Sometimes you only want the sound. A talk you want to play on a walk, a song from a phone clip, an interview that has to go to a transcriber. This page lets you extract audio from a video and save it as its own file.
You choose MP3, WAV or AAC, press Extract audio, and the sound is saved to your computer. That is all it takes to get the audio from a video, and nothing needs installing: the work happens inside your browser, so the video is never uploaded. Below the tool you will find how each format differs, how to get a clean result, and what to do when a file has no sound.
How to extract audio from a video
To extract sound from a video, you make one choice: the format. There is no quality slider, because the sound is always saved at a balanced quality that suits most uses.
- Drop a video onto the page, or pick one from your files. You can add several at once.
- Under 'Save as', choose MP3, WAV or AAC. Each tile shows a rough size for your file, so you can compare before you start.
- Press Extract audio and wait for the bar to finish.
- Save the result. If you added several videos, you can download every result together as a zip.
Before you press the button, the panel shows the Length of the sound, its Channels (mono or stereo) and its Sample rate. That is a quick way to confirm you picked the right file.
The saved file keeps the name of your video, with the new ending: .mp3, .wav or .aac. Your original video is not changed.
MP3, WAV or AAC: which format to save
When you convert video to audio, the format decides how big the file is and where it will play. All three hold the same sound. They differ in size, in compatibility and in what you plan to do next.
| Format | Best for | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| MP3 | Playing almost anywhere | The most widely supported audio file. Small compared with WAV. |
| WAV | Editing and keeping every detail | Stored uncompressed, so the file is large. |
| AAC | Small files on phones and computers | Saved as an .aac file. Most phones and computers play it. |
When MP3 is the right choice
Pick MP3 when you want the file to play without any fuss: in a car stereo, on an old phone, in a podcast app. If you only need MP3 and nothing else, the MP4 to MP3 page does the same job with the format already chosen.
When WAV is the right choice
Pick WAV when the sound is going into an audio editor or a video editor. Nothing is squeezed out of it, so you lose no detail between steps. The cost is size, so expect a much bigger file than MP3. The MP4 to WAV page has the format preset.
When AAC is the right choice
Pick AAC for a small file that still sounds good. If you came here for MP4 to AAC, this is the tile to choose: the file is saved with an .aac ending. Most phones and computers play it, but a few older devices and some editing tools may prefer MP3 or WAV, so test it once if the file is going somewhere specific.
Getting a clean result from the audio extractor
This video to audio converter copies the sound out without editing it, so a few habits save time and avoid surprises.
- Check the sound is there. If the video has no sound track, the panel tells you 'This video has no sound track to extract.' and there is nothing to save.
- Extract in a batch. Drop every video you need, choose the format once, and download the lot as one zip.
- Fix the volume first if you need to. If the sound is too quiet, increase the video volume or even it out with the audio normaliser. If it is too loud, lower the video volume. Then extract the audio from the new video.
- Keep the original. The tool never changes your source file, so you can always run it again with another format.
Extraction saves the sound as it was recorded. It does not remove background noise, separate voices from music or fix a bad recording. If the source is poor, the saved file will be too.
Which files it can read
Common video files such as MP4, MOV, MKV and WebM are read quickly in your browser, with no size limit. Some other files, for example certain AVI and WMV videos, take longer and can be up to 2 GB.
What the tool changes and what it leaves alone
Extraction is a plain job: the sound track is copied out of the video into a new file in the format you choose. The pictures are left behind, so the result is a small audio file with no video in it.
- The length of the sound is the length of the video.
- Noise, echo and background music stay as they are, because the tool does not edit the sound.
- Tags, titles and cover art are not added.
- Your original video is never changed.
Because the sound is re-saved in the format you pick, MP3 and AAC are encoded once at a balanced quality. WAV is stored uncompressed.
Separate audio from video: what people use it for
To separate audio from video here means saving the sound as a file of its own. The video is left as it was, sound and all. If you also want a copy of the video with no sound, mute the video as a second step.
The same audio extractor covers very different jobs, and the right format changes with the job.
- Lectures, talks and webinars: save the sound as MP3 or AAC and listen while you travel or exercise.
- Music and performances filmed on a phone: keep the audio as WAV if you plan to clean it up or mix it, or MP3 to share it.
- Interviews and meetings: pull out the voices for a transcriber or a note-taking app that only accepts audio.
- Sound effects and voice-overs: lift a sound from a clip so you can use it in another project you have the right to use it in.
- Smaller backups: when only the sound matters, an audio file is far smaller than the video it came from.
Whatever the job, check that you have the right to use the recording. Extracting the sound does not change who owns it.
Private by design: nothing is uploaded
Interviews, family videos and work calls are often private. This tool does all its work on your own computer, in Chrome, Edge or Firefox. The video is not sent to a server, and the server does no video work at all.
It works on a video file saved on your device, so there is no box for a web address. You drop the file on the page or pick it from your files.
It is also free. There is no account, no watermark on the result, and video tools do not count towards the daily limit that applies to document conversions.
Save the sound of your video now
To extract audio from a video, drop your file in the tool above, choose MP3, WAV or AAC, and press Extract audio. It takes a few steps, it is free, and your video stays on your computer the whole time.
