Guide
How to extract audio from a video
Sometimes the audio is the point: a lecture you want to listen to on a walk, a podcast recorded as a video call, a song from a concert clip, an interview you need to transcribe. Extract audio takes the sound out of a video and saves it as a standard audio file, on your own computer.
Steps
- 1Open Extract audio from video and drop the video (MP4, MOV, WebM, MKV or AVI).
- 2Choose a format: MP3 for anything you will listen to, M4A for Apple devices and small files, WAV for editing or transcription.
- 3Pick a bitrate for MP3 or M4A if offered. 128 kbit/s is fine for speech; 192 or 256 kbit/s for music.
- 4Press Extract and save the file.
Which format should you choose?
- MP3: plays everywhere. Best default for voice memos, lectures and podcasts.
- M4A (AAC): slightly better quality than MP3 at the same size, native on iPhone and Mac.
- WAV: uncompressed. Large, but the right choice if you will edit the audio or feed it to a transcription tool.
Pick a bitrate that matches the source
The audio inside a phone or screen recording is usually AAC at 128 to 256 kbit/s. Choosing a bitrate at or above that keeps the sound effectively unchanged; going higher only makes the file bigger. For transcription, WAV is the safest input.
Long recordings
Extraction is much faster than video compression because only the audio is processed. A two-hour recording takes a minute or two on a recent laptop.
Common uses
- Turn a recorded lecture or webinar into an MP3 you can listen to while commuting.
- Pull the audio from a Zoom or Teams recording to feed a transcription tool or a podcast edit.
- Save the soundtrack of a video you shot at a concert or a talk.
- Make a voice memo out of a video message so it takes up a fraction of the space.
Privacy
Every tool runs in your browser, so your files never leave your computer.
Questions
- Can I extract audio from a YouTube video?
- bruhgrow works with files on your device. Download your own video from YouTube Studio first, then extract the audio.
- Does the quality get worse?
- Choosing a format and bitrate at or above the original keeps it effectively identical to the ear. WAV is uncompressed and loses nothing.
- Can I extract just part of the audio?
- Trim the video first with Trim video, then extract the audio from the trimmed clip.
Tools for this
More guides
- How to compress a video for WhatsAppWhatsApp shrinks videos hard and caps file sizes. Compress the video yourself first so it arrives sharp. A short guide with steps.
- How to compress a video for emailGmail and Outlook cap attachments at around 20 to 25 MB. Here is how to compress a video to fit, and when a link is the better choice.
- How to add subtitles to a videoGenerate subtitles with on-device speech recognition, correct them, then burn them into the video or save an SRT file. Step by step.
- How to remove silence from a videoCut pauses, dead air and gaps out of a recording automatically, by loudness, with natural padding. Works for video and audio, on your device.