The web video has no subtitle track — or not the language I want. What now?
On YouTube, X and other video sites you hit two very different situations: the video has no subtitle track at all, or it has subtitles but not in your language. These need different solutions — and knowing which one you're in saves time and money.
Case 1: no subtitle track → transcribe the audio first
With no track, there's nothing to translate. You first have to turn speech into text, then translate it.
After installing the extension, open the video. It reads the audio, detects the speech, generates subtitles and translates them — shown right on the player. No need to download the video or upload a file.
Case 2: a track exists, wrong language → translate it directly
If the video already has subtitles (official or CC), the extension grabs that track and translates it into your target language. This path is faster and cheaper, because there's no speech recognition to redo.
How to install and use it
- Install the WatchTranslate browser extension (desktop Chrome).
- Open a video on YouTube or X.
- Pick your subtitle language in the settings (e.g. English).
- For audio recognition: Source language defaults to automatic detection; you can also set it manually. Choose the source and languages, then explicitly start translation. Play the video — subtitles are translated and overlaid automatically.
Subtitles are available in 74 languages: 中文, English, 日本語, 한국어, Español, Français, Deutsch, Português, Русский, العربية, हिन्दी and Bahasa Indonesia. For audio recognition: Source language defaults to automatic detection; you can also set it manually. Choose the source and languages, then explicitly start translation.
What it does and doesn't do
- Supported hosts: YouTube / X / Bilibili / Pornhub / MissAV (ordinary videos only); no live streams.
- Generates and translates subtitles when there's no track
- Translates the original track directly when one exists
- Failed runs don't consume free credits
- The extension is desktop-only — it can't be installed on mobile browsers
- No live streams
FAQ
Do I need to set anything up?
Just the Chrome extension. No API key, no extra accounts.
Is the video uploaded?
Not as a whole file. With an existing track, only the subtitle text is processed; without one, audio is read in ~30-second chunks.
How is this different from the platform's built-in translation?
Platform translation generally requires the video to already have subtitles (uploaded or auto-generated) and usually gives you only the translation. This tool can generate subtitles from audio even when there's no track, and lets you switch between original, translation, or bilingual display.
Does it cost anything?
Signup includes one-time free credits. After that it's usage-based: translating an existing track is about 0.2 credits per minute, generating from audio about 1 credit per minute.