Remove Timestamps from Subtitles

What this does

Subtitle files are awkward to read and impossible to paste into a document. This tool keeps only the spoken text, dropping timestamps, cue numbers and formatting so you get a transcript you can actually use.

How to use it

1. Paste or drop your .srt or .vtt file.
2. Choose whether to merge consecutive duplicate lines — captioners often repeat a line across two cues.
3. Copy the plain-text transcript.

When you should keep the timestamps

A plain transcript is easier to read, but the timing is often the part you need later. Before stripping it, check whether the text will be used for subtitling (timing required), interview analysis (timecodes let you jump back into the recording), accessibility documentation (reviewers routinely ask for a timecoded transcript) or quotation with citation (a timecode is the citation).

If any of those apply, keep the original .srt or .vtt as the master file and treat the plain text as a derived copy. Keeping both costs nothing, and re-deriving the transcript later is one click.

Worked example

1
00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:04,000
Hello there.

2
00:00:04,200 --> 00:00:07,000
Hello there.

3
00:00:07,400 --> 00:00:10,000
How are you?

Hello there.
How are you?

Timestamps and cue numbers are gone, and the repeated line from cue 2 is merged because Merge repeated lines is on. Turn it off and you get all three lines.

FAQ

Troubleshooting

1. Every sentence appears twice in the transcriptTwo-part captions repeat the line across consecutive cues. Enable Merge repeated lines to collapse them.
2. Sound cues such as [Music] are still in the textThis tool removes timing, not noise. Run the file through Clean subtitles with Remove sound cues first, then strip the timestamps.
3. Paragraph breaks are missingEach cue becomes one line of text. Paste into a word processor and replace line breaks with spaces if you want flowing paragraphs.
4. The output is emptyNo cue lines were found. Confirm the file contains --> between timestamps — a plain transcript saved with a .srt extension has nothing to parse.

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