Instagram Reel to SRT subtitles
An .srt file is numbered cues with comma-separated timecodes. This page explains the format, then hands your link to the tool that writes one.
Step 1 — InstaScribe takes it from here
Or go straight to InstaScribe and paste the link there.
The numbers, and where each one came from
| Spec | Value | Where this comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Cue numbering | sequential integers from 1Each cue opens with its own number on its own line. | DerivedshotMod |
| Timecode format | HH:MM:SS,mmm --> HH:MM:SS,mmmA comma before the milliseconds. WebVTT uses a dot; swapping them is why a file silently fails to load. | DerivedshotMod |
| Encoding | UTF-8Anything else mangles accents and non-Latin scripts in players that assume UTF-8. | DerivedshotMod |
| Longest cue range | 90 secondsBounded by Meta's own Reel duration ceiling, so an .srt from a Reel is always short. | OfficialMeta for Developers |
| Also available | VTT, TXT, JSONThe same transcript exported in three other shapes by InstaScribe. | MeasuredshotMod |
Last verified 2026-09-05 · 4 sources
- Reels publishing — recommended video specification (9 x 16, 1080 × 1920, 3–90 s, 24–60 fps, H.264/H.265, AAC LC 48 kHz) — Meta for Developers
- Behaviour of the shipped in-browser export path, measured on the shotMod build dated 2026-09-05 — the tool doing it is the one mounted above — shotMod
- Derived arithmetically from the ratio and width in the cited Meta specification — no independent claim is made — shotMod
- Community consensus, not an Instagram document — Instagram publishes no current page stating this value, and help.instagram.com serves article bodies only to JavaScript, so no Help Center article can honestly be cited for it (checked 2026-09-05) — shotMod
What this actually means
SubRip — .srt — is the plainest subtitle format in use, and its plainness is why every editor and player accepts it. A cue is four lines: a number, a start and end time separated by an arrow, the text, and a blank line. You can open one in a text editor and fix a typo without any tooling at all, which is more than can be said for most media formats.
That simplicity has one sharp edge, and it is the reason this page exists separately from the plain-text one. The milliseconds are preceded by a comma, not a full stop. WebVTT, which looks almost identical, uses a full stop. Files with the wrong separator do not raise an error; they load as zero cues, and the video plays with no subtitles and no explanation.
What goes wrong
Cue length is what separates a usable subtitle file from a transcript with timestamps stapled to it. A machine transcript happily produces a twenty-word cue that flashes past in two seconds; a person cannot read that. Aim for roughly one short line per second of speech, split at natural clause boundaries, and expect to do that editing yourself — no automatic system gets it right for you.
A byte-order mark is the other way a perfectly good file gets rejected. Some editors on Windows save UTF-8 with a leading BOM, and a handful of players read those three invisible bytes as part of the very first cue number, then reject the whole file as malformed. If an .srt refuses to load and looks perfect, save it again as UTF-8 without a BOM before you look for any other cause.
How to do it here, in three steps
- Drop your public Reel link into the box at the top; this page carries no transcriber.
- Press Open in InstaScribe; your link travels across in the address bar as ?u=.
- Run the transcription there and export SRT; check the cue lengths before you publish.
Questions, answered
How do I get an SRT file from an Instagram Reel?
Hand this page a public Reel link and continue to InstaScribe, which opens with it loaded, transcribes it in your browser and exports a real .srt with numbered cues and comma timecodes.
What is the difference between SRT and VTT?
They are nearly the same format, but SRT separates the milliseconds with a comma and WebVTT uses a full stop, and VTT files begin with a WEBVTT header line. Using the wrong separator makes a file load as zero cues rather than raise an error.
Can I edit the subtitles afterwards?
Yes — an .srt is plain text, so any text editor will do. Machine timings are usually right and machine line breaks usually are not, so editing where the cues split is the normal last step.
Public links only — shotMod resolves posts that are already public and never asks for your Instagram login. Only download or convert content you have the rights to.