or $129 a year. Apple’s own pages disagree on the macOS it needs: the product page says macOS 15.6 or later, while the Mac App Store listing for version 12.4 says macOS 26.6 or later. Check the listing before you buy.
If you edit video in it already, Generate Captions is the natural choice for English. If you only want a subtitle file, it is a large purchase for one file.
iMovie and QuickTime Player
Neither makes subtitles. Apple’s iMovie guide has no captioning or subtitle feature, and QuickTime Player only shows captions that are already in a movie, with closed captions only when they are embedded in the CEA-608 format.
Live Captions, in System Settings → Accessibility, captions any audio playing on the Mac as it plays, on the device. Apple describes no way to save what it shows, so it cannot produce a subtitle file.
Whisper in Terminal
The open Whisper model reads video through the ffmpeg tool and writes text, SRT and VTT files for each one in a single run. It is free and covers many languages, at the cost of an install. How to transcribe an audio file on a Mac has the steps.
- Install ffmpeg with
brew install ffmpeg, and Whisper withpip install -U openai-whisper. - Run
whisper video.mp4 --model turbo --output_format srt. - The SRT file is written to the folder you ran it from.
Checking a subtitle file
Whatever made it, read it before you publish it. Apple notes that SRT files can be read and edited in any plain text editor: each entry is a number, a start and end time, and the line. Fix names and numbers there, since those are where every model slips.
An SRT or VTT file sits beside the video rather than inside it. Load it in your video editor, or wherever you publish the video.
Subtitles from the Transcribe tab
Flit is a dictation app with a Transcribe tab. Drop the video on it and export subtitles, with no editor to learn and nothing uploaded.
- MP4 and MOV go straight in. The sound is read and the picture is left alone.
- Export SRT or VTT subtitles with timestamps, one line per sentence, or the text as Markdown.
- Speech in any language your voice model covers, not only U.S. English.
- A two-hour recording took about three and a half minutes at the Clean formatting level in our tests.
- From a script:
flit transcribe talk.mp4 --srt --out ~/Subtitles. - Flit is free for 7 days with every feature on, then $19 once, with no account and no subscription.
Good to know
- Flit makes the subtitle file. It does not edit video or burn the subtitles into the picture, as Final Cut Pro can.
- Flit does not say who said what. A transcript is one flow of text in paragraphs. Speaker labels are planned.
- Which languages a recording can be in depends on the voice model you choose: Parakeet Ultra covers 25 European languages, Cohere Transcribe 14, Qwen3-ASR 30, Whisper 99 and Omnilingual more than 1,600, with accuracy that varies by language.
- Flit runs on a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 14 or later, and its voice model is a download of about 0.5 to 2.8 GB that you choose once.
Questions people ask
How do I make SRT subtitles from a video on a Mac?
In Final Cut Pro, choose Edit → Generate Captions → Closed Captions, convert the captions to SRT, then File → Export Closed Captions. Without Final Cut Pro, Whisper in Terminal or a transcription app can write the SRT file.
Can iMovie make subtitles automatically?
No. Apple’s iMovie guide has no captioning or subtitle feature.
Does Final Cut Pro generate captions in other languages?
Apple says Generate Captions is available in U.S. English only, on a Mac with Apple silicon.
What is the difference between SRT and VTT?
Both are text files of lines with start and end times. SRT and VTT are the two common formats, and VTT is the one web video players read. Final Cut Pro’s generated captions start as a third format, iTT.
Can I make subtitles on a Mac for free?
Yes, with the open Whisper model in Terminal, which writes SRT and VTT files after a short install.
Is there an app that makes subtitles from a video on a Mac?
Flit is a local dictation app for Mac with a Transcribe tab: drop a video on it and export SRT or VTT subtitles, on the Mac. Flit is free for 7 days with every feature on, then $19 once, with no account and no subscription.