Web video

A video subtitle translator extension for watching online

Watch YouTube, X (Twitter) and Bilibili videos with translated or bilingual subtitles in their original players. WatchTranslate is a desktop Chrome extension: it translates usable caption tracks or generates subtitles from audio when a track is unavailable. Choose English or another target subtitle language and explicitly start translation.

Install from the Chrome Web Store

1. Open the Chrome Web Store and click “Add to Chrome”.
2. When switching from ZIP to the Store version, disable the old extension and sign in and configure the Store version again to avoid duplicate subtitles.
3. Pin WatchTranslate to the toolbar, open extension settings and sign in. The website and extension require separate sign-ins.

Install Chrome extension

Checking Chrome Web Store version…

Install ZIP manually

1. Download the extension installation package (ZIP) below and extract it. Keep the extracted folder after installation.
2. Open chrome://extensions/ in desktop Chrome and turn on Developer mode.
3. If you already have the Store version, turn it off on the same page first so videos don’t show two sets of subtitles. Once the Store version updates, you can remove the ZIP version and turn the Store version back on.
4. Click Load unpacked and select the extracted folder containing manifest.json, not the ZIP file.
5. Pin WatchTranslate to the toolbar. Open the extension settings and sign in to WatchTranslate. A website login does not replace signing in to the extension.
6. To update a manual installation, replace the files in the same extracted folder, click Reload on the WatchTranslate card at chrome://extensions/, and check the version shown on that card.

Download latest ZIP (manual installation)

Checking official ZIP version…

Translate captions or generate subtitles from audio

1. Open the video on its original website. Local files use the separate local player.
2. Select the subtitle source and target language in the current video settings. Audio source language defaults to automatic detection and can be set manually.
3. Click the WatchTranslate control in the player and explicitly start translation, then play the video.
4. Choose original, translated or bilingual subtitles and adjust their size and position.

Existing subtitle tracks cost 0.2 credits per minute to translate; audio recognition costs 1 credit per minute, including no-speech results. Failed windows are not charged. Signup includes one-time credits; further use is paid.

Platform and device limits

YouTube and X support caption translation and audio recognition. On Bilibili, regular videos, av-number links, playlist and event pages, and anime or film episodes you can play are supported; courses and special players are not. Reading Bilibili native captions also requires signing in on Bilibili itself. Bilibili also supports full-video preparation.

For live streams, choose Live translation (beta) in the extension. Apply for the beta at watchtranslate.com/live first. This extension is for desktop browsers; use the local player for local files on a phone. Speech recognition and translation can contain errors.

FAQ