What Resolve accepts
The Resolve 21 manual says Resolve supports subtitle files in several formats, such as .srt, .srtx, .vtt, .xml and .ttml. Checked against the DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual (July 2026) on October 7, 2026.
In the Media Pool, compatible subtitle files show as a blank clip icon with a subtitle icon. You can add them by dragging them in, by importing from the contextual menu, or by any method you use for video clips. A subtitle file can be relinked in the Media Pool like a video clip. The manual’s import section starts from the Media Pool and does not give a File menu path.
After the import, select the header of the subtitle track and open the Captions panel in the Inspector to see every subtitle clip on the track, with Prev and Next buttons.
Make the SRT
Drop your audio or video file on the time coded transcript generator. It accepts MP3, WAV, M4A, MP4, MOV and other formats up to 3 hours. The first 10 minutes of up to 3 files a day are free without sign-up. Longer files use minutes from a pack.
Download the transcript as SRT. Each cue has at most two lines of 42 characters and lasts at most 7 seconds, and cues never overlap. Long sentences are split after a comma where there is one. Times are written in milliseconds. Resolve also lists .vtt, so the VTT download works too; SRT vs VTT explains the difference.
Automatic transcripts contain mistakes. Check names, numbers and quotes against the recording, and correct a line by clicking it before you download.
Match the timeline timecode
The manual describes two ways to put a subtitle clip on the timeline.
Option A, by timecode. Right-click the subtitle clip and select Insert Selected Subtitles to Timeline Using Timecode. The clip breaks into individual subtitles on the subtitle track, and each subtitle is aligned with the timeline’s timecode.
Because this option follows timecode, the times in the SRT need to carry the timeline’s start timecode. A camera file or an edit sequence rarely starts at zero. If your timeline starts at 01:00:00:00, set Start at to 01:00:00:00 in the tool (a paid setting) before you download the SRT. If your timeline starts at 00:00:00:00, no start timecode is needed. The manual does not describe the Start at setting, so look at the first subtitle after you insert it.
Option B, by hand. Use this when the file does not match the timeline’s timecode. Drag the imported subtitle file into the unused gray area at the top of the video tracks, which creates a subtitle track, or drag it into an existing subtitle track. The clip is broken into subtitles as you drag, with the timing offset from the first frame of the first subtitle in the file. Drop the subtitles where the first frame of the program they belong to starts. If they land in the wrong place, select all of them and slide them earlier or later, like any other clips.
A new subtitle track can be renamed to show its language and country. The manual says Resolve uses track names when exporting or encoding subtitles, so name tracks before you deliver.
Other editors
The same SRT file imports into Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro. See time coded transcript examples for what the file contains.