# Use a caption file you already have

**Category:** [Video Hub](https://help.totalctrl.app/hc/totalctrl/totalctrl-help-center/en-US/categories/subtitles)
**Updated:** 2026-08-19

## Import instead of transcribing

When a WebVTT or SRT file already exists, import it. Somebody has already checked those timings, and transcribing again spends AI Units producing a worse version of something that is already correct.
### Three places to do it

- **New Project** — choose *Import an existing caption file* under Starting captions.
- **An existing project** — the Import action on any track row.
- **The API or an agent** — see *Importing captions over the API*.

### Upload, or pick one from Digital Assets

Both places offer the same two sources side by side: choose a file from your computer, or press **Browse Digital Assets** and pick a `.vtt` or `.srt` that is already in your library. Exported captions are routinely saved back into Digital Assets, so the file you want is often already there — picking it saves a download and a re-upload.

Choosing a file from the library also selects *Import an existing caption file* for you, because that is what choosing it means. The two sources are exclusive: picking one clears the other, so there is never any question about which file will be used.
### What the picker offers you

The picker lists only caption files. It matches on the file **extension and type**, not on how the file was categorized when it was uploaded — a `.vtt` is stored as a document, which is also every PDF and Word file in the workspace, so a category filter would offer all of them and call it a caption list.

You can search by name, and walk into folders. Each row shows the name, the size and the date it was uploaded, which is what tells two similarly-named files apart.
### If the file is refused

Anything that is not a caption file is refused, and the project or track you were working on is left exactly as it was. A track is never emptied by a file that turned out to be a PDF, and a project is never thrown away because the caption file attached to it was wrong — the project is created, and the message tells you the file was the problem.
### What you get

Cues and timestamps are imported as they are, so you can edit them straight away. The track is marked **Imported** rather than Transcribed, and no AI Units are spent.

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## Related Articles

- [The caption editor](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/subtitles-editor-1)
- [What is Video Hub?](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/subtitles-overview-1)
- [The caption editor](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/subtitles-editor-2)
- [The caption editor](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/subtitles-editor)
- [Create a project and transcribe](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/subtitles-create-transcribe-1)

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