How do I add Arabic subtitles to a video?

Drop the video into the top box, choose your .srt, .vtt or .ass file under Subtitle file, check the preview of the first lines, pick a font, size and position, and press Add Arabic subtitles. You download one MP4 with the subtitles in it.

Why do my Arabic subtitles show as boxes or backwards letters?

Boxes mean the text renderer had no font with Arabic letters. Letters that appear separated or in the wrong order are a sign that the text was not shaped and ordered as right-to-left. This tool loads an Arabic font and marks each Arabic line right to left. If the preview shows strange symbols, the file is probably saved in an older encoding: choose Windows-1256 in the encoding setting.

Does it work for Persian and Urdu as well as Arabic?

Yes for the letters. Both Noto Arabic fonts include the extra Persian and Urdu letters we checked, such as پ چ ژ گ and ٹ ڈ ے, and the same right-to-left drawing applies; a Persian line and an Urdu line were burned in and checked in our tests. The fonts are not in the Nastaliq style that Urdu is often printed in, so the shapes look like Naskh or Sans Arabic.

Will English words and numbers inside an Arabic line come out right?

In our tests, yes: an English word, a name such as YouTube, and a number such as 1,200 inside an Arabic line came out in the right order, with the Arabic words still reading right to left. Quotation marks, brackets and similar punctuation are drawn with the English font by design, but we did not check those in a burned-in frame, so look at the result. The Arabic parts of a line are drawn a quarter larger than the English parts.

Which subtitle formats and encodings can I use?

SRT, WebVTT (.vtt) and ASS (.ass) files; the file picker also accepts .ssa, but only .ass was tested. The text may be saved as UTF-8 or as the older Windows-1256 encoding. A WebVTT file is read as text and burned in like an SRT, so its position settings are not used. To change one format into another first, use the SRT to VTT converter.

Can I make the text right-aligned instead of centred?

Yes. Text alignment offers centred, the usual choice for subtitles, or right-aligned, which puts the lines against the right edge. You can also set the size, colour, position and a dark box behind the text. These apply to burned-in text only.

What is the difference between burned in and a selectable track?

Burned-in subtitles are drawn into the picture, so they show everywhere and cannot be turned off, and this tool controls the font and direction. A selectable track is a separate stream that the player draws with its own fonts, so the result depends on the player, and some players ignore it.

Is my video uploaded, and is it free?

Your video and subtitle file are not uploaded. They are processed in your browser with a WebAssembly build of FFmpeg. Only the video engine (about 31 MB, kept in the browser after the first time) and the font files are downloaded, the engine from a public content delivery network and the fonts from this site. It is free, with no watermark and no account. Very large files can fail: the page warns about files over about 2 GB, which the in-browser engine cannot read reliably.

Add Arabic Subtitles to Video: Right-to-Left, Free

Burn Arabic, Persian or Urdu subtitles into a video, joined and drawn right to left with a real Arabic font. Free, in your browser, no upload.

Last updated: 15 October 2026

Drop a file here or click to browseMP4, MOV, WebM, MKV, AVI — the video to add Arabic subtitles to🔒 Processed on your device — never uploaded

Subtitle file(required)

SRT, WebVTT or ASS, in Arabic, Persian or Urdu. Lines in English or numbers inside the Arabic text are fine.

How to add them

Burned-in text is drawn right to left with the Arabic font below. A selectable track stores the text and lets the player draw it.

Arabic font (burned in)

Text size (burned in)

Text colour (burned in)

Position (burned in)

Text alignment (burned in)

Centred is the usual choice for subtitles. Right-aligned puts the text against the right edge.

Dark box behind the text (burned in)

Easier to read over busy pictures.

How the subtitle file is saved

If the Arabic in the preview shows as strange symbols, choose the other encoding.

Language of the track (selectable track)

Was this tool useful?

Use the tool above and you can rate it here.

Put Arabic subtitles on your video, in the right direction

Choose a video and an Arabic subtitle file (SRT, WebVTT or ASS), and download one MP4 with the text drawn into the picture: letters joined the way Arabic is written, lines running right to left, and English words or numbers inside an Arabic line kept in their right place. Persian and Urdu files work the same way. It all happens in your browser, so the video and the subtitle file are not uploaded.

Why Arabic subtitles often come out as empty boxes

Burned-in subtitles are drawn by a text renderer inside the video engine, and the renderer draws only with the font files it is given. The font used for English subtitles, Geist, has no Arabic letters, so Arabic text drawn with it shows as empty boxes. This tool gives the renderer an Arabic font, Noto Naskh Arabic (155 KB) or Noto Sans Arabic (139 KB), and only when your subtitle file contains Arabic letters: a file without them does not download it. The renderer then shapes the letters (joining them into words) and puts the words in right-to-left order. Both fonts are published under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 and are used unmodified.

English words, numbers and punctuation inside Arabic lines

Arabic subtitles often hold a brand name, a number or a quoted English phrase. The renderer does not switch fonts by itself for a character the Arabic font lacks, so this tool does it for you: Arabic letters are drawn with the Arabic font and everything the Arabic font has no glyph for, such as English letters, brackets, quotation marks and the percent sign, is drawn with the Latin font that English subtitles use. It also marks each Arabic line as right to left, so that a line mixing Arabic and English keeps its parts in the right order. A line with no Arabic letters in it gets neither the Arabic font nor that mark.

Font, size, colour, position and alignment

Choose the traditional Naskh style or the plainer Sans style. Set the text small, medium or large, white, yellow or cyan, at the bottom, middle or top of the picture, centred or right-aligned, with or without a dark box behind it. For SRT and WebVTT files the size is relative to the height of the video, so the same setting looks the same on a small clip and on a full HD one; ASS files were only tested with a standard 384 by 288 script size, so check the result if yours uses another. Arabic text is drawn a quarter larger than English text at the same setting, because in our tests the Arabic fonts came out smaller than English at the same font size.

Older Arabic files and how the file is saved

Many Arabic subtitle files downloaded from older sites are saved in the Windows-1256 encoding, not UTF-8, and open as strange symbols. The tool reads a file as UTF-8 first; if that fails and at least 30% of the letters in the Windows-1256 reading are Arabic, it uses that reading and tells you, and a file that is neither is read as Windows-1252. If the Arabic in the preview looks wrong, choose the encoding yourself. The preview under the video shows the first three subtitles of your file in right-to-left order, drawn by the browser, so you can check the text before you press the button.

Burned in or a selectable track

Burned in means the words become part of the picture and show on every player. A selectable track keeps the subtitles as a separate stream in the MP4, labelled Arabic, Persian, Urdu, English or "another or unknown", so a player can show, hide or switch them; the video player, not this tool, then draws the text, so the font and direction are the player's. Check that the player or site you will use shows embedded tracks. If you need a different format first, use the SRT to VTT converter, and to shrink the result afterwards use the video compressor.

What it does not do

It does not write, transcribe or translate subtitles: you bring the file. It does not shift timing. For SRT and WebVTT files it warns you when the last subtitle ends after the end of the video, or when the video is longer than 20 seconds and the subtitles end before 30% of it; it does not give that warning for ASS files. It ships Arabic-script fonts only, so Hebrew, Greek, Thai, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese and Korean text would still show as boxes in burned-in text; for those use the selectable track in the Add Subtitles to Video tool. The fonts are Naskh and Sans styles: the hanging Nastaliq style often used for Urdu is not included. Burning in re-encodes the picture and the sound, so the result is a new file, not a copy of the original.

Sources and checks

Noto Arabic fonts, source repository (notofonts/arabic on GitHub): The source repository of Noto Naskh Arabic and Noto Sans Arabic (its sources folder holds both). Its OFL.txt is the SIL Open Font License 1.1 text, copyright 2022 The Noto Project Authors, that the fonts used here are under.
Noto Naskh Arabic, built font files (notofonts.github.io on GitHub): Where the built font files come from: the unhinted TrueType Regular files in the NotoNaskhArabic and NotoSansArabic folders (158,580 and 142,140 bytes), the same bytes as the files this tool serves.

Run end to end in Chrome on 15 October 2026: a generated test clip goes in, and the size, length, picture and sound of the downloaded result are inspected.

Frequently asked questions

How do I add Arabic subtitles to a video?: Drop the video into the top box, choose your .srt, .vtt or .ass file under Subtitle file, check the preview of the first lines, pick a font, size and position, and press Add Arabic subtitles. You download one MP4 with the subtitles in it.
Why do my Arabic subtitles show as boxes or backwards letters?: Boxes mean the text renderer had no font with Arabic letters. Letters that appear separated or in the wrong order are a sign that the text was not shaped and ordered as right-to-left. This tool loads an Arabic font and marks each Arabic line right to left. If the preview shows strange symbols, the file is probably saved in an older encoding: choose Windows-1256 in the encoding setting.
Does it work for Persian and Urdu as well as Arabic?: Yes for the letters. Both Noto Arabic fonts include the extra Persian and Urdu letters we checked, such as پ چ ژ گ and ٹ ڈ ے, and the same right-to-left drawing applies; a Persian line and an Urdu line were burned in and checked in our tests. The fonts are not in the Nastaliq style that Urdu is often printed in, so the shapes look like Naskh or Sans Arabic.
Will English words and numbers inside an Arabic line come out right?: In our tests, yes: an English word, a name such as YouTube, and a number such as 1,200 inside an Arabic line came out in the right order, with the Arabic words still reading right to left. Quotation marks, brackets and similar punctuation are drawn with the English font by design, but we did not check those in a burned-in frame, so look at the result. The Arabic parts of a line are drawn a quarter larger than the English parts.
Which subtitle formats and encodings can I use?: SRT, WebVTT (.vtt) and ASS (.ass) files; the file picker also accepts .ssa, but only .ass was tested. The text may be saved as UTF-8 or as the older Windows-1256 encoding. A WebVTT file is read as text and burned in like an SRT, so its position settings are not used. To change one format into another first, use the SRT to VTT converter.
Can I make the text right-aligned instead of centred?: Yes. Text alignment offers centred, the usual choice for subtitles, or right-aligned, which puts the lines against the right edge. You can also set the size, colour, position and a dark box behind the text. These apply to burned-in text only.
What is the difference between burned in and a selectable track?: Burned-in subtitles are drawn into the picture, so they show everywhere and cannot be turned off, and this tool controls the font and direction. A selectable track is a separate stream that the player draws with its own fonts, so the result depends on the player, and some players ignore it.
Is my video uploaded, and is it free?: Your video and subtitle file are not uploaded. They are processed in your browser with a WebAssembly build of FFmpeg. Only the video engine (about 31 MB, kept in the browser after the first time) and the font files are downloaded, the engine from a public content delivery network and the fonts from this site. It is free, with no watermark and no account. Very large files can fail: the page warns about files over about 2 GB, which the in-browser engine cannot read reliably.