Extract audio from video

Copy the soundtrack out of any video exactly as it is, no re-encoding, or convert it to MP3, WAV or FLAC. It happens on your device.

  • Runs on your device
  • No upload
  • No sign-up
  • Free

Drop an MP4, MOV, MKV, WEBM or AVI video

The video is read in place on your device. Large files are fine. You can also drag a file here or paste it.

Copy or convert? It depends on the box

A video file isn’t one stream. It’s a container, a box with separate tracks inside: one for the picture, one or more for sound, plus metadata. The container format (MP4, MOV, MKV) and the audio codec (AAC, Opus, AC-3) are different things.

That’s why “extracting” can mean two very different jobs. Copying lifts the audio track out and puts it in a smaller box. Converting decodes it to raw samples and compresses it again with a new codec, which takes longer and adds one more generation of lossy compression.

Use the model on the right to see how the choice affects time, quality and size. As a rule: copy when you just want the sound, convert when a device or app demands a specific format.

Inside a video file

Time on a laptop
about 3 s
Quality
Identical to the original track
File size
≈ 19 MB (same as inside the video, AAC 128 kbps)

Times are rough; phones take 2–4× longer. The copy only works if the target container supports the codec: AAC fits in M4A, but not in MP3.

Questions people ask

How do I extract audio from a video without losing quality?

Choose “Original track (lossless copy)”. AudioKit copies the compressed audio stream out of the video unchanged, into a container that fits it (M4A for AAC, OGG for Opus/Vorbis, MP3 for MP3). It’s bit-for-bit what was in the video.

Why do I get an M4A and not an MP3?

Nearly all MP4 and MOV videos store AAC audio, and AAC belongs in an M4A file. Making an MP3 would mean decoding and re-encoding, which is slower and loses a little quality. Choose “Convert to another format” if you need MP3 anyway.

Does it work with long videos?

Yes. Large videos are mounted read-only instead of loaded into memory, and a stream copy just moves bytes, so a two-hour film typically takes under a minute on a laptop.

Can I extract audio from a video on iPhone or Android?

Yes, in Safari or Chrome. Pick the video from Photos or Files. Phones have less memory, so multi-gigabyte files can fail on older models; shorter clips are no problem.

What if the video has several audio tracks?

The first audio track is extracted. That’s normally the main language or the main mix.

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