Free MP4 to MP3 converter

How do I convert MP4 to MP3?

Add the MP4 above, keep MP3 as the output and click convert. The tool reads the sound track of the video, encodes it as MP3 on your own device and gives you an audio file to download. The picture is dropped, so the MP3 is a fraction of the video’s size.

What is MP4 to MP3 conversion, exactly?

An MP4 file is a container with a video track and, usually, an audio track, most often in AAC. “Converting MP4 to MP3” means taking that audio track and saving it on its own as an MP3 file. Nothing about the sound changes except its format: the length, the voices and the music stay the same.

MP3 is the most widely supported audio format there is. It plays on every phone, computer, car stereo and podcast app, and every audio editor and transcription service accepts it.

What people use it for

• Listening on the go. Save a recorded talk, webinar or meeting as audio to play on your phone.
• Transcription. Audio files are smaller and faster to upload to a transcription tool than the full video.
• Podcasts. Turn a video interview into an episode, or reuse a segment.
• Voice-over reuse. Take the narration from a finished video to use in a new edit, a translation or a different cut.
• Music and sound. Keep the soundtrack of a clip you made yourself.

Which MP3 quality should you use?

MP3 quality is measured as bitrate, in kilobits per second (kbps). Higher means better sound and a larger file. The tool offers 128 to 320 kbps and starts at 192.

A higher bitrate can’t add quality that isn’t in the video. Most videos carry audio at 128 to 256 kbps in AAC, so going far above that only makes the file larger. If you plan to edit the audio further, extract it as WAV or FLAC with the audio extractor, which keeps every bit of the decoded sound.

MP3 or M4A?

The sound in most MP4 videos is AAC, the same codec an M4A file uses. If the audio is for Apple devices or a podcast host that accepts M4A, extract M4A at its original quality: the AAC sound is copied out untouched, with no conversion from one lossy format to another. MP3 is the safer choice when you don’t know where the file will end up: older players, car stereos, some web forms and many transcription services expect it. Both are fine for speech at the bitrates above, and either can be turned into the other later with the audio converter, at the cost of one more re-encode.

Only need part of the video?

Set the start and end before converting, and only that section becomes the MP3. That is quicker than extracting everything and cutting it in an audio editor, and it keeps the file small: handy for a single answer from a long interview or one section of a recorded webinar.

Tips

Check the video has sound

Some screen recordings and exported clips have no audio track at all. The tool tells you when a video has no sound to extract.

Other video formats work too

Despite the name, you can add MOV, WebM and MKV videos as well. For WAV, M4A, OGG or FLAC output, use the extract audio from video tool; to turn one audio format into another, use the audio converter.

Respect the rights

Extract audio from videos you made or have permission to use. Recordings of meetings and calls may need the consent of the people speaking.