When you need audio only
Lectures, interviews, podcasts recorded on video and your own clips are easier to listen to on the go as audio. MP3 is small and plays on every phone and car stereo.
Steps
- Open MP4 to MP3 and add the video.
- Start the conversion. It runs inside your browser, so the video stays on your device.
- Download the MP3.
Quality and size
A 128 kbps MP3 is fine for speech. For music, 192 to 256 kbps sounds noticeably better. Higher settings make larger files. Video from a phone usually has good audio already, so the MP3 will be as good as the source allows.
Other options
- Trim the audio to keep only the part you want.
- Extract audio from other video formats.
- Convert WAV to MP3 to shrink recordings.
Respect copyright
Only convert videos you made or have permission to use.
Common problems
- No sound in the MP3: check that the video itself has an audio track, since screen recordings sometimes do not.
- File too large: lower the quality setting or trim the audio.
- Conversion fails: try a smaller file or another browser such as the latest Chrome or Edge.
- Phone files: some phone formats need to be converted to MP4 first.
Where MP3 files are useful
Podcasts and lectures for the commute, voice notes you want to share, ringtones, background audio for a presentation and music for a video project you own the rights to. MP3 works on virtually every device made in the last twenty years.