MKV to MP3 Converter
Lift the audio track out of an MKV and save it as MP3.
Up to 50 MB per file. Sign up free to convert files up to 100 MB.
| File name | Size | Convert to |
|---|
Checking files and selected output formats.
MKV to MP3: pulling one track out of many
Matroska is built to hold several audio tracks at once, different languages, commentary, a stereo mix beside a 5.1 mix. Extraction has to pick one, and the default is usually the first, which is not always the one you want. The chosen track is then decoded from whatever codec it used and re-encoded as MP3.
Convert to get the audio from a video as a listenable file. If you end up with the wrong language or a commentary track, the file had multiple streams and the first one was not the main mix.
MKV vs MP3: Side-by-side
Technical comparison of the two formats, useful for deciding which to use, or for confirming what changes during conversion.
| Property | MKV | MP3 |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Matroska Video | MPEG-1 Audio Layer III |
| Year introduced | 2002 | 1993 |
| Developer / standard body | Matroska Foundation | Fraunhofer / MPEG |
| MIME type | video/x-matroska | audio/mpeg |
| File extension | .mkv | .mp3 |
| Compression | Codec-flexible (H.264, H.265, AV1, VP9) | Lossy (MDCT) |
| Color / data depth | Up to 12-bit | N/A (audio) |
| Max dimensions / size | Codec-dependent | Up to 320 kbps bitrate |
| Transparency | No | No |
| Animation | No | No |
| Standard / specification | Matroska | ISO/IEC 11172-3 |
| Best for | High-quality video with multiple audio/subtitle tracks | Universal audio compatibility, playable on every device |