Generate subtitles from a recording

Before you start

• You need a recording with speech: a video or audio file in a format listed under File support.

• You need an account. AI Operations are not available without one.

• This task uses credits. The generate page shows how many the operation requires before you start it. If your balance is too low, buy credits under Billing in the settings.

• Your recording stays on your device. SubFT prepares its audio in your browser and uploads that audio for transcription, so the tab has to stay open until the upload has finished.

Create the subtitles

1. Create a project from your recording

   Sign in, open Projects and select New Project. Select Add files, choose the recording and select Create project.

   The project opens and lists the recording with its duration.

2. Open the generate page

   Select Open media on the recording, then Add subtitles. Under Generate with AI, select Open AI tools.

   The page Generate Subtitles opens for this recording.

3. Choose the subtitle language

   Set Subtitle language to the language the subtitles should be in. For subtitles in the spoken language, choose that language. If you choose another one, the operation transcribes the speech first and then translates it.

   Under Source, SubFT has already selected the audio of the recording. Leave it as it is.

4. Check the credits and start

   Job Plan lists the action, the result and the credits: Required and Available. The button at the end repeats the required credits. Select it to start the operation.

   If the button is disabled because credits are missing, select Add credits. Your settings on this page are kept while you buy credits.

5. Keep the tab open until the upload has finished

   The operation page opens and shows the stages of the work. While it reads Keep this tab open, you can move to other pages of SubFT, but do not reload or close the tab.

   When it reads You can leave this page, the rest runs on the server. You can close the tab; a notification tells you when the result is ready.

6. Result

   The operation page reads Completed and lists the subtitle it created. The subtitles are saved in the project as an editable subtitle asset, and the page offers Open editor and Export subtitles.

Check the result

Select Open editor and play the recording. The cues follow the speech. Correct names and terms the transcription got wrong, as described in Edit and export existing subtitles.

The subtitles exist in the project, not yet as a file. To get a file, select Export in the editor or Export subtitles on the operation page.

You find the operation again under AI Operations, with the credits it was charged.

If something goes wrong

You closed the tab during the upload. Open the operation under AI Operations. It tells you what it still needs from you before it can continue.

The operation ends without subtitles. The operation page states the reason and returns the credits for work that was not done. A finished operation is not changed afterwards: to try again, start a new operation, which gets its own estimate.

You want to stop a running operation. Select Cancel operation on the operation page. Subtitles that were already finished stay in the project.