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How to extract audio from a video file on a Mac

Tested on macOS 26.4.1 (Tahoe), Apple M3 Max, 3 Sept 2026. Updated 2026-09-03.

You can extract audio from a video file on a Mac without recording anything. QuickTime Player's File > Export As > Audio Only writes an M4A with an AAC track; the Finder's Encode Selected Video Files service does the same in bulk; afconvert writes WAV, AAC or ALAC; and ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -vn -c:a copy out.m4a copies the audio stream byte for byte. All four were tested on macOS 26.4.1; only afconvert cannot make an MP3.

How do I get just the audio from a video with QuickTime Player?

  1. Open the video in QuickTime Player.
  2. Choose File > Export As, then choose Audio Only.
  3. Name the file and save. Apple's guide describes the result as "An Apple MPEG 4 audio file with an AAC audio track", so the extension is .m4a.

That is the whole procedure, and for one file it is the fastest route that involves no Terminal. Two limits: the audio is re-encoded to AAC, which is a new lossy generation if the source was AAC already, and there is no format choice. If you need WAV for an editor or MP3 for a player, use afconvert or ffmpeg below, or convert the M4A afterwards with the steps in converting to MP3.

QuickTime opens MOV and MP4 with H.264, HEVC and ProRes video and AAC or PCM audio. A file it refuses (MKV, some WebM) goes to ffmpeg.

Can the Finder extract audio from a video without any app?

Yes. macOS ships two Quick Actions as system services: Encode Selected Video Files and Encode Selected Audio Files (they live in /System/Library/Services on macOS 26.4.1). Control-click a video, choose Encode Selected Video Files, and in the dialog pick Audio Only; Apple's QuickTime automation page says you can "extract the audio track from the movie" this way. Select 20 files and it processes all of them.

If the command is missing from the menu, enable it under System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Services, in the Files and Folders group.

The audio-only output is again an M4A with AAC, the same engine as QuickTime. Encode Selected Audio Files is the companion for audio sources: Apple describes it as making "MPEG audio files from your existing AIF, WAV, CAF, or SDII audio files", so it will not take an MP4 as input. Neither produces MP3 or WAV; for those, keep reading.

How do I extract audio with afconvert, the built-in Terminal tool?

afconvert is Apple's Audio File Convert, present on every Mac at /usr/bin/afconvert. It reads the audio track of an MP4 or MOV directly. Three commands, each tested on a 5-second MP4 with an AAC track:

Add -d LEI24 for 24-bit WAV. The sample rate and channel count follow the source unless you add @48000 to the data format or -c 2. afinfo out.wav confirms the result.

Documented failure mode: afconvert does not encode MP3. afconvert -f MPG3 -d '.mp3' in.mp4 out.mp3 fails with ExtAudioFileSetProperty ('cfmt') failed ('fmt?') on macOS 26.4.1, because Apple ships an MP3 decoder but no encoder. For MP3, use ffmpeg, or export WAV with afconvert and encode with another tool.

What is the ffmpeg command to rip audio from an MP4 without re-encoding?

Install with brew install ffmpeg. The key options, quoted from ffmpeg's documentation: -vn "disables video recording", and the codec value copy indicates "that the stream is not to be re-encoded". Tested commands:

On the test file, ffprobe confirmed the copy kept the AAC stream, the MP3 came out at 320,000 bits per second, and the WAV at 48,000 Hz pcm_s16le.

ffmpeg is the only one of the four that handles MKV and WebM, the only one that writes MP3, and the only one that can copy without re-encoding. Its cost is the install. Formats in general are compared in WAV vs AIFF vs MP3.

When do you need to record instead of extracting?

Only when you do not have the file. Extraction works on a file on your disk: a screen recording, a phone video, a downloaded clip, a lecture MP4. Recording is for sound that only exists as playback: a live stream, a DRM-free stream you cannot download, a call, a DJ set from a controller. If a screen recording already has the sound in it, extract; re-recording it adds a generation of loss and takes real time (a 60-minute file takes 60 minutes to capture and under a minute to extract).

One more case where extraction fails: a screen recording that has no audio track because the built-in recorder captured only the picture. QuickTime's Audio Only export produces nothing useful from that. The fix is to record properly next time; see why does my Mac screen recording have no sound.

Four ways to extract audio from a video file on macOS 26.4.1

MethodOutput formatsRe-encodes?Batch?Handles MKV / WebM?Install needed?Cost
QuickTime Player, Export As > Audio OnlyM4A (AAC)YesNo, one file at a timeNoNoFree
Finder, Encode Selected Video Files > Audio OnlyM4A (AAC)YesYesNoNoFree
afconvertWAV 16/24-bit, AAC, ALAC, AIFF, CAF; no MP3Yes (PCM and ALAC are lossless)Yes, shell loopNoNoFree
ffmpegAnything: copy, MP3, WAV, AAC, FLAC, OpusOptional (-c:a copy)Yes, shell loopYesYes (Homebrew)Free
Re-record the playback (AirCheck)WAV 16/24-bit, MP3 320Yes, and real timeNon/aYes$39

All rows tested by the author on 3 Sept 2026 with a 5-second MP4 (H.264 + AAC) except the last, which is listed for contrast: it is the wrong tool when the file already exists.

Where AirCheck fits

AirCheck ($39 one-off, macOS 14 or newer) is a recorder, not a converter, and for a file you already have it is the wrong tool: extraction is lossless and instant, recording is real time. It becomes the right tool the moment the sound exists only as playback: a live stream, a call, a DJ controller, a web player without a download button. Then it captures system audio or any Core Audio input as a 24-bit master and exports WAV or MP3 320 when you stop, with no virtual driver.

When you do not need it: If the video is on your disk, use QuickTime's Audio Only export or ffmpeg -vn -c:a copy; both are free and do not lose quality the way a re-recording does. You do not need AirCheck for this page's task.

AirCheck records what your Mac plays, or any input, to one file. $39 once.

Buy AirCheck for $39

macOS 14 or newer. One-off payment. Fourteen-day refund, no questions asked.

Questions people ask

How do I convert MP4 to MP3 on a Mac for free?

Install ffmpeg with Homebrew and run ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -vn -c:a libmp3lame -b:a 320k out.mp3. QuickTime and the Finder only produce M4A (AAC), and afconvert cannot encode MP3 on macOS 26.4.1; it reports ExtAudioFileSetProperty ('cfmt') failed. The ffmpeg route was tested and produced a 320 kbps file.

Can QuickTime export audio only?

Yes. Open the movie, choose File > Export As > Audio Only, and QuickTime writes an Apple MPEG 4 audio file with an AAC track (.m4a), per Apple's guide. There is no format choice and the audio is re-encoded, so use afconvert or ffmpeg if you need WAV or a byte-exact copy.

How do I record audio from a video on a Mac?

If the video is a file, do not record; extract it with one of the four methods on this page, which is faster and lossless. Record only when the video plays from a site you cannot download from, using a system-audio recorder; that captures the playback in real time as WAV or MP3.

Does extracting audio lose quality?

Not if you copy the stream: ffmpeg -vn -c:a copy keeps the original AAC bytes, and afconvert to WAV or ALAC decodes without a new lossy step. QuickTime and the Finder re-encode to AAC, which is a second lossy generation when the source was already AAC.

Sources

Hannes Hennerbichler builds AirCheck and records his own DJ sets with it through a Focusrite Scarlett 8i6. Every step on this page was run on the macOS version stated above. Drafted with AI assistance, checked and edited by the author. About