Rescreen / Free tools / Extract audio
Extract audio from video
Save the sound from a video as M4A, MP3 or WAV, with no quality lost where it can be.
Save the sound from a video
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Drop a video here
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Up to 2.0 GB. Stays on your device.
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How to extract audio from a video
Three steps, all on this page.
Choose your video
Choose or drop an MP4, MOV, WebM or MKV. The page reads what is inside (the codec of the sound, its channels, how many tracks) and checks this browser can handle it before anything starts.
Pick M4A, MP3 or WAV
Under Save as, M4A is chosen first. If the video has more than one sound track, pick the one you want. MP3 offers 128, 192 or 320 kbps; WAV offers a sample rate and mono or stereo.
Extract, check and download
Press Extract. The new file is opened again and its length and codec checked against the video before it is offered. Listen in the player, then download it.
What it does to the sound
A video file holds a picture track and one or more sound tracks side by side. This tool takes one sound track and leaves the picture out without decoding it, which is why a long video takes seconds rather than minutes. What happens to the sound depends on the format you choose.
- Most videos carry their sound as AAC. MDN calls AAC in an MP4 container a format every major browser supports. Source
- Copying a track without decoding it is very fast and loses nothing: ffmpeg’s manual says that with no decoding or encoding there is “no quality loss”. M4A here does the same with AAC. Source
- MP3 and AAC are both lossy. MDN warns that recompressing lossy audio compounds the loss, so a video’s AAC turned into an MP3 has been compressed twice. Source
- The highest MP3 bitrate is 320 kbps (MPEG-1 Layer III); this page offers 128, 192 and 320. Source
- Apple’s own QuickTime Player saves audio-only exports as “an Apple MPEG 4 audio file with an AAC audio track”: the same kind of file as the M4A here. Source
- M4AAAC copied as it is, nothing lost
- MP3Decoded, then encoded at 128 to 320 kbps
- WAVDecoded to plain 16-bit samples
M4A, MP3 or WAV: which to choose
Choose M4A when the video came from a phone, a Mac, Zoom, OBS or most cameras. Their sound is almost always AAC, and an M4A holds AAC exactly as it is, so the page copies it across byte for byte: the same quality, the smallest file, done in a moment. The result says “Copied without re-encoding” when this applied. M4A plays in Apple Music, iPhones, Android, Windows Media Player, VLC and every browser.
Choose MP3 when something asks for MP3 by name: an older car stereo, a podcast host, a voice-over marketplace, a form. Making an MP3 means encoding the sound a second time, which loses a little more. 192 kbps is the default and is plenty for speech; 320 kbps is the most MP3 allows.
Choose WAV when the sound is going into an editor (Audacity, GarageBand, Premiere, a DAW) and will be cut, mixed or processed. WAV is uncompressed, so nothing more is lost however many times it is saved, but it is about ten times the size of the others.
| Format | One minute of stereo | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| M4A | About 0.96 MB at 128 kbps | Keeping, phones, podcast apps |
| MP3 | About 1.44 MB at 192 kbps | Anything that asks for MP3 |
| WAV | About 11.5 MB at 48 kHz | Editing in an audio app |
Worked example
Take a 12-second screen recording, an MP4 of 164 KB with H.264 video and 60 kbps mono AAC sound. Saved as M4A, the sound was copied as it was: a 91 KB file, 12.0 seconds long, finished in under a second, with every audio packet identical to the video’s. As an MP3 at 192 kbps it came to 284 KB, and as a WAV 1.1 MB, both the same length to a tenth of a second.
That spread is the general rule. For a one-hour recorded talk with 128 kbps AAC, the M4A is about 58 MB, an MP3 at 192 kbps about 86 MB, and a 48 kHz stereo WAV about 690 MB. If the file is going to a phone or a podcast app, the M4A is the one to keep.
Videos with more than one sound track
OBS, game capture and some cameras record several sound tracks in one file, for example the microphone on one track and the computer’s sound on another. Most quick tools take the first track only. This page lists every track it finds, by the name the recorder gave it where there is one, and you choose which to save. To get both, extract twice.
A track with surround sound (5.1 from a film, for example) is mixed down to stereo for M4A and MP3, and the page says so before you start.
Other ways to extract audio
On a Mac, with QuickTime Player. Open the video, choose File › Export As › Audio Only, name it and save. Apple saves an MPEG-4 audio file with an AAC track (an .m4a). It may re-encode the sound rather than copy it, and it reads only what QuickTime can open, so not WebM or MKV.
On Windows, Mac or Linux, with VLC. Choose Media › Convert / Save, add the video, press Convert / Save, then set Profile to Audio – MP3 and pick where to save. Leave the profile on a video setting and you get a video back. VLC re-encodes, and takes the first sound track unless told otherwise.
With ffmpeg, from the command line. ffmpeg -i talk.mp4 -vn -c:a copy talk.m4a copies AAC sound without re-encoding, the same as M4A here. Use -c:a libmp3lame -b:a 192k talk.mp3 for an MP3, or talk.wav on its own for a WAV. Add -map 0:a:1 to pick the second sound track.
On an iPhone. Open this page in Safari, press Choose a file and pick the video from Photos. Shortcuts can also do it with the Encode Media action set to Audio Only.
Limitations
- It works on video files on your device. It cannot fetch the sound from a YouTube, TikTok or Instagram link.
- In Chrome and Edge on a computer, files of any size work, written straight to a file you choose. In other browsers files go up to 2.0 GB, because the result is built in memory before you save it. A WAV of a long video can pass that on its own; the page warns before you start.
- It saves the whole length. To keep part of it, cut the video first with the video trimmer.
- Sound that is already MP3 is copied as it is into an MP3, and AAC into an M4A. Any other change is a re-encode, which the page names before you start.
- A few codecs cannot be decoded in every browser: FLAC in Safari, and Apple Lossless (ALAC) in a video. The page names the problem and what to do instead.
- Copy-protected files, such as old iTunes Store purchases, cannot be read by any browser tool.
Frequently asked questions
Need the words rather than the sound? The video to text converter transcribes a video on your device. Converting one fixed pair, such as MP4 to MP3 or MOV to WAV? Those pages explain that pair in detail. To cut the sound down to one part, use the audio trimmer. To keep the video and lose the sound instead, remove the audio from the video.
How do I extract audio from a video without losing quality?
Save it as M4A. Nearly every MP4 and MOV has AAC sound, and an M4A holds AAC as it is, so the page copies the sound without decoding it: what you download is the same audio, bit for bit. Converting to MP3 always re-encodes and loses a little; WAV loses nothing more but is much bigger.
Should I choose M4A, MP3 or WAV?
M4A for the best quality in the smallest file. MP3 when an app, device or site asks for MP3. WAV when you will edit the sound in an audio editor. If you are not sure, M4A.
Can I extract audio from a video on my iPhone?
Yes. Open this page in Safari, press Choose a file, pick the video from your photo library and save the sound as M4A. It goes to the Files app. Long 4K videos can be too big for a phone’s memory; a computer handles those better.
Can it extract audio from a YouTube video?
Not from a link. It works on a video file on your device. For a video on your own channel, download it from YouTube Studio first, then drop the file here.
My recording has the microphone and computer sound on separate tracks. Can I get just one?
Yes. When a video has more than one sound track, a Sound to keep list appears, with each track’s name where the recorder gave it one (OBS writes names such as “Mic/Aux”). Pick one and extract; repeat for the other.
Why does my extracted audio still have a picture, or play only in VLC?
That happens in VLC when the profile is left on a video setting. This page writes a real audio file (M4A, MP3 or WAV) with no picture in it, and checks that before offering it.
Why does it say the video has no sound?
The file has no sound track at all: some screen recorders save without one unless a microphone or system sound was switched on, and some exports drop it. Play the video in another player to confirm. If it does play with sound there, the sound may be in a track the browser cannot read; ffmpeg will name it.
Is my video uploaded?
No. The video is read and the sound saved on your own computer, so there is no upload and no queue. We count anonymous page views and whether an extraction worked; when one fails, the event also carries the step, your browser’s error and the file’s codecs, size and length in broad bands, never the file or its name. If one fails you can choose to send us the file, which is deleted within 30 days. See the privacy policy.
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