Download Coursera Subtitles: SRT and VTT Files (2026)

You can download Coursera subtitles when the course shows a Download option below the video player, which usually offers an SRT or VTT file alongside the lecture. When that option is missing, the transcript panel still gives you the text, and a browser extension can save the video so you can pair it with a subtitle file yourself. There is no account setting that adds subtitle downloads to a course that does not offer them.

This guide covers the built-in route, the transcript fallback, how to match subtitle files to downloaded videos, and where each method breaks down.

What Coursera actually gives you

Subtitles on Coursera come in two different shapes, and it helps to know which one you are looking at before you start.

• A subtitle file. Some courses include an SRT or VTT file in the Download menu under the player. This is a timed file: each line has a start and end time, so a player can show it in sync with the video.
• A transcript. Every lecture with captions has a transcript panel you can open next to the video. It is plain text, sometimes with timestamps, but it is not a file you can hand to a video player.

The difference matters. A transcript is fine for reading and searching. A subtitle file is what you need for offline viewing with captions on screen.

Method 1: Use the Download menu when the course offers it

1. Open the lecture in Chrome on your computer.
2. Start the video so the player loads fully.
3. Look below the player for Download or a downward arrow icon.
4. Open the menu and choose the subtitle file, usually labelled with the language, for example English.srt.
5. The file saves to your Downloads folder.

If the menu lists the video and the subtitles separately, download both. Keep them in the same folder.

Where it fails: the Download menu depends on the course and the partner university. Many Professional Certificates, guided projects, and newer specializations do not show it at all. Some courses show it for the video but not for subtitles. When it is missing, no setting on your account brings it back, which is the same situation described in what to do when the Coursera download button is missing.

Method 2: Copy the transcript

When there is no subtitle file but the lecture has captions, the transcript panel is your source.

1. Open the lecture and start the video.
2. Open the transcript panel, usually a button below or beside the player.
3. Select the text and copy it, or use the panel's own copy control if it has one.
4. Paste it into a text editor and save it as a .txt file.

Some transcripts include timestamps in the copied text. If yours does, you can convert it into a timed subtitle file with a script or a subtitle editor, but that is manual work and the timing will need checking.

Where it fails: a transcript is not a subtitle file. It will not display in sync in VLC or IINA without conversion, and the copied text sometimes loses line breaks or speaker labels. For long lectures, copying by hand is slow.

Method 3: Save the video, then pair it with subtitles

If your goal is watching a lecture offline with captions, the video is the part that is hardest to get. Subtitles are small text files you can keep beside it.

With Coursera Downloader:

1. Install the extension from the Chrome Web Store.
2. Sign in with Google. You receive 15 free credits, which covers 3 videos.
3. Open the Coursera lecture you can play in Chrome.
4. Click the extension's download button on the video player.
5. The MP4 file lands in your Downloads folder.
6. Add the subtitle file from Method 1, or your converted transcript, next to it.

Each new video costs 5 credits, and re-downloading the same video later is free. The extension saves the video stream; it does not extract a subtitle file from the course, so treat subtitles as a separate step.

Where it fails: the extension requires Chrome. If you only use Safari, you need to switch browsers for this part. And if the course has neither a subtitle file nor captions, there is nothing to pair with the video.

Matching subtitle files to videos

A player only loads subtitles automatically when the file names match. If your video is 03-gradient-descent.mp4, the subtitle file must be 03-gradient-descent.srt in the same folder.

1. Rename the video and the subtitle file with the same base name.
2. Keep the extension correct: .mp4 for the video, .srt or .vtt for the subtitles.
3. Put both in the same folder.
4. Open the video in VLC or IINA and check that captions appear without loading anything manually.

If the names match but captions still do not show, open the subtitle track manually from the player's menu. That rules out a naming problem.

Comparison of the three routes

What you need	Best route	Timed file?	Works when Download is missing
Subtitle file for a player	Download menu	Yes	No
Text to read or search	Transcript panel	No	Yes, if captions exist
Video plus captions offline	Extension plus subtitle file	Yes, if you have a file	Yes
Subtitles in another language	Download menu	Only if the course uploaded it	No

Where it fails

Courses with no captions at all. Some short videos and guided projects have no captions and no transcript. There is nothing to download, and no tool creates a correct subtitle file from nothing.

Auto-generated captions. Where captions are machine-generated, the transcript can contain misheard words and missing punctuation. It is usable for reading, less so as a study subtitle file.

Translations. You only get the languages the course team uploaded. You cannot request a new language from the site.

Timing drift after conversion. If you convert a copied transcript into an SRT by hand, the timestamps are estimates. Expect to adjust them in a subtitle editor before the file is usable.

Mobile app. The app shows captions while you watch, but it does not hand you a subtitle file you can move to a computer.

Organizing a course with subtitles

Once you have videos and subtitle files, a little structure saves time later. This is the same approach recommended for downloading Coursera lecture videos on a Mac, and it works on any system.

• One folder per course, for example Data Science Specialization.
• A subfolder per week or module, named Week 1, Week 2 so files sort in order.
• Number prefixes on both files: 01-introduction.mp4 and 01-introduction.srt.
• Keep the transcript text file too if you copied one. It is searchable when you are revising.

If you are building an offline study setup, watching Coursera offline on a laptop covers players, storage, and how to keep a full course organized.

The short version

Download Coursera subtitles from the Download menu when a course offers it, and fall back to the transcript panel when it does not. For offline viewing with captions, save the lecture with Coursera Downloader and keep the subtitle file next to the video with the same name.