How to extract the audio from a video on your Mac

To get the sound out of a video on a Mac, open it in QuickTime Player, choose File, Export As, then Audio Only. You get an AAC audio file. Finder and iMovie can do it too. Koi does it in one drag: drop the video on More, click Convert, then M4A, and the sound alone is saved beside the video.

We make Koi, so read the Koi part with that in mind. Everything about Koi here is what version 1.13 does. Apple's steps come from its QuickTime and iMovie guides, checked October 21, 2026.

1. Open the video in QuickTime Player.
2. Choose File, Export As, then Audio Only.
3. Name the file, pick a folder and click Save.

Apple's export guide says Audio Only makes an Apple MPEG-4 audio file with an AAC track: the same kind of file as an M4A. Edit, Remove Video does a similar job in place, leaving the movie audio only.

In Finder, Control-click the video and choose Encode Selected Video Files. Apple's QuickTime Player guide says it can extract the movie's audio track as well as change its size. It takes every video you selected, which helps with a batch.

In iMovie, select the clip in the browser and choose File, Share, File. Set Format to audio only, click Next and save. Apple's iMovie export guide lists the choice. It's the slow way for one file, but handy when you're editing in iMovie anyway.

1. Start dragging the video in Finder or on your desktop.
2. While you're still holding it, press and hold Shift. The video wheel opens round your pointer.
3. Drop the video on More. The wheel turns into Split, Metadata, Redact and Convert.
4. Click Convert. The wheel turns into MP4, MOV, GIF and M4A.
5. Click M4A. Koi shows its progress, then saves the sound beside the video and shows it in Finder.

• The M4A is the video's sound alone, named after the video and saved next to it, so the two stay together. The video is never touched.
• MP3 isn't on the wheel. M4A plays in Music, QuickTime, on iPhone and in most apps.
• It runs on your Mac with Apple's AVFoundation. Nothing is uploaded.

1. Drag the video, hold Shift and drop it on Trim.
2. Drag the strip's ends in to the part you want, using ← and → for single frames, and click Trim.
3. Drag the trimmed copy, hold Shift, drop it on More, click Convert, then M4A.

In QuickTime Player it's Edit, Trim first, then File, Export As, Audio Only. Either way the full video stays as it was.

Often you want the audio because you want the words: a lecture, an interview, a meeting someone sent as a video. You can skip a step. Koi's Transcribe takes the video itself, or the M4A, and writes down what was said on your Mac with timestamps, without uploading the file. The page it makes plays the sound back, and can export SRT or VTT subtitles for the video. Drop the video on Koi's Documents window, or pick it from the Tools button on Koi's dock. Recording the next call yourself? Koi records calls as audio only (an .m4a) or audio and video, also on your Mac.

• M4A is an MPEG-4 file with only sound in it. The sound inside is usually AAC, which keeps voices and music clear at a small size.
• MP3 is older and plays on almost anything, at a similar size.
• WAV and AIFF keep the sound uncompressed. They're much bigger, and only worth it when someone will edit the sound.

For a podcast clip, a voice memo or a song from a video, M4A is fine. Only reach for MP3 when the place you're sending it asks for MP3.

• One file, no fuss: QuickTime's Audio Only. Free, three clicks.
• A folder of videos: Finder's Encode Selected Video Files takes them all at once.
• You're already editing in iMovie: File, Share, File, with Format set to audio only.
• You do this every week from Finder or the desktop: Koi's M4A, one drag, no window to click through.
• You really want the words: skip the audio and drop the video on Koi's Transcribe.

• Need an MP3 for an old player or a form that only takes MP3? Koi doesn't write MP3, and QuickTime's Audio Only makes AAC. Check whether M4A is accepted first; it usually is.
• Only part of the sound? Trim the video first, then extract, as above.
• A long lecture makes a long file. M4A keeps it small enough to send, where WAV would not.
• A video with no sound has nothing to extract. Play it first, with the volume up.
• Taking the sound out of the video is the opposite job: that's muting.

Related: remove the audio from a video, trim a video or convert MOV to MP4. The rest of the wheel is on the Shift wheel page.

QuickTime, Finder and iMovie are free. Koi has no free plan: Pro is $20 a month, or $192 a year, after a 3-day free trial that needs a card. Lifetime is paid once, from $59. The Shift wheel uses no AI, so it never counts against Koi's usage. See the plans.