Extract audio from video — Input checklist

Worked example

Check that the video really has audible sound, is an MP4, MOV or WebM file, and holds the audio track you want.

Also make sure your browser can hold the file in memory.

Play the video with the sound on and listen to the beginning, the middle and the end, because a screen recording made with the microphone muted can look normal and still hold nothing. Other containers such as MKV or AVI are not accepted by this tool, so convert them elsewhere first. The tool takes the default audio track and has no track picker, so a film with several languages should be checked for which one comes out.

Picture a student with a 60-minute lecture recorded as a 500 MB MP4 who wants an audio version for the commute. The sound inside such a file is usually AAC at around 128 kbps, which tells you what quality ceiling to expect from the extraction.

A common mistake is expecting the extracted audio to sound better than the video did. Writing it out as MP3 re-encodes the sound, and nothing can add detail that the original track never had, so choose a source with clean speech and no heavy background music if you can.

Note the video length and file size before you start. The whole file is processed in the browser, so a multi-hour 4 GB recording may strain a phone; cut it down to the part you need or use a desktop browser.

Local video containing an audio track

MP3 audio track

A video without a sound track, or one protected so that the audio cannot be read, produces nothing to extract.