How to extract the audio from a video and save it as MP3

How to extract the audio from a video: the short answer

Upload the video, click "Extract audio and download" and get an MP3 with the same name as the file. The tool separates the soundtrack from the picture and saves it at 320 kbps, the highest quality MP3 allows, without changing the volume or trimming anything. It works with MP4, MOV, WebM, MKV, AVI and M4V, entirely in the browser, with no video editor.

When extracting the audio is worth it

Every video has two parts: the picture and the sound. Extracting the audio means keeping only the second one, as an MP3 file that plays on your phone, in the car and in any music app, and takes a fraction of the video's space. The most common uses:

• Keep the music or background track from a video you recorded.
• Turn a recorded class, talk or service into audio to listen to while commuting.
• Save an interview or meeting recorded on video as audio to transcribe or publish as a podcast.
• Shrink the size: the MP3 takes up about 2.4 MB per minute, a fraction of the video, easy to send over WhatsApp or email.

Extract the audio from a video, step by step

1. Open the Extract audio (MP4 → MP3) tool and upload the video: drag it onto the "Drag your files" area or click "Select files." MP4, MOV, WebM, MKV, AVI and M4V are accepted.
2. Click "Extract audio and download" (with several videos the button reads "Extract from N videos"). On first use the engine gets ready and may take a few seconds.
3. Download the MP3: you get one file per video, with the same name and the .mp3 extension, at 320 kbps.

What the extraction does (and doesn't do)

• Saves the whole audio track, start to finish, as a 320 kbps MP3 (the format's ceiling), without resampling.
• Doesn't trim, adjust volume or remove noise: whatever is in the video goes into the MP3.
• Doesn't choose between tracks: if the video has more than one audio track (languages, for instance), you get the main one.
• If the video has no sound, there's nothing to extract: you see "Could not process the video." and nothing is downloaded.
• With several videos, each one becomes a separate MP3.

About quality: 320 kbps is the most MP3 allows, so you lose nothing compared with the video's original sound, which is almost always recorded at a lower quality anyway. If the speech was muffled in the video, it will stay muffled in the MP3; extraction neither improves nor worsens the sound.

What if the audio already exists, but in another format?

Not every audio file is already MP3. WhatsApp voice messages arrive as OGG or OPUS, phone recorders save M4A or AAC, studios deliver WAV or FLAC. If you already have the audio file but it won't play on some device or app, the Audio → MP3 tool converts it: it accepts MP3, WAV, M4A, AAC, OGG, OPUS and FLAC and returns a high-quality MP3 (variable, around 190 kbps, more than enough for voice and music). The button is "Convert and download" and the file keeps its original name with the .mp3 extension.

Common problems and limits

• It's slow: the work is done by your own device's processor. A two-hour video can take several minutes; keep the tab open.
• Video too large: the upload limit is 2 GB per file, but on phones the browser's memory can run out first. If it freezes, try it on a computer.
• Format refused: WMV, FLV and 3GP aren't accepted. Convert the video first or use the MP4 version.
• WMA and AIFF aren't accepted for audio conversion; only MP3, WAV, M4A, AAC, OGG, OPUS and FLAC.
• You see "Could not convert the audio.": the file is damaged or isn't what its extension says (an .mp3 that is really a video, for instance).

Both the extraction and the conversion happen in your own browser: the video and the audio are never sent to any server. The only download is the conversion engine, about 9 MB, once, on first use. No app, no account.

Whether you're putting together a podcast, keeping a video's soundtrack or just listening to a class on headphones, having the audio as a separate MP3 keeps everything smaller and easier to share. To join several MP3s into one track with leveled volume, see how to merge several videos or several MP3s into one file; to lay that music under another video, how to make a photo slideshow video with music.