Translate Chinese subtitles to English
Last updated September 2026
Found a video with only Chinese subtitles? You can translate the Chinese .srt or .vtt file into English right in your browser. Chinese is written in characters with no spaces between words; subtitle length is measured in characters, and many releases use full-width punctuation. The tool sends each cue's text to the on-device translation model in desktop Chrome or Edge and writes the English back with the original timing, so the new file stays in sync with the video. The file never leaves your computer.
How to do it
- Get the Chinese subtitle file as .srt or .vtt, and make sure it's saved as UTF-8 (see the tips below if the text looks garbled).
- Open the translator in desktop Chrome 138+ or Edge — the button here presets Chinese → English.
- Drop the file in. If the browser supports language detection, it will confirm the source is Chinese.
- Press Translate. The first run downloads the Chinese–English model once; later files in the same pair start immediately and work offline.
- Download the English subtitle file and load it next to your video (same file name as the video makes most players pick it up automatically).
Tips
- Both Simplified and Traditional sources are understood, but files in GB2312/GBK or Big5 encoding must be converted to UTF-8 first.
- Chengyu (four-character idioms) are the lines most likely to come out literal — review them.
- Machine translation is a strong first draft. For anything you'll publish, have someone fluent in Chinese spot-check names and jokes.
FAQ
Can it read Big5 or GBK subtitle files?
Not directly — the file must be UTF-8. Re-save it as UTF-8 in a text editor (or Subtitle Edit) and then translate.
Is my Chinese subtitle file uploaded anywhere?
No. The file is read and translated inside your browser by its built-in model. Only anonymous usage analytics are collected — never file contents.
Why does it say my browser isn't supported?
The on-device Translator API currently exists only in desktop Google Chrome 138+ and Microsoft Edge. Brave, Opera, Firefox, Safari and all mobile browsers either lack the API or the model.