How to Translate a Video Into Another Language (Subtitles From the Transcript)

What "translating a video" actually means

People use the phrase for three different jobs, and they have very different costs.

Subtitles are the practical option for almost everyone. They are fast, cheap, editable, and searchable. Dubbing is a production job: voice recording or voice cloning, timing, mixing. Lip-sync goes further and changes the image. JustTranscribe does the first job only, and does not dub or lip-sync.

• Subtitles or captions: translated text shown on screen, delivered as an SRT or VTT file.
• Voice-over or dubbing: a new audio track in the target language, replacing or layered over the original.
• Lip-sync video: the speaker's mouth is altered to match the new audio.
• Text repurposing: the translated transcript becomes a blog post, description, or newsletter.

Why you start with a transcript, not with the video file

Machine translation works on text. So the first step is always to turn speech into text. A good transcript is not just words: it carries timestamps, which is what turns text into subtitles that appear at the right moment.

Word-level timestamps matter here. When the timing is per word rather than per paragraph, subtitle lines can be cut at natural places without drifting out of sync. That is the difference between subtitles people can read and subtitles people switch off.

A transcript also gives you something reusable. Once the words exist as text, you can translate them many times, search them, quote them, or hand them to a human reviewer for a final check.

Doing it with JustTranscribe

JustTranscribe is a web app at justtranscribe.ai built for exactly this flow. You paste a public link (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, a public Google Drive file) or upload a file yourself: MP3, M4A, WAV, OGG or OPUS including WhatsApp voice notes, MP4, MOV, up to 500 MB. The spoken language is detected automatically, so you do not need to tell it whether the video is in Spanish, English, or something else.

The first transcript is free and needs no account, up to 40 minutes of material. If you register, files and videos can be up to 150 minutes. Processing takes minutes, not hours.

When the transcript is ready you get clickable segments with word-level timestamps, so you can jump straight to any line in the audio and check it. From there you translate the transcript into any of 111 languages and export what you need: SRT or VTT for subtitles, TXT or DOCX or PDF or Markdown for text, CSV for spreadsheets. Speaker labels are available on request when several people talk. There is also a share link if a colleague or client needs to review the text.

The AI analysis is useful in the same pass: a summary, the main idea, key moments, scene breakdown, and a hook with a timestamp. You can also ask the video questions and get answers with timestamps. That helps when you are writing a localised title or description for the new audience. The service is in free beta.

Two limits worth knowing: it cannot fetch private or login-only videos, and it does not do live or real-time transcription. You need a public link or a file.

Honest alternatives and their real limits

You do not always need a tool. Some platforms already offer something, and it is fair to know where those options stop.

YouTube generates automatic captions in the original language and can machine-translate them for viewers. This is free and instant. The limits: quality varies with audio conditions, you have limited control over line breaks and timing, and the translation lives inside YouTube. You cannot easily take it to Instagram, a website, or a client deliverable.

Instagram and TikTok add auto-captions in the original language, and TikTok offers translated captions in some cases. Again, it is convenient but locked to the app, hard to edit line by line, and not exportable as a file you own.

Video editors such as CapCut or Premiere Pro can burn subtitles into the picture. Burned-in text always shows, which is good for silent autoplay feeds, but you cannot switch it off, search it, or add a second language without re-exporting the video.

Free native tools exist too. You can run a transcription model locally if you are comfortable with the command line, then paste the text into a translation service. It costs nothing but your time, and you handle the subtitle timing and file formatting yourself.

A dedicated transcription and translation tool earns its place when you need a file you can reuse: several languages, several platforms, editable timing, and a text version for publishing.

• Platform auto-captions: free, but locked in and hard to edit or export.
• Burned-in subtitles: always visible, not switchable, one language per export.
• Local open-source models: free, but you do the timing and formatting work.
• Transcript-based workflow: one transcript, many languages, real files.

Making translated subtitles read well

Machine translation gets you most of the way. A short review pass gets you the rest, and it usually takes a fraction of the time the transcript took to produce.

Check names, brands, and numbers first; those are where errors hurt most. Then read the lines as a viewer would: two lines maximum, short enough to read before they disappear. Some languages expand when translated, so a line that fit in English may run long in Spanish or German. Splitting one long line into two short ones fixes almost all of these cases.

If the video has several speakers, ask for speaker labels before exporting. In an interview or podcast, labels stop the translated text from turning into one undifferentiated block.

Where to use the translated text beyond subtitles

A translated transcript is worth more than a subtitle track. It is content in a second language that you already paid for once.

Publish it as an article or a summary post. Use it for a translated video description, which helps people find the video through search in their own language. Send it as a recap to a team or client who speaks another language. Feed a section of it into a social post with the quoted hook and its timestamp.

This is why exporting to several formats is practical: SRT and VTT for players, DOCX or PDF for documents, Markdown for a website, CSV when you want each segment in its own row.

When you genuinely need dubbing instead

Subtitles are not always enough. If your audience watches on TV, if viewers are driving or cooking, or if the video is training material for people who read slowly in the target language, audio wins.

In that case, use the translated transcript as the script. A voice actor or a text-to-speech service reads it; a video editor times the new audio to the original. The translated transcript with timestamps is exactly what that person needs to start, so the work you did for subtitles is not wasted.

Step by step

1. 1

   Open justtranscribe.ai and add your video

   Go to justtranscribe.ai in your browser. Paste the public link to the video (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, or a public Google Drive file), or upload a file from your device: MP3, M4A, WAV, OGG or OPUS, MP4 or MOV, up to 500 MB. No account is needed for your first transcript, up to 40 minutes.

2. 2

   Let the transcript process

   Start the transcription. The spoken language is detected automatically, so there is nothing to select. Processing takes minutes, not hours. When it finishes you see the transcript in clickable segments with word-level timestamps.

3. 3

   Check the original transcript

   Click a few segments to jump to that point in the audio and confirm the words match. Pay attention to names and numbers. Fixing errors here means you fix them in every translation later, instead of once per language.

4. 4

   Request speaker labels if there is more than one voice

   For interviews, podcasts, or panel discussions, turn on speaker labels. The transcript is then split by speaker, which keeps the translated version readable.

5. 5

   Translate the transcript into your target language

   Choose the translation option and pick from 111 languages. The translated version keeps the segment timing, so it stays usable as subtitles. Repeat for each additional language you need.

6. 6

   Export SRT or VTT for subtitles

   Export the translated transcript as SRT or VTT. These are plain subtitle files that any player and every major platform accepts. If you want the text instead of subtitles, export TXT, DOCX, PDF, Markdown, or CSV.

7. 7

   Upload the subtitle file to the platform

   In YouTube Studio open the video, go to Subtitles, add a language and upload the file. On Vimeo use the video settings and the captions tab. On a website, attach the VTT file to your video player. In a video editor, import the SRT to burn the text into the picture.

8. 8

   Watch it back once before publishing

   Play the video with the new subtitles switched on. Look for lines that appear too late, lines that are too long to read, and any place where a sentence is cut awkwardly. Adjust in the transcript, export again, and re-upload.

Frequently asked questions