How to add subtitles to a LinkedIn video
LinkedIn takes an SRT directly — you just have to have one.
LinkedIn is the platform where captions pay off most obviously and are used least. Feed video autoplays muted in an environment where people are often at a desk with other people around, so a video without captions is a video being watched silently with no idea what is being said. LinkedIn does accept a subtitle file on upload, which puts it ahead of Instagram and TikTok — the missing piece is just making the file.
Open the subtitle editor → Generates the SRT from your video on your own machine. Sensitive company footage never leaves it.- 100% freeNo account, no minute quota, no paid tier.
- Nothing is uploadedYour video is read on your device and never reaches a server.
- No catch on the outputNo watermark, no length cap, no locked export formats.
- Updated in the openEvery fix is written down on the changelog page.
Make the file
Drop the finished video into the editor on the home page. Recognition runs on your own machine, which matters more than usual here: internal announcements, customer footage and anything under an NDA are exactly the files that should not be handed to a transcription service to get captioned.
Fix the company names, the job titles and the product vocabulary. Business speech is full of terms a general speech model has no reason to know, and these are also the words a reader is scanning for. Export as SRT.
Attach it when you post
When you create a post with a video, the upload dialog has an option to add a caption file — choose your SRT there before publishing. LinkedIn has historically required the filename to end in .srt and has been fussy about files with unusual encodings; the export here is UTF-8 with standard SRT numbering, which is what it expects.
You can also add or replace the file on an existing post by editing it, though the exact path moves around as LinkedIn redesigns. If the option is not where you remember, deleting and reposting with the file attached is the reliable route — at the cost of losing the engagement on the original.
What to check before posting
Read the first two lines as a stranger would. Feed video gets a second and a half to earn attention, and if the opening line is a mistranscribed name or a sentence with no punctuation, that is the impression.
Watch the line length. LinkedIn's player is small in the feed and text wraps aggressively. Short lines, two at most.
If the video has multiple speakers, consider marking who is talking at the points where it is not obvious from the picture. The subtitle format has no speaker field, but a short prefix at the start of a line is a long-standing convention and readers understand it immediately.
Frequently asked questions
Does LinkedIn accept VTT?
SRT is the format it documents and the one that works reliably. Export SRT.
Can I add captions to a video already posted?
Sometimes, by editing the post. The option moves between redesigns; if it is missing, reposting with the file attached is the dependable route.
Is it safe to caption confidential company video here?
The video is read by the page on your own device and the speech model runs locally. Nothing is uploaded — which is the reason this approach suits material you are not allowed to send to a third party.
Do captions affect reach on LinkedIn?
Indirectly. Muted autoplay means captions determine whether anyone understands the video at all, and watch time follows from that.