How to extract audio from a video

Steps

1. Open the MP4 to MP3 converter (it also accepts MOV, MKV, WEBM and AVI through Video to MP3).
2. Drop your video onto the box, or press Choose files.
3. Pick a quality. 192 kbit/s is a good everyday choice; use 320 for music you care about.
4. Press Convert and wait for the progress bar to finish. The first time, your browser downloads the converter engine (about 30 MB), which is then cached.
5. Download the MP3, or download several at once as a ZIP.

What you get

The picture is thrown away and only the sound track is kept, so the MP3 is much smaller than the video. A 100 MB lecture video often becomes a 10 to 30 MB MP3.

The sound is encoded again as MP3, which is a lossy format. If the original sound was already compressed (most videos are), a second round of compression loses a very little more. At 192 kbit/s or above that is hard to hear.

Which videos work

MP4, MOV (iPhone videos), MKV, WEBM, AVI and most phone and camera clips. If a file will not open, it may be damaged, copy-protected or in an unusual format; the page tells you when it cannot read a file.

Only extract audio from videos you own or have the right to use. Recording your own lectures, interviews, voice notes and family videos is the usual use.

Long videos and phones

Because your own device does the work, long videos take time and use memory. We suggest files under about 500 MB on a computer and 100 MB on a phone. If a phone struggles, trim the video first with the Trim video tool, or use a computer.