How to Extract the Audio From a Video (MP4 to MP3)

By Thiago · Updated September 25, 2026 · 2 min read

Sometimes the sound is all you need: a lecture to listen to on the bus, an interview to transcribe, or the audio of your own video to edit in a podcast app. Pulling the audio out of a video takes seconds.

Good reasons to extract audio

• Listening on the go: a recorded class, webinar or talk as an MP3 uses a fraction of the storage and battery of the video.
• Transcription: transcription services and apps work with audio files, and smaller files upload faster.
• Podcasts and editing: record a video call, then edit only the audio.
• Voice memos recorded with the camera: keep the sound and free up gigabytes of video.
• Your own music videos or performances as a track you can share.

Which output format?

• MP3 for listening, sharing and transcription. It's small and plays everywhere. Use MP4 to MP3.
• WAV if you will edit the audio in software like Audacity, Adobe Audition or a video editor. It adds no extra compression, so edits don't degrade it. Use MP4 to WAV.

Not an MP4? The MP3 converter accepts MOV, WEBM, MKV and AVI videos as well as audio files like M4A, AAC, WAV, OGG and FLAC.

Step by step

1. Open MP4 to MP3 and add one or more videos (up to 20 files, 100 MB each).
2. Click "Convert to MP3". The second progress bar shows the real conversion progress, based on the position in the video.
3. Download each MP3.

Only the audio track is kept. The video is dropped completely, so the MP3 is typically a small fraction of the original size. Basic information stored in the file, like its title, is carried over when the video has it.

What quality to expect

The MP3 is encoded with the LAME encoder at a high-quality variable bitrate (V2, usually about 170–210 kbps). That's more than enough for speech and music. But extraction can't add quality that wasn't recorded: if the video's own audio is muffled, noisy or compressed at a low bitrate (common in videos downloaded from social apps), the MP3 will sound the same way.

For the best result, extract from the original recording rather than a copy that went through WhatsApp or social media. Those apps compress audio heavily.

Tips for lectures and interviews

• Long recordings: a one-hour lecture as MP3 usually fits comfortably under the 100 MB upload limit even when the video didn't. If your video is larger than 100 MB, try the video compressor first: audio quality is preserved well even on the smaller levels.
• Transcripts of YouTube videos don't require any download. If the video has captions, YouTube to Text gives you the text directly.
• Naming: rename the files with the date and topic ("2026-09-lecture-07-statistics.mp3") so they sort nicely on your phone.

The reverse: turning audio into a video

Some platforms, like YouTube, only accept video. If you have a song, a podcast episode or a voice message you want to post there, MP3 to MP4 turns the audio into a video with a cover image of your choice or a plain dark background.