Free tool
MP4 to WAV converter
Use this MP4 to WAV converter to take a video’s sound out as an uncompressed 16-bit WAV at the video’s own sample rate, ready for Audacity, a DAW or a video editor. It runs in your browser, so nothing is uploaded.
- Free
- Works on phones
- Nothing is uploaded
Save as
Uncompressed 16-bit, for editing. About 10 MB a minute in stereo.
Drop your MP4 video here, or Choose your MP4 video
Any audio or video file, up to 1 GB and 2 hours. It’s converted in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
MP3 encoding by LAME, open-source software.
Cutting an interview or a talk? NoteOwl imports the MP4 itself and transcribes it on your Mac, labels each speaker, and can save the transcript as SRT subtitles.
How it works
How do you convert MP4 to WAV?
Decide on the sample rate, then drop the MP4. The page lifts out the AAC sound track, decodes it and writes every sample into a 16-bit WAV without touching the picture. A five-minute MP4 took 0.9 seconds in Chrome and 2.2 in WebKit. Check it in the player, then save.
- 1
Keep the rate, or switch to 44.1 kHz
Ticked, the WAV matches the video, which is what an editing timeline expects. Unticked, it comes out at 44.1 kHz for a music project or a CD.
- 2
Add the MP4
An MP4 or M4V from a phone, a camera, a screen recorder or an editor’s export, up to 1 GB and 2 hours long.
- 3
Download the WAV
It is named after the video, ending in .wav. The MP4 is only read, never changed.
How big is a WAV made from an MP4?
About 11.5 MB for every minute of 48 kHz stereo sound, however much the video weighs. A 33.4 MB five-minute MP4 gave a 57.6 MB WAV at its own 48 kHz and 52.9 MB at 44.1 kHz. Copied to M4A instead, the same sound took 4.5 MB.
- WAV, rate kept
- What you get48 kHz stereo, 16-bit PCM
- Size57.6 MB
- Took (Chrome / WebKit)0.9 s / 2.2 s
- WAV, box unticked
- What you get44.1 kHz stereo, 16-bit PCM
- Size52.9 MB
- Took (Chrome / WebKit)1.8 s / 3.1 s
- M4A
- What you getThe AAC sound copied, not re-encoded
- Size4.5 MB
- Took (Chrome / WebKit)0.07 s / 0.15 s
- MP3, 192 kbps
- What you get48 kHz stereo, re-encoded
- Size7.2 MB
- Took (Chrome / WebKit)3.1 s / 3.6 s
| Saved as | What you get | Size | Took (Chrome / WebKit) |
|---|---|---|---|
| WAV, rate kept | 48 kHz stereo, 16-bit PCM | 57.6 MB | 0.9 s / 2.2 s |
| WAV, box unticked | 44.1 kHz stereo, 16-bit PCM | 52.9 MB | 1.8 s / 3.1 s |
| M4A | The AAC sound copied, not re-encoded | 4.5 MB | 0.07 s / 0.15 s |
| MP3, 192 kbps | 48 kHz stereo, re-encoded | 7.2 MB | 3.1 s / 3.6 s |
Why do editors want the sound as a WAV?
Because WAV is the format every editor opens without help. Audacity reads it out of the box but needs its optional FFmpeg library before it can import an MP4, and uncompressed sound scrubs and cuts instantly in any DAW or video editor, with nothing lost each time you save.
That makes WAV the working format for voice-over, podcast edits and sound design: pull the sound out of a reference video or a recorded take, clean it up, layer it, then export the finished mix once, in whatever format the job asks for.
Should the WAV stay at 48 kHz or become 44.1 kHz?
Keep the video’s own rate when the sound is going back into a video edit: 48 kHz is the standard for video, so nothing needs resampling on the timeline. Switch to 44.1 kHz for a music session at that rate or for an audio CD. One box decides it.
The 44.1 kHz version is resampled in the page and comes out about 8% smaller: 52.9 MB against 57.6 MB for the five-minute MP4 above. Either way the WAV is 16-bit, and every channel of the video’s sound is kept.
Does a WAV bring back what the MP4’s sound lost?
No. An MP4’s sound is normally AAC, a lossy format, so detail was dropped when the video was encoded and decoding can’t restore it. The WAV holds exactly what the AAC still carries, almost 13 times larger, and loses nothing more however often you edit and save it.
When is copying the sound to M4A the better choice?
When you want the sound exactly as recorded and won’t edit it. With Save as set to M4A, the MP4’s AAC track is copied into an .m4a file without being decoded: the five-minute video took 0.07 seconds in Chrome, and the file is 4.5 MB instead of 57.6.
For a small file to play or share, MP4 to MP3 is the quicker page. MOV, MKV and WebM videos turn into a WAV here just as an MP4 does, and extract audio from video compares the three ways of saving a video’s sound.
What if the MP4 is an interview you are editing?
Then a transcript speeds up the cut. NoteOwl imports MP4 videos on a Mac, transcribes them with on-device AI models, labels each speaker and keeps the transcript searchable, so you can find a quote by its words. It can also save the transcript as SRT subtitles.
FAQ
Questions about converting MP4 to WAV
Is the MP4 uploaded to make the WAV?
No. The video is read from your device, and its sound is decoded and written as a WAV inside your browser tab; no request leaves the page while it converts. Even a video of several hundred megabytes stays on your computer.
Why can the WAV be bigger than the whole video?
Because the WAV stores its sound uncompressed, at about 11.5 MB a minute for 48 kHz stereo, while the video squeezes both picture and sound. A five-minute MP4 of 33.4 MB gave a 57.6 MB WAV.
Can I open the WAV in Audacity?
Yes. Audacity opens a 16-bit PCM WAV directly, with no extra library: drag it into the window, or choose File, then Import, then Audio. The same file opens in GarageBand, Adobe Audition, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve and Final Cut Pro.
What bit depth and channels does the WAV have?
16-bit PCM, little-endian, the same depth as an audio CD, with every channel of the video’s sound kept: a stereo track gives a stereo WAV. The sample rate is the video’s own, or 44.1 kHz with the box unticked.
Does it work with MOV, MKV or WebM videos too?
Yes. Any video the converter can read gives a WAV the same way: MOV from an iPhone, MKV from OBS, WebM from a browser recorder and 3GP files with AAC sound. AVI, WMV and FLV files can’t be read.
How long an MP4 can I turn into a WAV?
Up to two hours and 1 GB. Two hours of 48 kHz stereo makes a WAV of about 1.4 GB, which the browser keeps in memory until you download it, so a computer handles long videos better than a phone.
Keep exploring
More audio converters
- Audio converterConvert audio and video files to MP3, WAV, M4A or OGG in your browser: M4A, FLAC, AIFF, OGG, Opus, WebM, MP4 and MOV in; nothing is uploaded
- OGG to MP3 converterConvert OGG files to MP3 in your browser, Opus voice messages and Vorbis music alike; nothing is uploaded
- M4A to WAV converterConvert M4A to WAV in your browser, iPhone voice memos included: AAC or Apple Lossless in, 16-bit WAV out; nothing is uploaded
- FLAC to MP3 converterConvert FLAC to MP3 in your browser at 128, 192 or 320 kbps, 24-bit and 96 kHz files included; nothing is uploaded
Related
- Extract audio from videoTake the sound out of an MP4, MOV, WebM or MKV video in your browser and save it as MP3, M4A (no re-encoding) or WAV; nothing is uploaded
- MP4 to MP3 converterTurn an MP4 video’s sound into an MP3 in your browser, Zoom and Teams recordings included; nothing is uploaded
- Video to textTurn video to text free: drop in an MP4, MOV, M4V, MKV or WebM video and get an AI transcript with times, as text, SRT, VTT or Word; only the sound is sent, nothing is stored
Interviews and talks into transcripts, on your Mac
Free to download. Runs entirely on your Mac.
macOS 26 or later · Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) · 16 GB memory minimum, 24 GB recommended
About NoteOwl
NoteOwl is private AI meeting notes and memory for the Mac. It captures meetings without a bot joining the call, labels every speaker, writes summaries and action items, and builds a memory of every conversation that you can chat with — fully offline, because the speech recognition and the AI run on the Mac itself. Dictation into any app is free; Pro is a one-time purchase.
NoteOwl pricing: what’s free and what Pro adds
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