MOV to MP3 Converter
Keep the sound, drop the picture: this tool reads the audio track of a QuickTime .mov file and saves it as an MP3 that plays in any car stereo, podcast app or music library. Video from an iPhone, a Mac screen recording or a mirrorless camera all work the same way.
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
Add the MOV files
Drop up to 20 videos, 95 MB each, or pick them from Files or Photos. Several clips are converted in one pass.
- 2
Choose bitrate and range
MP3 at 192 kbps is preset. Under Advanced settings you can set Start at and End at to keep one section, pick another Audio track, switch to mono or turn on Normalise volume.
- 3
Convert and save
Press Extract to MP3 and download each file, or one ZIP for a batch. Uploads and results are removed after 30 minutes.
What does converting MOV to MP3 actually do?
It copies the audio stream out of the QuickTime container and re-encodes it as MP3. The video frames are discarded, so a 300 MB clip typically becomes a few megabytes of audio.
Convert MOV to MP3: what happens to the sound
A .mov file is a container that Apple introduced with QuickTime in 1991. Inside it sit separate streams: the picture (H.264 or HEVC on an iPhone, ProRes on many cameras) and one or more audio tracks. On phones the sound is almost always AAC, a lossy codec, recorded at 44.1 or 48 kHz. Pro cameras and audio recorders more often store linear PCM, which is uncompressed.
The converter decodes that audio track and encodes it again with an MP3 encoder at the bitrate you choose. Because AAC to MP3 is a lossy-to-lossy step, a small amount of detail is lost a second time; at 192 kbps it is inaudible on speech and on most music. Raise Bitrate to 256 or 320 kbps if the source is a concert recording you care about, and lower it to 128 kbps for spoken word.
How big is the MP3 compared with the MOV?
- per minute of MP3 at 192 kbps
- ≈ 1.4 MB
- per minute at 128 kbps
- ≈ 0.96 MB
- per minute at 320 kbps
- ≈ 2.4 MB
- largest MOV per upload
- 95 MB
MOV
QuickTime movie
MOV is the QuickTime container format created by Apple in 1991. iPhones record MOV files, and professional editing tools use it for high-quality codecs such as Apple ProRes, including versions with transparency. It can hold multiple video, audio, timecode and subtitle tracks. MOV files from editing software can be very large, and some Windows apps, Android phones and websites play them poorly or not at all.
- Compression
- Lossy or lossless
- Transparency
- Yes
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 1991 · Apple
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 pull MP3 out of a MOV because they only want the sound of a recording, such as a talk, a rehearsal or a voice note filmed on an iPhone, in a file that is a fraction of the size and plays on anything.
Before you upload a .mov to MP3
- Check that the clip actually has sound: silent screen recordings made without the microphone turned on have no audio track at all.
- Over 95 MB? Trim the video first with trim video, or send it to yourself at a lower resolution; the audio is unaffected by either.
- Recorded on an iPhone with AirDrop to a Mac? AirDrop sends the original file; sharing through some messaging apps re-compresses the sound.
- Need the voice as text instead of sound? An MP3 at 16 kHz mono is enough for most transcription tools.
MP3 or another audio format?
MP3 is the format with no compatibility questions: Windows, Android, old iPods, car head units and every podcast host accept it, and the last MP3 patents expired in 2017, so every operating system can encode it freely. Choose it when the file is going to someone else or into a device you do not control.
Pick M4A if the audio stays in the Apple world, since it keeps the original AAC character and the files are slightly smaller at the same quality. Pick WAV or FLAC when the sound will be edited, mixed or archived. For the more common MP4 source, the steps are the same on MP4 to MP3, and our guide on how to convert MP4 to MP3 covers bitrates in more depth.
MOV to MP3 questions
How do I convert a .mov file to MP3 on a Mac without extra software?
QuickTime Player can only get you halfway: File > Export As > Audio Only saves an M4A file, not an MP3. If an app or a device wants MP3 specifically, upload the MOV here, or convert the M4A with M4A to MP3.
Which bitrate should I pick for a lecture or interview?
Speech is clear at 96 or 128 kbps, especially in mono, and a one-hour talk at 128 kbps is roughly 58 MB. Use 192 kbps or more when the recording is music, because cymbals and reverb are the first things a low bitrate smears.
My MOV has two audio tracks. Which one do I get?
Track 1, the main one, unless you change Audio track under Advanced settings. Interview recorders and some cameras write a second track for a lavalier mic or a backup channel; set the number to 2 to extract that one instead.
Can I get just the song from the middle of a long video?
Yes. Type the times into Start at and End at, as seconds (95) or minutes:seconds (1:35). Only that stretch is encoded, so the MP3 is ready to use without opening an audio editor.
Is the video quality important for the MP3?
No. The picture is ignored, so a 4K HEVC clip and a 720p clip with the same soundtrack give the same MP3.
The MOV is from a professional camera. Should I still choose MP3?
Cameras that record ProRes usually store uncompressed PCM audio. If you plan to edit or master that sound, pick WAV as the output to keep it lossless, as on MOV to WAV. MP3 is the right call once the audio is final and only needs to be played or shared.
