"Export captions" isn't one format — it's a choice between a few genuinely different approaches, and picking the wrong one for the platform is a common, avoidable mistake. Here's what each actually is.
SRT — SubRip Subtitle
A plain text file listing timecodes and lines: 00:00:01,200 --> 00:00:03,400 followed by the caption text. It's the oldest, most universally supported subtitle format — nearly every video platform, editor, and player can read one.
Use it when: you're uploading to YouTube, Vimeo, or any platform with a separate "add captions" upload step, or handing the file to an editor to burn in manually later.
VTT — WebVTT
Functionally similar to SRT, but built for the web — it's the format HTML5 `<track>` elements expect, and it supports some styling SRT doesn't (positioning, basic formatting).
Use it when: you're embedding video on your own website or app and want native, toggleable captions rather than text baked into the picture.
Burned-in captions
Not a file at all — the caption text is rendered directly into the video's pixels, permanently. There's no toggle; the captions are the video.
Use it when: you're posting to Instagram Reels, TikTok, or YouTube Shorts. None of these platforms reliably support uploading a separate subtitle file for organic posts, and the entire point of an animated, styled caption — the thing that actually holds attention on mute — only works burned in. A subtitle file can't carry kinetic timing or style; burned-in is the only way to ship that.
The trade-off that actually matters
SRT and VTT are flexible — swap languages, let the viewer turn captions off, edit them after the fact without re-touching the video. Burned-in is committed — but it's also the only option that guarantees every viewer sees exactly the caption you designed, styled the way you designed it, on platforms that don't respect subtitle files anyway.
In practice, most short-form creators want both: a burned-in MP4 for the platforms that need it, and a clean SRT or VTT alongside it for archival, translation, or repurposing to a platform that does support subtitle files. See how to add captions to Instagram Reels for the full workflow.
What about translated versions?
If you're publishing the same clip for multiple language audiences, subtitle files make that trivial — one video, several SRT/VTT files. Burned-in requires a separate render per language, since the text is part of the picture. If reaching multiple language audiences from one clip matters to you, keep a subtitle-file version around even if your primary export is burned in.
Export both, in one pass
Burned-in MP4 and clean SRT/VTT/TXT from the same captioned clip — no re-work.
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