The quick answer: drop in the video, get the sound
You have a recording of an interview, a lecture or a call, and all you want is the audio. Open MP4 to MP3, drop the video on the page and download the sound as an audio file. Only the soundtrack is processed, so long videos finish quickly.
- Open MP4 to MP3, or video to MP3 if your file is a MOV, WebM or MKV, and drop the video on the page.
- Look at Soundtrack in your file. It shows the codec, sample rate and bitrate of the sound already inside the video.
- Keep MP3 selected at 192 kbps, or choose Original audio, no re-encode for an untouched copy.
- Press Extract audio, play the result on the page, then download it.
Which format: MP3, M4A, WAV or the original track?
The Extract Audio tool behind both pages can save MP3, M4A (AAC), WAV, OGG (Opus) or FLAC, whichever your browser can create. Most videos already store their sound as compressed AAC (MP4 and MOV) or Opus (WebM). The cleanest result is to lift that track out without touching it, which is what Original audio, no re-encode does: AAC becomes an .m4a file, Opus becomes .ogg, and MP3 stays .mp3.
Choosing a different compressed format means decoding the sound and compressing it a second time, and that discards a little more detail. At 192 kbps you will rarely hear it, but a copy can never be better than the track it came from.
| Format | Pick it when | Size per minute | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| MP3 | It has to play everywhere, or a form asks for .mp3 | About 1 MB at 128 kbps, 1.4 MB at 192 kbps | A fresh encode, so a little detail is lost |
| M4A (AAC) | Apple devices and phones, or an exact copy of an MP4 or MOV track | About the same as MP3 at the same bitrate | Some older players and car stereos |
| WAV | You will edit or transcribe it, or want every channel of a surround mix | About 10.5 to 11.5 MB for stereo | Big files. It cannot restore detail the video already lost |
| OGG (Opus) | Small files for speech, or an exact copy of a WebM track | About 0.5 to 1.2 MB at 64 to 160 kbps | Some Apple apps will not open it |
| FLAC | A lossless copy at roughly half the size of WAV | Roughly half of WAV | Built in, so it is available in any browser that can decode the video's audio |
Not sure? MP3 at 192 kbps is the choice nothing refuses. Formats your browser cannot create are grayed out. MP3, M4A, WAV and FLAC are built in, while OGG depends on your browser.
Bitrate for speech and for music
Bitrate is how much data each second of sound gets. More data keeps more detail and makes a bigger file, and nothing else changes the size: a 30-minute talk at 128 kbps comes to about 29 MB, whatever is in it.
- Speech (lectures, meetings, interviews, voice-overs): 128 kbps, about 1 MB per minute.
- Talk with some music: 192 kbps, about 1.4 MB per minute.
- Music you want to keep: 256 to 320 kbps. 320 is the top of what MP3 supports, at 2.4 MB per minute.
For voice, the audio converter can also switch a stereo file to mono. For MP3, M4A and OGG the bitrate you choose sets the file size, so pick a lower bitrate there too. Select all the videos in a folder and drop them into it together, and it pulls the sound from each one, with the results in a single ZIP.
Keep only the part you need
Extracting the whole soundtrack is fast, so the easiest route is to extract first and cut afterward. Open the file in the audio editor, drag across the part you want and press Keep only. To remove a cough or a tangent from the middle, select it and press Cut. Every cut gets a tiny fade at the join so it does not click. The editor can also open a video directly, but what you export is always an audio file.
For a very long video where you want one short stretch, trim the video first and extract from the shorter clip. Ringtone or intro length? The MP3 cutter is the same editor with that job in front. Each edit is explained in the guide to a free MP3 editor in the browser.
What goes wrong
- The page says there is no audio. Some screen recordings and exports have no soundtrack at all. You are told straight away instead of getting an empty file. Play the original to check.
- A format is grayed out. Your browser has no encoder for it, so pick another format such as MP3, M4A or WAV. If every format is grayed out, your browser cannot decode the file's audio, which can happen with a surround codec such as Dolby Digital or DTS, so try another browser. Safari sometimes decodes what others cannot.
- It is the wrong language or the wrong mix. Some MKV files carry several audio tracks. The main track is extracted, normally the one the file marks as default.
- A surround movie sounds thin as an MP3. MP3 holds two channels, so a 5.1 soundtrack is folded down to stereo. Save a WAV to keep every channel.
- The .ogg file will not open. Some Apple apps, car stereos and older players cannot play Opus. Extract an MP3 or M4A instead.
What this can and cannot do
It works on a video file that is already on your device, not on a link, and it extracts what is in the video: it cannot remove background noise or rescue a poor recording. Only extract audio you have the right to use, because pulling the sound out of a video does not change who owns it.
The video is read from your disk and processed in the browser tab, so private recordings stay private. To check, open the Network tab in your browser's developer tools and confirm that no request carries your file.
Where to go next
Turning an interview into an episode? Make a podcast in one browser tab covers cutting, leveling and exporting. If the trouble is the video itself rather than the sound, see how to convert video formats free. Recording something new instead of reusing a video? Start with record audio on your computer.