VideoPress generates a subtitle track automatically for each video you upload — that is WordPress.com's own wording, and it changes how you should approach captions on a VideoPress video. Before you write a single caption file, there may already be a track sitting on the video.
This walks through what that automatic track actually does, why it can look empty right after an upload, what happens to it when you edit it, and how to stop VideoPress from generating one for future uploads. You need a WordPress.com site on a plan where VideoPress is available, and a video file.
Before you start
VideoPress is not on every plan. WordPress.com's VideoPress page states: "This feature is available on sites with the WordPress.com Business and Commerce plans. For free sites and sites on the Personal and Premium plans, upgrade your plan to access this feature." If you are on a lower plan, none of the automatic-subtitle behaviour below applies to you yet.
This is a WordPress.com feature, not a core WordPress one. The documentation for the self-hosted Video block describes only text tracks you add yourself, and says: "The tracks are formatted in WebVTT format (.vtt files or Web Video Text Tracks)." There is no automatic generation described on that side.
A few specs worth knowing before the upload:
- Maximum upload size is 6 GB, per the VideoPress page.
- Supported input formats are listed as "including" MP4 (.mp4, .m4v), QuickTime (.mov), Windows Media Video (.wmv), AVI (.avi), MPEG (.mpg), Ogg (.ogv), 3GPP (.3gp) and 3GPP2 (.3g2). That "including" matters — it is not presented as a closed whitelist.
- VideoPress re-encodes what you send it. In WordPress.com's words: "When you upload a video, VideoPress automatically converts it to MP4 format using H.264 video and AAC audio compression."
- Very long videos are treated differently on the picture side: "Videos longer than three hours are converted to standard resolution and will not be available in higher-resolution formats." The documentation does not say what "standard resolution" works out to, so do not assume a number.
Step 1: Upload the video through the editor
Uploading through the WordPress editor is enough to put the file on the VideoPress path — WordPress.com says: "When you upload a video through the WordPress editor, it is automatically converted into a VideoPress file for maximum compatibility."
If the upload dies partway, one detail takes the pressure off retrying: "Failed attempts don't count against your storage space limit." The same page attributes failed uploads to a "slow or unreliable internet connection" and suggests trying at a different time of day or from a faster connection. If your source file is simply enormous, see WordPress video file too large to upload first.
Step 2: Wait — the track is not ready when the upload is
This is the step people skip, and it produces the single most common false alarm.
WordPress.com is explicit: "Subtitles are not ready as soon as the video finishes uploading. If the track opens with a single empty subtitle instead of the transcript, transcription is still running, so check again later."
So a track containing one empty subtitle is not a failure — it is the placeholder you get while transcription is still working. How long it takes, and which languages are handled, are not stated in the documentation; check the official documentation rather than assuming.
Step 3: Open the track and check what is already there
Because generation happens on every upload, WordPress.com notes that "a video may already carry a track before you add one of your own." Open the video's subtitles before you create anything, or you will end up with two tracks doing the same job for no reason.
Step 4: Understand what editing does — it does not overwrite
Here is the behaviour that surprises people most, stated plainly by WordPress.com: "VideoPress publishes your edits as a separate track and leaves the auto-generated track in place."
Read that carefully. Correcting the machine transcript does not replace it. You end up with two tracks: the original auto-generated one and your corrected one. If you do not want viewers to be offered both, the auto-generated track has to be dealt with on its own — the editing flow will not remove it for you.
Step 5: Or upload your own subtitle file
If you already have a caption file — from your editing software, or written by hand — VideoPress accepts a notably wide range of them: "The most common subtitle file formats are .vtt and .srt, and these formats are also accepted: .sbv, .sub, .mpsub, .lrc, .smi, .sami, .rt, .ttml, and .dfxp."
That list is much longer than WordPress.com's general Media Library list, which names only ".vtt (text captions for video)" under video file types. Which formats you can use depends on which door you walk through: the VideoPress subtitle uploader names eleven formats, the Media Library list names one, and the self-hosted Video block documentation specifies WebVTT.
So if a file will not go where you are trying to put it, format conversion is usually the answer — and it is a conversion of a small text file, not a re-encode of your video:
Try it right here
Runs in your browser. Your file is not uploaded anywhere.
This runs in your browser tab; the caption file is never uploaded anywhere. Going the other direction — SRT into WebVTT, which is the format the self-hosted Video block documentation specifies — use SRT to VTT instead. If you are unsure which format you are even holding, subtitle formats compared lays out the differences.
Chapters follow the same uploaded-file-wins pattern. WordPress.com's chapters documentation says: "If you upload your own chapters file as a text track, VideoPress uses that file and the chapters editor becomes read-only. Remove the uploaded file to edit chapters in the chapters editor again." Chapters also have to clear a checklist before the player shows them — the first chapter starts at 00:00, the video has at least three chapters, every chapter has a title, chapters run in order at least 10 seconds apart with no repeated timestamps, and every chapter starts before the video ends. Ones that fail the checklist are still saved, and appear once corrected.
Step 6: Turn automatic generation off for new uploads
VideoPress has a switch for this. The setting is named "Automatically generate subtitles for new videos", and WordPress.com describes turning it off as a short sequence of steps — follow those steps in the official documentation, since the exact path through the interface is what they spell out.
One consequence is worth stating loudly, because it is the thing people get wrong: "Turning the setting off does not affect subtitles on videos you already uploaded." The switch is forward-looking only. Videos already in your library keep the tracks they were given.
Common mistakes
- Assuming an empty track means transcription failed. A single empty subtitle means it is still running. Check again later.
- Editing the transcript and expecting one clean track. Your edits publish as a separate track; the auto-generated one stays.
- Flipping the setting off to clean up existing videos. It only affects new uploads.
- Expecting burned-in captions. WordPress's documented captions are text tracks the player displays — the documentation describes no feature that renders subtitles into the picture itself. If you need them permanently in the frame, that has to happen before upload.
- Testing on the wrong plan. VideoPress is documented as a Business and Commerce plan feature; the automatic track will not appear on plans below that.
FAQ
Does VideoPress create subtitles automatically? Yes. WordPress.com states that "VideoPress generates a subtitle track automatically for each video you upload," so a video may already carry a track before you add one of your own.
Why are my VideoPress subtitles empty? Because transcription is probably still running. The documentation says that if the track opens with a single empty subtitle instead of the transcript, you should check again later.
If I edit the automatic subtitles, does the original go away? No. VideoPress "publishes your edits as a separate track and leaves the auto-generated track in place," so both exist afterwards.
How do I stop VideoPress generating subtitles? Turn off the setting named "Automatically generate subtitles for new videos," following the steps in WordPress.com's documentation. It applies to new uploads only — it does not affect subtitles on videos you already uploaded.
Which subtitle file formats can I upload to VideoPress? The documentation names .vtt and .srt as the most common, and also accepts .sbv, .sub, .mpsub, .lrc, .smi, .sami, .rt, .ttml and .dfxp.
How accurate are the automatic subtitles, and which languages work? Not stated. WordPress.com's subtitles page does not publish accuracy figures, language coverage or processing times — check the official documentation for anything current on that.
More step-by-step guides live in the how-to hub, and every browser-based converter, including VTT to SRT, is listed under all Clapr tools.
Behaviour cited from WordPress.com's VideoPress subtitles and captions documentation and the WordPress Video block documentation, checked 16 September 2026. Verify against the official pages before relying on them.
