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Extract Audio from Video

Upload one video in any of nine formats and download its sound track as MP3, M4A or WAV. M4A keeps the sound from a phone or camera exactly as it was recorded.

Drop your video here

Drag video here or pick from your device

MP4, MOV, MKV, WEBM, AVI, M4V, 3GP, FLV, WMV · up to 500 MB

Have several videos? The MP4 to MP3 converter takes up to 5 files at once.

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How to

How to extract audio from a video

One video at a time, in any of the nine formats the upload box lists. Phone recordings, screen captures and downloaded clips all work, as long as the video has a sound track.

  1. 1

    Upload the video

    Drop the file on the upload box or click Browse video and pick it from your device, and its name and size appear in a bar at the top of the panel, where Pick a different file swaps it out if you grabbed the wrong one.

  2. 2

    Choose MP3, M4A or WAV

    MP3 is the safe pick for a phone, a car stereo or sharing. M4A is the one to choose when the video came from a phone or camera, because the sound is copied as it is, with no quality loss. WAV is for editing software, and it's big: about 10 MB for every minute of sound.

  3. 3

    Extract and download

    Click Extract audio. The upload shows a percentage, the extraction itself took 4 to 5 seconds for our 15-second test clip, and a long video spends most of its time in the upload. When Audio ready appears, click Download. The audio file has the video's name with the new extension, and the link works for 30 minutes.

The three steps: drop a video on the upload box, pick MP3, M4A or WAV while the sound is pulled out, then download the M4A from the panel's Audio ready box

Guide

MP3, M4A or WAV: which one keeps the sound of your video

Nearly every video from a phone, a camera or a screen recorder stores its sound the same way an M4A file does, and the three buttons on this page treat that sound in three different ways. M4A lifts it out exactly as it is, in a few seconds. MP3 makes a new MP3 from it, which plays on anything but squeezes the sound a second time. WAV unpacks it into a plain, uncompressed file, which is what audio editors like best. The WAV ends up about 11 times bigger than the M4A and sounds no better, because the detail the camera threw away when it saved the video isn't coming back.

A 15-second, 10.4 MB MP4 and the three audio files pulled out of it: a 237 KB M4A copied as it was, a 353 KB MP3 and a 2.5 MB WAV

This page is the single-file tool for any video format. If you have a batch of MP4 files and only want MP3, the MP4 to MP3 page takes up to five at once. If the sound is right but you want the video itself without it, Remove Audio does the reverse of this page. The sections below cover the edge cases we found in the code and in our test run.

Videos with no sound track fail, and there's no way round it

Stock footage, GIF-style MP4s and screen recordings made with the microphone off often have no sound track at all. Our silent test clip was rejected after 4 seconds with the message "Input has no audio stream (or is corrupt)". If the video plays silently in your player too, there's nothing to pull out. A clip whose sound was cut in an editor can still carry an empty track, and that extracts fine, as a silent file.

Only the first audio track comes out

The server takes the first sound track and ignores the rest. A MKV with English and Spanish tracks gives you whichever is listed first, and a game recording with the game on one track and your voice on another gives you the game only, since the voice track is nearly always second.

When M4A is an exact copy and when it isn't

M4A copies the sound untouched only when it's already stored the M4A way, which covers MP4, MOV and M4V files from phones and cameras. Most WebM and MKV files, and AVI files with MP3 sound inside, store it differently, so the server makes a new, good-quality M4A instead, about 1.4 MB a minute. For an AVI with MP3 inside, pick MP3: the sound is still processed again, but you skip a format change for nothing. The M4A you get plays in iTunes, on iPhones and in VLC, but a few older car stereos and MP3 players won't take it.

MP3 always comes out at the same quality

There's no quality setting. Every MP3 is made at 192 kbps, a high setting where most people stop hearing a difference from the original, and takes about 1.4 MB a minute. A phone video's sound doesn't get better at that setting, because the detail lost when the phone saved it is already gone; the MP3 is a safe copy that plays anywhere, not a better one. To shrink a long lecture further, run the result through Compress Audio.

WAV is always CD quality, and large

WAV comes out at CD quality in stereo whatever went in, so a voice memo recorded on one channel comes out as two identical channels. Our 15-second clip became a 2.5 MB WAV; a one-hour recording would be about 600 MB, which some editors handle fine but most email and chat apps won't. Choose WAV when an audio or video editor is the next stop, and M4A or MP3 for everything else.

The 500 MB limit and long videos

One file at a time, up to 500 MB. The browser checks the size before uploading, and the server checks again, so a 501 MB file is refused twice. The server gives each job 10 minutes. Pulling out the sound reads the video once without touching the picture, so it's far quicker than tools that rebuild the whole video; our 10.4 MB clip was done in 4 seconds, though we haven't timed a 500 MB file. No video tool here takes more than 500 MB, so a bigger file has to be trimmed on your phone or computer first; the Photos app on an iPhone and QuickTime on a Mac both do it.

Cancel stops the page, not the server

Cancel stops the upload, or stops the page waiting for the result, at any point before Audio ready. Once the server has the file, it finishes the job anyway and the audio sits unused until the nightly cleanup. You always get the whole sound track, from the first frame to the last; the only way to a shorter piece is to extract it all and trim the result.

Last updated: 21 October 2026 · ChangeMyFile

Tested: 21 October 2026, four runs on the live tool. Because the free Pixabay stock clips we use for testing have silent sound tracks, we made a 15-second, 10.4 MB test video with ffmpeg: a 1920 x 1080 H.264 picture from a Pixabay sunset clip with a generated 440 Hz beeping tone as its AAC track, 128 kbps, 48 kHz stereo. M4A: done in 4 seconds, 237 KB, AAC at 48 kHz and 127 kbps, the same codec, sample rate and bitrate as the input, so the track was copied, not re-encoded. MP3: done in 5 seconds, 353 KB, 192 kbps at 48 kHz, same loudness as the source to within 0.2 dB. WAV: done in 4 seconds, 2.5 MB, 16-bit PCM at 44.1 kHz stereo. An 8-second Pixabay clip with no audio stream at all: failed after 4 seconds with "Input has no audio stream (or is corrupt)".

FAQ

Audio extraction questions

At a glance

Formats you can upload
MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM, AVI, M4V, 3GP, FLV, WMV
Files per run
One, up to 500 MB
Output
MP3, M4A or WAV
MP3
High quality, about 1.4 MB a minute
M4A
Exact copy for phone and camera videos
WAV
CD quality, about 10 MB a minute
Audio tracks
First track only
Time
4 to 5 seconds for a 15-second clip
Where it runs
Our server
Download link
Expires after 30 minutes
Files deleted
Upload when the job ends, the rest nightly
Account
Not needed
Watermark
None

Can't find your answer? Visit our Help center.

Is it free to extract audio from a video here?
Yes. There's no account to create and no watermark on the audio. The only limits are one file at a time and 500 MB per file.
Which format should I pick, MP3, M4A or WAV?
M4A if the video came from a phone or camera and you want the sound exactly as recorded, since it's copied without any change. MP3 if the file has to play on an older device or go to someone whose player you don't know. WAV only if you're taking it into an audio or video editor, because it's far bigger and sounds no better.
Does extracting the audio lower its quality?
M4A from a phone or camera video doesn't change a single bit of the sound. MP3 is made fresh at a high setting, a small loss that's hard to hear on normal speakers or earbuds. WAV loses nothing but also gains nothing, because the sound was already compressed when the camera saved it.
Why does it say my video has no audio stream?
The file has no sound track to pull out, which is usual for stock clips, animated MP4s and screen recordings made without a microphone, and the video plays silently in any player too. The server checks for a sound track before it starts and stops with that message, and no download is produced.
Can I extract audio from an iPhone MOV?
Yes, MOV is accepted, including the format newer iPhones record video in; only the sound is read, so the picture format doesn't matter. Choose M4A for an exact copy of the iPhone's sound or MP3 for something that plays anywhere. For a single MOV going straight to MP3, the MOV to MP3 conversion page does the same job.
How is this different from the MP4 to MP3 converter?
The MP4 to MP3 page is a format conversion: MP4 in, MP3 out, up to five files in one go. This page takes any of nine video formats, one at a time, and adds M4A and WAV, with the M4A option keeping the original sound as it is. For a pile of MP4s that just need to become MP3s, use that page; for a MKV, WebM or AVI, or for an exact copy of the sound, use this one.
Can I choose which part of the video to extract?
Not on this page, where the whole sound track comes out from start to finish, so download it and then open it in Audio Cutter to keep the part you want. If the video is over 500 MB, trim it on your phone or computer first, since no video tool here takes a bigger file.
My video has two audio tracks. Which one do I get?
The first one in the file. Second languages, commentary and the separate microphone track in a game capture are usually listed after the main track, so they get left out. To get a different one, put it first in a tool like MKVToolNix, or change the order in your recorder's settings, and upload again.
Can I extract audio from a YouTube or TikTok link?
No, because the tool works on a file you upload rather than on a link, so download the video to your device first and then upload it here. The sound in an MP4 download comes out as an exact M4A copy; the sound in a WebM download is made into a new M4A.
What happens to my video after I upload it?
It sits in our cloud storage only until the server picks it up, which deletes that copy. The server's own copy of the video is removed the moment the audio file is written. The audio file is kept for your download, the link stops working after 30 minutes, and a nightly cleanup removes whatever is left, so nothing stays for more than about a day.
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