Getting the audio out of a video: MP3, M4A or WAV
2026-10-06
A recorded lecture, an interview, a concert clip: often the picture does not matter and you only want the sound. Converting a video to an audio format drops the picture and keeps the soundtrack. It is also the fastest kind of conversion on this site, because no video has to be encoded.
What the converter does
- The picture is discarded. Only the audio track is read.
- The audio is re-encoded to the format you pick. It is not copied out unchanged, so the quality setting applies.
- Sample rate and channels stay as they are. A 48 kHz stereo soundtrack comes out as 48 kHz stereo; a mono recording stays mono.
- One track is used. If the video has several audio tracks, for example two languages in an MKV, you get one of them, normally the track the file marks as its default.
Which format to choose
| Target | Choose it when | Size per minute (stereo) |
|---|---|---|
| MP3 | It has to play on anything: phones, car stereos, old players | 1.4 MB at Medium (192 kbps) |
| M4A | You use Apple devices, or want slightly better sound at the same size | 1.4 MB at Medium (192 kbps) |
| WAV | You will edit the audio or feed it to transcription software | About 11.5 MB at 48 kHz, 16-bit |
| FLAC | You want a lossless copy that is smaller than WAV | Roughly half of WAV |
| OGG | A game engine or open-source tool asks for it | Similar to MP3 |
WAV and FLAC are lossless containers, but remember what goes into them: the soundtrack of an MP4 is already compressed, usually as AAC. Saving it as WAV preserves exactly what is there. It does not improve it. Choose WAV because a program requires it, not as an upgrade.
Speech or music?
For spoken recordings such as lectures, meetings and voice notes, the Small setting (128 kbps MP3) is more than enough, and an hour comes to about 58 MB. For music, use Medium or High. The exact bitrates behind each setting are in the quality guide.
Steps
- Open the converter for your file type: MP4 to MP3, MOV to MP3, MKV to MP3, WEBM to MP3 or AVI to MP3. For an uncompressed file use MP4 to WAV.
- Pick the quality before adding the file.
- Drop the video in. The whole file is read into the tab, so a long recording needs a moment before the progress bar starts moving.
Things to know
- The whole soundtrack is converted. There is no trim tool. To keep one section, trim the video first with your phone or computer's built-in editor.
- A video with no audio track fails. Screen recordings made without a microphone are the usual case. The converter reports an error because there is nothing to extract.
- Large files still have to fit in memory. Extracting audio is quick, but the full video is loaded first. Files over 2 GB are refused.
More guides
What the High, Medium and Small quality settings actually do
The exact encoder settings behind each quality option on SnapConvert, for video, audio, images and GIFs, and how to pick one.
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MOV vs MP4: what is different and when to convert
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MP3, M4A, FLAC, WAV or OPUS: choosing an audio format
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Making a video small enough to send
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MKV, AVI, WMV, FLV and other video formats: what they are and what converting to MP4 keeps
Where MKV, AVI, WMV, FLV, 3GP, MPG and TS files come from, why they fail to play, and what is kept and dropped when you convert them to MP4.
WEBM vs MP4: which to use and when to convert
Why screen recorders and browsers produce WEBM, where WEBM does not play, and what converting in either direction does on this site.
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Converting several files at once, and what the error messages mean
How the file queue works, the ways to add files, and what each error message on SnapConvert means and how to get past it.
Are online file converters safe? What happens to a file you upload
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Turning an iPhone voice memo into an MP3
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Converting a WhatsApp voice message to MP3
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