Extract audio from video, free

How do I extract audio from a video?

Add the video above, choose an audio format and click extract. The tool reads the video’s sound track on your device and saves it as an audio file, leaving the picture out. MP3 is the best default; pick WAV or FLAC if you’ll edit the sound, M4A for Apple devices and OGG for web projects.

Audio formats compared

Lossy, lossless and uncompressed, in plain words

Lossy formats (MP3, AAC, Opus) throw away sound you’re unlikely to hear, which makes files small. Lossless FLAC compresses like a zip file: smaller than WAV, but it decodes back to exactly the same samples. Uncompressed WAV stores every sample as is, which every audio app understands, at the cost of size.

One thing a format can’t do is restore quality. The sound in most videos is already lossy (usually AAC). Extracting it as WAV or FLAC keeps it exactly as decoded, with no further loss, which is ideal for editing; it doesn’t make it sound better than the video did.

Which format for which job?

Voice-over editing

Choose WAV. Audio editors and video editors open it instantly, and you avoid another round of lossy encoding when you export again after edits such as noise reduction or levelling.

Podcasts

Extract as WAV or FLAC for editing, then export the finished episode as MP3 from your editor. If you publish the audio as it is, extract MP3 straight away.

Transcription and subtitles

Use MP3. Speech recognition doesn’t need lossless audio, and a small file uploads faster. To get subtitles from it, try the subtitle generator.

Apple devices

Choose M4A. It plays natively in Music, QuickTime and on iPhone. Most videos already carry AAC sound, and at Original quality the tool copies it out untouched: a small file with no further loss.

Web projects

Choose OGG with Opus for the smallest files at good speech quality, or MP3 for the widest support.

Extract only part of the sound

Set a start and an end before extracting to save just one section: a single answer from an interview, one chapter of a training session or the music under an intro. It saves a round trip through an audio editor and keeps the file small.

Getting a clean voice track

The extracted audio is only as good as the recording. If you plan to reuse narration from a screen recording, a few habits make a big difference: record in a quiet, soft-furnished room, keep the microphone at the same distance throughout, and leave a second of silence before you start talking so an editor can learn the background noise. After extracting, even out the volume and remove hum in your audio editor, then export once in the final format. Re-encoding a lossy file several times adds artefacts you can hear, which is another reason to edit from WAV or FLAC and convert to MP3 only at the end.

Why a video might have no audio to extract

• The recording was made with the microphone off or system sound not captured.
• The clip was exported or shared without sound, as many GIF-like loops are.
• The sound uses a codec your browser can’t decode. The tool tells you, and converting the video first with the video converter may help.

You can check what a file contains with the video metadata viewer.