MP4 to MP3 Converter
Keep just the audio from a video and drop the picture.
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.
What to expect when converting MP4 to MP3
A 50 MB MP4 music video typically yields a 4 – 6 MB MP3 (just the audio track at 192 kbps).
Quality: The audio is re-encoded from the MP4's AAC track to MP3. Slight additional lossy compression, usually inaudible.
Best for: extracting music from videos, podcast clip extraction, audiobook ripping.
Avoid when: you want the video too, converting to MP3 discards the visual frames permanently.
Tip: For best quality, set the MP3 bitrate to match the source AAC bitrate or higher (typically 192 – 320 kbps).
MP4 to MP3 - The "just the audio track" conversion
Only one audio conversion is searched for more often. The want is always the same, the sound without the picture. Podcast recordings that arrived as screen captures, lecture videos headed for a commute, downloads where only the music matters. The audio inside an MP4 is already AAC, so this is a lossy source becoming a lossy file; at a high bitrate the difference is not something you will hear.
How audio extraction from MP4 works
MP4 is a container format (ISO Base Media File Format) that holds separate video and audio tracks. The audio track is typically AAC-encoded at 128-256 kbps. Extraction decodes the AAC audio and re-encodes it as MP3. MP3 is a less efficient codec than AAC, so a 256 kbps AAC source needs roughly 320 kbps MP3 to stay perceptually transparent, matching the source number (256) would lose a little more than you expect. The video track is discarded entirely, and the MP3 that comes out is sized by running time and how dense the audio is, not by how big the video was: a 45-minute lecture lands in the same range whether the source file was 100 MB or 2 GB.
Extract audio from videos when you want the soundtrack or dialogue as a standalone file, for podcasting from video interviews, saving music from music videos, creating audio-only versions of lectures, or building a playlist from YouTube downloads. MP3 is the right target for maximum device compatibility; choose FLAC if you need lossless quality.
How to extract the MP3 from an MP4
- 1 Upload the MP4 Drag the file in or pick it from your device. The video track is read but never re-encoded, so a long file is no slower than a short one of the same bitrate.
- 2 Let the audio track come out The AAC track is decoded and re-encoded with LAME at VBR quality 2. There is no bitrate to choose and nothing to confirm between the upload and the download.
- 3 Download the MP3 One file, or a ZIP if you uploaded several. The result plays in anything, car stereos, old MP3 players, Audacity.
Bitrate, size and what you can expect
There is no bitrate picker, and that is deliberate. The MP3 is written with LAME at VBR quality 2, which targets a quality level rather than a number, quiet speech is given fewer bits than dense music, so the file is as small as it can be without an audible loss. Expect roughly 5 to 9 MB for ten minutes of an interview or lecture, and up to around 14 MB for ten minutes of music. A fixed 128 kbps would make the speech file larger than it needs to be and the music file worse than it needs to be.
Where the file goes
The conversion runs on our server, not in your browser: ffmpeg has to read the MP4 container to reach the audio track. The upload is encrypted in transit, the file is deleted within the hour, there is no watermark and no account is needed. If you would rather nothing left your device at all, the crop, resize and rotate tools do run entirely in the browser.
What people use it for
Podcast from a recorded interview
Zoom and Meet both export MP4. Editors like Audacity and Descript want audio, so the video track is dead weight in the timeline and in the upload.
Lecture or talk for offline listening
A 50-minute lecture is roughly 400 MB as MP4 and 45 MB as MP3, which is the difference between streaming it and keeping it on the phone.
Transcription and subtitling
Whisper, Otter and most transcription services bill by duration but upload faster from audio, and several reject video outright.
A song or sound from a clip
Extracting the audio keeps exactly what was in the MP4, re-recording it through the speakers does not.
Screen recording with narration
A screen capture is mostly a still image with a voice over it. Dropping the video leaves the part anyone actually needs to review, at a fraction of the size.
Related: MP4 converter · M4A to MP3 · Video compressor
MP4 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 | MP4 | MP3 |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | MPEG-4 Part 14 | MPEG-1 Audio Layer III |
| Year introduced | 2001 | 1993 |
| Developer / standard body | MPEG | Fraunhofer / MPEG |
| MIME type | video/mp4 | audio/mpeg |
| File extension | .mp4 / .m4v | .mp3 |
| Compression | H.264 or H.265 codec | Lossy (MDCT) |
| Color / data depth | 8/10-bit | N/A (audio) |
| Max dimensions / size | Codec-dependent (up to 8K) | Up to 320 kbps bitrate |
| Transparency | No | No |
| Animation | No | No |
| Standard / specification | ISO/IEC 14496-14 | ISO/IEC 11172-3 |
| Best for | Universal video compatibility, plays on every device | Universal audio compatibility, playable on every device |