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Integration guide

Kapwing — Add WebVTT captions to a browser timeline

Kapwing reads WebVTT natively — drag one onto the timeline and it becomes a styleable subtitle track. The one catch is overlapping cues, which it drops without telling you.

Kapwing web editor · accepts .vtt natively · no plugin needed

Three steps

  1. Start from lyrics you already have

    Already have a file? Convert it with LRC → VTT or SRT → VTT. Starting from scratch? Generate timed lyrics first with the AI LRC Generator.

  2. Upload to Kapwing

    Open your Kapwing project and drag the .vtt onto the timeline. Kapwing attaches it to the video layer as a subtitle track you can restyle.

  3. Validate before export

    Run the file through the VTT validator first — Kapwing silently drops cues whose time ranges overlap, so a bad file looks like missing lyrics rather than an error.

What you end up with

What lands in Kapwing — WebVTT, note the '.' decimal separator

WEBVTT

00:00:12.340 --> 00:00:15.120
Every night in my dreams

00:00:15.400 --> 00:00:18.900
I see you, I feel you

When it goes wrong

Some lines never appear on the timeline.

Overlapping cues are the usual cause — Kapwing drops them without warning. The VTT validator flags every overlap and tells you which lines collide.

Is VTT different from SRT?

Only slightly, but the differences matter: VTT needs the WEBVTT header line, uses a dot rather than a comma for milliseconds, and drops the numeric cue index. The converter handles all three.

Can I restyle the captions afterwards?

Yes. Once the track is on the timeline, Kapwing's own subtitle styling controls apply — the file only carries text and timing.

Using a different editor?