Free browser tool
Pull the sound out of a video
Drop a video in and get an MP3 back. It converts in this tab, on your own machine, so there is no upload and no queue.
- No sign up
- Nothing uploaded
- No queue
- Up to 300 MB a file
Drop a video in
Drag a file onto this panel or open one. It is converted to MP3 in this tab, on your own machine, and never uploaded.
ffmpeg, in your browser
This page is ffmpeg compiled to WebAssembly. The same program that every video tool on your machine uses underneath runs here instead, inside the tab, on your own processor. Your video is read from your disk by the page, decoded, and the audio written out as an MP3.
That is the whole difference between this and the converters that rank above it. They upload your file, put it in a queue on a server you know nothing about, convert it there and give you a link that expires. Nothing is uploaded here, because there is no code in the page that could upload it.
What it costs
The encoder is a 32 MB download, once per visit. That is the honest trade: a server-side converter sends a kilobyte of HTML and does the work somewhere else, and this one sends the converter to you. After the first run it is cached, so a second file starts immediately.
Conversion then runs at the speed of your own machine on one thread, which for pulling an audio track out is roughly real time or better. A twenty minute recording takes a minute or two.
192 kbps, and why
The MP3 is written at 192 kbps at the video's own sample rate. For speech, a lecture, a podcast or a screen recording that is past the point where more bitrate changes anything you can hear, and it keeps a half hour recording under 30 MB, which still attaches to an email.
Nothing about the original is touched. The video on your disk is the video you started with.
If you are recording to publish
Extracting audio afterwards is a repair job. Prequel records your Mac's screen with the microphone and the system audio on separate tracks and separate gains, so a notification landing over your voice is a slider rather than a reason to start again, and the audio is already apart from the picture when you open the editor.
How it works
Converting in 3 steps
- Drop a video inMP4, MOV, WebM, AVI, MKV: anything ffmpeg reads, up to 300 MB. Drag it onto the panel or open a file.
- ConvertThe encoder downloads once, then the audio track is decoded and written as a 192 kbps MP3 on your machine.
- DownloadThe MP3 is ready the moment the run finishes, named after the video it came from.
What it does
Free, and still worth using
Keep the video on your own machine
Every other online converter uploads your file, converts it on a server and emails you a link. This one runs ffmpeg compiled to WebAssembly inside the tab, so the video never leaves your computer.
Skip the queue entirely
There is no server to be busy, no daily limit and no waiting list. The only thing between you and the file is your own processor.
Get audio worth listening to
192 kbps, which is past the point where speech or a lecture gains anything from more, and small enough to email. The sample rate is whatever the video had.
Convert anything your video came from
A screen recording, a Zoom export, a phone video, a DSLR clip. The audio track is taken out as it is found, whatever container it arrived in.
Start without an account
No sign up, no email for the link, no watermark and nothing installed. Close the tab and both files are gone.
On a Mac, the editing is already done
Prequel records your screen at its full resolution, then opens an editor with the zooms already placed, your camera framed and a background applied. Export one MP4 at up to 4K.
No credit card required
- Zooms placed on every click
- Camera shaped, sized and framed
- Background, padding and shadow
- Microphone and system on separate gains
- Cursor smoothed and resized
More tools
The rest of them
Free browser tool
Free MP4 to MP3 converter
An MP4 in, the audio out as an MP3, converted in the tab.
Free browser tool
Free MOV to MP4 converter
QuickTime in, MP4 out, rewrapped rather than re-encoded wherever it can be.
Free browser tool
Free MOV to MP3 converter
A QuickTime recording in, its audio out as an MP3.
Free browser tool
Free AVI to MP4 converter
Old AVI in, H.264 MP4 out, converted on your own machine.
FAQ
Quality, size and where the file goes
Is my video uploaded to convert it?
No. The converter is ffmpeg compiled to WebAssembly, running in this tab on your own processor. Your video is read out of your file system by the page and never sent anywhere, which is also why there is no queue and no link to wait for.
What quality is the MP3?
192 kbps, at whatever sample rate the video's audio was recorded at. That is comfortably past the point where speech, a lecture or a screen recording gains anything from a higher bitrate, and about a megabyte a minute.
Why does it take a moment to start the first time?
The encoder is a 32 MB WebAssembly build of ffmpeg, and it downloads the first time you convert something. After that it is cached for the rest of your visit, so a second file starts immediately.
How big a video can I convert?
About 300 MB. The converter runs inside the tab's memory, which is where that ceiling comes from: the video, the MP3 and the encoder all have to fit in it at once. A long recording is better split first.
Which video formats does it take?
MP4, MOV, WebM, AVI, MKV, M4V, FLV and most things a camera or a screen recorder writes. If your player opens it, this almost certainly reads it.
Does converting to MP3 lose quality?
Some, because MP3 is lossy and the audio in your video already was. At 192 kbps the loss is not audible on speech, which is what most people are extracting. For a master, convert to WAV instead and keep the original.
Can I convert a YouTube video?
Only one you have already downloaded and have the right to use. This page converts a file on your computer; it cannot fetch anything from the web, and downloading other people's videos is between you and their terms.
What if I want the video as well as the audio?
Keep the original: nothing here changes it. If you are recording something to publish, Prequel records your Mac's screen with the microphone and the system audio on separate tracks, so the two are already apart when you start editing.