Get the audio track out of a video file
Drop in an MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM or AVI and take the soundtrack out. When the audio is already AAC — which covers essentially every phone recording — it is lifted out untouched, with no encoder involved at all.
Video to audio
The video track is discarded. Only the sound comes out.
Starting the converter…
The part other converters cannot do
A video file is a container holding two separate streams: pictures and sound. They are stored side by side, not mixed together. Taking the audio out therefore does not require decoding anything — the sound stream can be lifted out whole and put into an audio container as it is.
That is what happens here whenever the maths allows it. An MP4 or MOV from a phone has an AAC soundtrack, and AAC is legal inside an .m4a, so the stream is copied across with no encoder invoked. We measured it: the extracted audio came out identical to the audio inside the source, and the job finished in about a second on a file where a re-encode would have taken far longer.
Any converter that only offers MP3 output has to re-encode, because MP3 cannot hold an AAC stream. That means decoding audio that was already compressed and compressing it again — a real, if small, cost that was avoidable.
| Soundtrack inside | Take it out as | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| AAC (nearly all MP4 and MOV) | M4A | Copied out. Nothing re-encoded |
| AAC | AAC (.aac) | Copied out. Nothing re-encoded |
| AAC | MP3 | Re-encoded. A second lossy pass |
| PCM (some MOV and AVI) | WAV | Copied out. Already uncompressed |
| Vorbis or Opus (WebM) | MP3 or M4A | Re-encoded. Neither codec fits those containers |
| MP3 (older AVI) | MP3 | Copied out. Nothing re-encoded |
The panel tells you which row you are on before you press the button.
M4A or MP3?
M4A when the source is a normal phone video and you have no specific requirement. It is the clean lift — nothing is re-encoded, so it is both faster and better than any MP3 you could make from the same file. It plays on every phone, every modern computer, and most current car systems.
MP3 when something has specifically asked for it: a transcription service, a podcast host, an older car stereo, a submission form, a piece of software from another decade. You are accepting a second lossy encode to buy compatibility, and at 192 kbps and up the cost is small.
WAV when an editor or a DAW wants uncompressed audio to work with. Bear in mind it will not sound better than the compressed source did — the file just gets much larger.
If it is a lecture, an interview or a meeting
Video recordings of people talking are the most common thing that lands on this page, and speech has different economics from music. A one-hour lecture at 192 kbps stereo is about 82 MB. The same hour at 96 kbps folded to mono is about 20 MB, and nobody listening to a lecture will notice the difference.
That is a four-fold saving that matters if you are emailing it, sending it to a transcription service with a size cap, or keeping a term's worth on a phone. The transcription guide covers what the services actually want.
What this will not do
- It will not download from YouTube, Spotify or anywhere else. This page takes a file you already have. It has no way to fetch one, and that is deliberate.
- It will not open DRM-protected video. Purchased films and streaming downloads are encrypted, and nothing converts them.
- It takes the first audio track. Where a file has several — a film with more than one language, say — the first one is used.
- It is bounded by the browser tab. Video files are big; this warns above 300 MB and refuses above 2 GB. Trimming a long recording first, or using a desktop tool, is the honest answer for anything larger.
The video track is dropped without being decoded, which is why this is fast even on a large file — the picture data is skipped rather than processed. It also means a 4K clip is no slower to handle than a 720p one of the same length.
If it was the video you wanted
This page only ever produces audio. Converting between video formats is a different job with different trade-offs, and it is not what this site does.
Step by step
Drop in the video
MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM, AVI, WMV, FLV, 3GP, MPEG and MPEG-TS all work. Only the audio is read; the picture is never decoded.
See what the soundtrack actually is
The panel shows the audio codec, sample rate, channels and bitrate found inside. That determines whether this can be lossless.
Take M4A for a clean lift, or MP3 for compatibility
M4A is the default because an AAC soundtrack goes straight across with nothing re-encoded. MP3 is one tap away when something demands it.
Download the audio
The result is an audio file with the video's own name and the new extension.
About pulling audio out of video
Can you get audio out of a video without losing quality?
Yes, when the soundtrack is already AAC — which covers essentially every phone recording — and you take it out as M4A. The stream is copied across with no encoder involved, so the audio is identical to what was inside the video. Choosing MP3 instead forces a re-encode.
Learn moreShould I choose M4A or MP3?
M4A if nothing has specifically demanded otherwise: it is the lossless lift and it plays almost everywhere. MP3 when a transcription service, a podcast host, an older car stereo or a submission form has asked for it by name.
Learn moreCan I use this to download audio from YouTube?
No. This page converts a file you already have on your machine; it has no way to fetch anything from a website, and it is not going to grow one. If you have a video file, drop it in.
Learn moreMy video is a two-hour recording and it will not load.
A browser tab has roughly two gigabytes of address space, so very large files are refused rather than crashed. Trim the recording first, or use a desktop tool. We would rather refuse clearly than fail halfway through.
Learn moreWhat settings should I use for a lecture or a meeting?
96 kbps and folded to mono. A one-hour recording drops from about 82 MB to about 20 MB, and for a single speaker there is nothing to hear in the difference. Both controls are in the panel above.
Learn moreDoes the video leave my computer?
No, and this is where it matters most — video files are large and often personal. The whole thing is read from your disk by the page itself and the browser is blocked from sending it anywhere. You can verify that in the Network panel while it runs.
Learn more