Extract Audio From Video: MOV to MP3, MP4 to WAV and More

A video to MP3 converter that also does WAV, M4A and OGG

This is a video to MP3 converter first: drop in a clip and it pulls out the soundtrack as an MP3 you can play anywhere. It also works as a general video to audio converter: when MP3 isn't the right fit, switch the output to WAV for editing, M4A for Apple devices or OGG for games and open-source software. It reads MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM, AVI and most other video formats, so an iPhone clip, a Teams recording and a downloaded MP4 all go through the same page.

When you extract audio from video files here, everything runs in your browser, on your own device. That's also why I don't need to cap file size or the number of conversions: there's no server doing the work.

How to convert a video to MP3

The first MP3 conversion takes a few extra seconds to start. Most browsers have no built-in MP3 encoder, so the page downloads one (roughly 30 MB) the first time, and your browser keeps it cached for the next conversion.

Which audio format should you pick?

If you're unsure, pick MP3. Every phone, car stereo, podcast app and old media player opens it without question.

Choosing an MP3 bitrate

The bitrate decides how much detail the MP3 keeps and how big the file gets:

• 128 kbps for speech: lectures, meetings, interviews, voice notes. Voices sound the same as the source, and an hour of audio stays under 60 MB.
• 192 kbps as the all-round default, and for talking with music in the background.
• 320 kbps for music and live performances you want at the best quality MP3 allows.

A higher bitrate can't add detail the video never had. Most phone videos store their sound as AAC at around 128 to 256 kbps, so 320 kbps mostly protects what's already there. My guide to MP3 bitrates goes deeper, with listening notes for each setting.

Convert MOV to MP3 (iPhone and camera videos)

MOV is Apple's QuickTime container. Your iPhone records in it, QuickTime Player saves Mac screen recordings in it, and many DSLR and mirrorless cameras write it too. You don't need to turn a MOV into an MP4 before converting it to MP3. The tool reads it directly, including iPhone clips shot in HEVC. If you're curious why some players choke on MOV in the first place, my MOV vs. MP4 guide explains it.

What's inside the audio track depends on where the file came from. iPhone videos and screen recordings store AAC, which is already compressed, so an MP3 at 192 kbps or more sounds the same. Many cameras store uncompressed PCM instead. If that's your source, expect the MP3 to be dramatically smaller than the original audio. The drop comes from compressing audio that was never compressed, not from lost quality.

Pro cameras and field recorders also write four or more audio channels, one per microphone. MP3, M4A and OGG hold stereo at most, so the tool mixes everything down to two channels, and you'll hear every mic at once. To keep each mic separate, pick WAV and split the channels in an audio editor. A mono source, like a phone's single mic, stays mono.

Convert MP4 to WAV for editing

WAV stores PCM: the waveform written out as plain numbers, with nothing thrown away. Audacity, Reaper, Logic and Premiere read it without decoding, and you don't stack another round of lossy compression every time you export during a project. That makes WAV the right pick for podcast cleanup, sampling and sound design.

Making a WAV involves no encoder. The tool decodes the video's audio and writes the samples out as 16-bit PCM at 44.1 kHz. So the conversion adds no loss, but it can't restore detail the video's original AAC encoding already dropped either.

The catch is size. Estimate it with sample rate × bit depth × channels × seconds ÷ 8. One minute of 44.1 kHz, 16-bit stereo comes to about 10.6 MB, and a ten-minute interview lands around 100 MB. For anything you'll only listen to, MP3 or M4A is the better choice.

MP4 to M4A and MP4 to OGG

M4A is the audio-only form of the MP4 container, and it almost always holds AAC. At the same bitrate AAC usually sounds a little closer to the source than MP3, and Apple's apps (Music, GarageBand, Voice Memos, CarPlay) treat it as a native format. Apple also uses .m4a for ALAC (Apple Lossless), a different codec. This tool always writes AAC, because a video's audio is almost never lossless to begin with.

OGG is a container, and Vorbis is the codec inside it. An .ogg file can technically hold Opus or FLAC, but nearly every one you meet is Vorbis, and that's what this tool writes. Vorbis is royalty-free, which is why game engines like Godot and many open-source apps prefer it. Apple's apps don't play OGG, so pick M4A if the file has to work on an iPhone.

WebM, MKV, AVI and other videos to MP3

• WebM files, common from screen recorders and browser downloads, carry Opus or Vorbis audio. Converting WebM to MP3 re-encodes it once, and at 192 kbps you won't hear a difference.
• MKV files often hold several audio tracks, such as two languages or a commentary. The tool converts the primary track, the one a normal player plays first.
• AVI, WMV, FLV and MPG are older formats the fast in-browser reader can't open. The page loads its fuller converter for them, so the first one takes a little longer to start.

What people extract audio from

• Meeting and class recordings. A Teams or Google Meet recording is an MP4 where the picture barely matters. MP3 at 128 kbps turns an hour of it into something you can play on a commute. If you recorded in Zoom on your own computer, check the recording folder first: Zoom usually saves a separate audio-only .m4a next to the MP4.
• Interviews filmed for a podcast. Take WAV if you'll clean up the audio in an editor, then export the finished episode as MP3.
• Concerts and performances. Phone footage of a gig, a recital or a school play. MP3 or M4A at 320 kbps keeps the most of what the microphone caught.
• Screen recordings with narration. Tutorials where the voice-over is the useful part. 128 kbps is plenty.
• Sound effects and samples. A clip whose sound you want in a video edit or a beat. Take WAV so every later export starts from uncompressed audio.

How to extract audio from a video on iPhone

You don't need an app. Open this page in Safari, tap browse and choose Photo Library. Leave MP3 selected, or pick M4A if the audio is going into Apple Music or GarageBand, and convert. When you tap download, Safari saves the file to the Files app, in the Downloads folder by default.

Keep Safari in front while it converts. iOS pauses background tabs, so switching apps halfway stops the conversion until you come back.

What happens when you convert video to audio

• The tool opens the video container and finds the primary audio track.
• It decodes that track. The video stream is ignored and never processed.
• It resamples the audio to 44.1 kHz, the standard rate for music players and editors. Most video audio is 48 kHz, and the change isn't audible.
• It encodes the result as MP3, AAC or Vorbis at the bitrate you chose, or writes plain PCM for WAV.

Frequently asked questions

Other tools for your video

Working only with MP4 files and need MP3? The MP4 to MP3 converter is set up for exactly that. Want the words instead of the sound? Video to text turns speech into a transcript. To keep the picture but shrink the file, use the video compressor.