Extract the audio from a video
Keep the sound of a video as an MP3 or a WAV. The picture is left behind, and the video stays on this device.
- Nothing is uploaded
- Works offline after first use
- Open source
- No sign-up, no watermark. The limit is your device’s memory (phones hold less).
Takes the sound out of a video and saves it as an MP3 or a WAV, from MP4, MOV, WebM, MKV and other video files whose sound your browser can play. It is free, and your video is not uploaded: your browser reads the sound track and writes the new file on your device. The MP3 encoder is fetched the first time you use it, so after your first run the page works offline.
Your iPhone may take a few seconds to prepare the video first, longer if it's stored in iCloud.
Done
Free, no ads. Support StayPut
Open the network tab. Your files never appear in it.
Add files and run the tool to see every request this tab makes.
Your files are processed on this device and never sent to a server. Reload the page to clear everything from memory.
A video file holds a picture and a sound track in one container. To keep only the sound, the page reads the sound track, decodes it, and writes it again as a file of its own. The picture is not used, which is why the audio file is a small fraction of the video’s size.
The first choice is the format, on the Video to MP3 tool and on this page alike. MP3 is the small one that plays on nearly everything; at 192 kbps it takes about 1.4 MB a minute. WAV is uncompressed, which is what audio editors and some upload forms ask for, and it takes about 10.6 MB a minute in stereo. For a 10-minute video that is about 14 MB as an MP3 and about 106 MB as a WAV.
The second choice is how much to keep. Voice recordings such as lectures, calls and interviews are fine at 96 or 128 kbps in mono, and come out around 7 MB for those 10 minutes at 96 kbps. Music is better at 192 kbps or higher. Neither format can bring back detail that the video’s own sound track did not have, and a WAV is not a better copy of the sound; it is the same sound without a second round of compression.
Drop several videos at once and they are converted one after another. One file downloads straight away, and several come as a zip. If you only want the words, drop the video on Video to text instead; it reads the sound track itself.
Which videos work
- MP4, M4V and MOV files from phones, cameras and screen recorders, and WebM and MKV files.
- What counts is the sound track, not the picture: the page only reads the sound, and needs your browser to be able to play it.
- If a file will not open, try the page in another browser. Safari reads some Apple files that other browsers do not.
- A video with no sound track, such as a screen recording made without a microphone, gives an error saying no audio could be read.
What you get
- An MP3 at 96 to 320 kbps, in stereo or mono, or a 16-bit WAV at 44.1 kHz, with the same name as the video.
- Surround sound is mixed down to stereo, and the centre channel, where film dialogue sits, is kept.
- The whole video is read into your device’s memory first, so a very long film may be too much for an older phone.
What this page does not do
- It takes files from your device, not links. A YouTube or other web address cannot be pasted here, because the page never fetches anything for you.
- It converts the whole video. To keep only part of it, cut the audio afterwards with Trim audio.
- It does not copy the sound track unchanged: the sound is decoded and written again as MP3 or WAV.
How it works
- Drop one or more video files, or tap to pick them from your files or camera roll.
- Choose MP3 or WAV. For MP3 pick a quality: 192 kbps for music, 96 to 128 kbps for speech. Choose mono to halve the size of a voice recording.
- Extract. The audio file downloads when it is ready, named like the video; several files come as a zip.
In your browser, not on a server
Your browser decodes the sound track with the same audio decoders it uses to play media on any website (AAC for MP4, MOV and M4A; Opus or Vorbis for WebM; FLAC, WAV and MP3). The samples are resampled to 44.1 kHz and handed to LAME, the reference MP3 encoder, compiled to WebAssembly and served by this site. WAV files are written directly by a few lines of code in the page. A WMA, which no browser plays, is decoded in a background worker by a separately loaded decoder module. Most video runs on your browser's WebCodecs through Mediabunny. For old formats the browser cannot read, the page loads a decoder built from FFmpeg's libraries (LGPL) only when you convert such a file. Everything happens in memory in your tab.
Compared with upload-based tools: Online converters upload the whole video just to keep its sound, cap free files at a few hundred megabytes, and make you wait in a queue. Home videos, lectures and voice memos are personal. Here the file never leaves your device, so a 1 GB video converts as fast as your computer can read it, and the limit is your device’s memory (phones hold less).
Verify it yourself. Give the page a short while after your first run to save itself for offline use, then turn off Wi-Fi or switch to airplane mode and run the tool again. Or open your browser's developer tools (F12, or Cmd-Option-I on a Mac), pick the Network tab, and watch it while you convert. The panel above does the same count for you.
Questions
How do I extract the audio from a video?
Drop the video on this page, choose MP3 or WAV, and press Extract audio. Your browser decodes the sound track and the page writes it as a file of its own, with the picture left out. For a step-by-step guide that covers phones, QuickTime and Windows, see how to convert a video to MP3.
Should I choose MP3 or WAV?
MP3 for listening, sharing and uploads: it is small and plays everywhere. WAV if you will edit the sound further or a program asks for it, because nothing is compressed a second time. At the default 192 kbps, a WAV is about seven times the size of the MP3.
Does extracting the audio lose quality?
WAV keeps what the decoder produced, so nothing more is lost. MP3 compresses the sound again, which at 192 kbps or higher is not noticeable for most music and speech. In both cases the sound cannot be better than the sound track in the video.
Which video formats can I use?
MP4, M4V, MOV, WebM and MKV are what this page is built for, and it works with any video whose sound track your browser can decode. There is no list of codecs to check: if a file will not open, you get a message, and another browser may read it.
Can I paste a link to a video?
No. The page works on files on your device and does not fetch anything from other sites. Use a video file you already have.
Can I extract the audio from a video on my iPhone or Android phone?
Yes. Open this page in your phone’s browser, tap the drop area and pick the video from your photo library or files. The audio file is written on the phone and saved to your downloads.
Is there a length or size limit?
There is no file size cap from us. The whole video is read into your device’s memory, so a long film works on a laptop but may be too much for an older phone.
What if I only need part of the audio?
Extract the whole sound track first, then cut the part you want with Trim audio. Both steps run on your device.
Is the file uploaded anywhere?
No. There is no server in this process. The page is a static file and the work is done by code running inside your browser tab. Give the page a short while after your first run to save itself for offline use; then you can turn off Wi-Fi and it still works.
More video and audio tools
Video to MP3
Pull the sound out of a video, or turn any audio file into an MP3. Your files are converted on this device and never uploaded.
Add subtitles to video
Captions written from the speech and burned into the picture, on your own device. Or bring an SRT and burn in that.
Vocal remover
Split a song into the music and the voice with an AI model running in this tab. Karaoke tracks and acapellas without uploading anything.
Video background remover
The person stays, the room goes: blurred, a flat colour or a picture of your choice, done frame by frame on your own device.
Other conversions
Guides
- How to convert a video to MP3This is different from muting a video: you want the sound saved as its own file. Most devices have no built-in way to do that.
- Is Convertio safe?Convertio is a well-known converter with a published deletion policy. For private files, the safer choice is a converter that never receives them.
- Is Zamzar safe?Zamzar is one of the oldest online converters. Its storage window is longer than most, which is the detail worth knowing.
- A free CloudConvert alternative for everyday filesCloudConvert measures its free tier in credits tied to conversion time, not files, which makes it hard to predict when you will hit the limit. Here is an alternative with nothing to meter.
- A free Convertio alternative with no file size capConvertio's free plan caps both file size and how many conversions you get per day. Here is an alternative with no such ceiling.