Extract Audio from a Video as MP3 (FFmpeg)
Pull the sound track out of any video file and save it as an MP3 with one FFmpeg command.
Run ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vn -c:a libmp3lame -q:a 2 audio.mp3 — -vn drops the video and -q:a 2 gives near-transparent MP3 quality.
01Command
Command
$ ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vn -c:a libmp3lame -q:a 2 audio.mp302What it does
The -vn flag discards the video stream, leaving only audio, which is then encoded to MP3 with the built-in LAME encoder. The wiki describes -q:a as a VBR quality knob: 2 averages around 190 kbps and is fine for music, while 0 is the maximum quality. To keep the original codec instead of converting, replace the encoder flags with -c:a copy and change the output extension to match.
03Risk
!Warning: Extracting audio does not improve the source quality — audio that was quiet or noisy in the video stays that way in the MP3.
04Undo
✓No undo needed — this command does not change persistent state.
05Sources
- MP3 Encoding GuideEvidence: Documents encoding MP3 with libmp3lame and the -q:a VBR quality scale (roughly 2 ≈ 190 kbps average, 0 highest quality).
Last verified: 2026-09-18 · Category: Media