AVI to MP3 Converter
AVI is the video format of Windows PCs, early digital cameras and the DivX years, and its sound comes in several flavors. This page pulls out whichever audio the file has and saves it as a 192 kbps MP3.
Video to Audio
or drop MP4, MOV, MKV … files here ·
Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes
Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.
Keep the source rate unless a device or app asks for one. 44.1 kHz is CD standard, 16 kHz is enough for speech recognition.
Mono halves the size of lossless files and is fine for speech.
16-bit is CD quality. Choose 24-bit only if you will edit or master the audio.
Videos with several languages or a commentary have more than one track. 1 is the main track.
Optional. Seconds (e.g. 75) or minutes:seconds (1:15). Leave empty to start at the beginning.
Optional. Same format as the start time. Leave empty to keep everything up to the end.
How to use this tool
- 1
Upload the AVI files
Select up to 20 .avi files of up to 95 MB each. Clips from cameras, dashcams and old PC captures all work.
- 2
Set the track if needed
The first audio track is used. For dual-audio files, open Advanced settings and set Audio track to 2; Normalize volume helps with quiet camera sound.
- 3
Extract to MP3
Press Extract to MP3. Each MP3 takes the name of its AVI, so a folder of numbered camera clips stays in order.
What audio an AVI file carries
Microsoft released AVI in November 1992 with Video for Windows. It is a simple container: chunks of video and audio laid out one after the other inside a RIFF file, with almost no rules about which codecs go in. That openness is why the same extension covers very different files.
Three kinds turn up most often. DivX and Xvid files from the 2000s usually pair MPEG-4 video with MP3 sound, and DVD backups add AC-3 (Dolby Digital) tracks, sometimes two of them in different languages. Digital cameras and many dashcams write Motion JPEG video with uncompressed PCM or ADPCM sound, frequently in mono at modest sample rates. Screen captures from old Windows tools may carry PCM too.
- AVI released with Video for Windows
- 1992
- chunk structure shared with WAV
- RIFF
- size ceiling of early AVI files
- ≈ 2 GB
- largest AVI you can upload here
- 95 MB
AVI
Audio Video Interleave
AVI is a multimedia container introduced by Microsoft in 1992 as part of Video for Windows. It can hold many codecs, from uncompressed video to DivX and Xvid, which made it a common format for camcorders and downloaded films in the 2000s. It lacks modern features such as reliable variable frame rates and standard subtitle support, and files are often large. Desktop players such as VLC play AVI, but phones and browsers usually cannot.
- Compression
- Lossy or lossless
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 1992 · Microsoft
MP3
MP3 audio
MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer III) is a lossy audio format developed largely at the Fraunhofer Institute and standardised by MPEG in 1993. It removes sounds the ear is unlikely to notice, shrinking music to about a tenth of CD size at 128–320 kbps. All patents have expired, and every phone, car stereo, browser and media player supports it. Quality loss is audible at low bitrates and accumulates with re-encoding.
- Compression
- Lossy
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 1993 · Fraunhofer IIS / MPEG
People convert AVI to MP3 to keep the sound of old camera clips, dashcam footage or DivX-era music videos in a small file, when the AVI itself is large and its audio codec may not play on a phone.
Before you convert AVI to MP3
- Play the AVI once in VLC to confirm it has sound at all; some camera modes recorded silent clips.
- If a DVD-era file has two languages, note which one VLC lists first; that is track 1.
- For a long recording, write down the minutes you need and use Start at and End at.
- Keep Channels on Same as source for mono camera sound so the MP3 does not double in size.
- Turn on Normalize volume for clips filmed from a distance.
Will the MP3 sound as good as the AVI?
It will sound the same as the AVI's audio, never better. PCM from a camera is lossless, so a 192 kbps MP3 of it is about as clean as MP3 gets. An existing MP3 or AC-3 track is compressed a second time; matching or exceeding its bitrate keeps that step inaudible. Surround AC-3 tracks come out as stereo, since MP3 stores two channels.
If you also want to keep the picture, convert the file with the video converter first. For bitrate advice by content type, see our guide to turning video into MP3.
AVI to MP3 questions
Why does my AVI play without sound?
The player probably lacks the decoder for the audio inside, often AC-3 or DTS in a DVD-era rip, or an unusual ADPCM codec in a camera clip. The sound is still in the file; extracting it to MP3 here gets around the missing decoder.
Can I extract the audio from a dashcam AVI?
Yes. Many budget dashcams and older compact cameras save Motion JPEG video with simple PCM sound, often in mono. The MP3 keeps it mono and at its original sample rate, so it stays small and easy to share with an insurer.
Is the sound of a DivX or Xvid AVI already an MP3?
Very often, because MP3 was the usual partner of those codecs. It is still decoded and encoded again at the bitrate you choose, so pick the original rate or higher; 128 kbps sources gain nothing from 320 kbps.
My AVI is larger than 95 MB. What are my options?
Camera AVI files grow fast because Motion JPEG barely compresses. Cut the clip into shorter parts with Trim Video, or convert it with AVI to MP4 first, which usually shrinks it a lot, and extract the audio from the MP4.
Are AVI and WAV related?
Yes. Both are built on Microsoft's RIFF structure, which stores data in tagged chunks. WAV holds only audio chunks, while AVI interleaves audio and video chunks, which is where the name Audio Video Interleave comes from.