October 2, 2026
Which MP4 to MP3 Converter? CloudConvert vs 123apps vs MyTools
CloudConvert vs 123apps Online Audio Converter vs MyTools for MP4 to MP3: free limits, audio settings, batch support and privacy, so you can pick the right one.
You have a video and you only want what it sounds like: a recorded lecture to play on your commute, an interview to send to a transcriber, a rehearsal to listen back to. Search "MP4 to MP3 converter" and you get a page of near-identical tools. This piece compares three you are likely to meet — CloudConvert, 123apps' Online Audio Converter and MyTools MP4 to MP3 — on the things that actually change your afternoon: daily caps, audio settings, batches and where your file goes.
What Pulling Audio Out of a Video Involves
An MP4 is a container. Inside it sit a video stream and, usually, an AAC audio stream. Converting to MP3 means throwing the video away and re-encoding that audio with an MP3 encoder at a bitrate you choose. The result is typically a tenth of the original size or less, and it plays on anything — car stereos, old MP3 players, podcast apps, the voicemail system at work.
The problems people hit are rarely about the conversion itself:
- Size and uploads. Phone videos are big. A 40-minute 1080p recording can easily pass 1 GB, and uploading that to a converter on hotel Wi-Fi takes longer than the conversion.
- Volume of files. A course, a week of meetings or a season of match recordings means twenty or thirty videos, not one. Doing them one at a time is where the time goes.
- Content you'd rather not hand over. Medical appointments, HR interviews and family videos are exactly the recordings people want as audio, and the ones they're least keen to upload to a stranger's server.
People reach for an online tool here because installing a video editor on a work laptop to export one audio track is overkill — and the job comes up a few times a year, not every day.
The Contenders
CloudConvert is a general-purpose conversion service that handles hundreds of formats, with MP4 to MP3 as one route among many. Online Audio Converter is 123apps' audio converter — part of the same suite as their well-known cutter — and accepts video files as input. MyTools MP4 to MP3 is our own converter, which runs the conversion inside your browser instead of on a server.
CloudConvert: The Converter for Everything
CloudConvert is a freemium service aimed at people who convert lots of different things. It also sells an API, which tells you who its heaviest users are. The free tier allows around 25 conversions per day, with paid credit packs and subscriptions starting at about $9 when you need more.
What it gets right
- Deep settings. Bitrate, sample rate, channels, volume and a trim start/end are all available before you convert — you can cut the intro off and pick 320 kbps in the same pass.
- Format breadth. If your "MP4" turns out to be an obscure camera format, CloudConvert has almost certainly seen it before.
- Generous single-file size. Free files up to around 1 GB cover most phone recordings.
Where it falls short
- Daily cap. Twenty-five conversions sounds like plenty until you have a semester of lectures; a batch of 30 videos won't fit in one free day.
- Upload first. Every file travels to CloudConvert's servers before anything happens, so a large video costs you its full upload time. The service states that files are deleted after processing, but they still leave your device.
- Free conversions can time out. Free jobs are reported to have a processing-time ceiling, which a very long recording can run into.
Online Audio Converter (123apps): The Audio Specialist
Online Audio Converter is the audio-focused member of the 123apps family. It covers a long list of input formats, including most video containers, and outputs MP3, WAV, M4A, FLAC, OGG and even iPhone ringtones. A premium plan (around €6 a month) removes ads and lifts the limits.
What it gets right
- Output choice. Need FLAC for an archive or M4A for an Apple device instead of MP3? It's one dropdown away.
- Audio-specific extras. Fade in, fade out and editing the track info (title, artist, album, year) are built in. That last one is surprisingly useful when the MP3 is going into a music library rather than a folder.
- Batch to ZIP. You can convert several files together and download them as a single archive.
Where it falls short
- Free-tier limits are a moving target. Reports of the daily file count and maximum size on the free plan vary widely between sources, which suggests they change. Expect to hit a wall eventually if you convert regularly.
- Ads on the free tier. The page is usable, but it isn't quiet.
- Server-side processing. Like CloudConvert, your video uploads before conversion starts. For most clips that's fine; for a sensitive recording it's the deciding factor.
MyTools MP4 to MP3: Local and Built for Batches
MyTools runs the conversion on your own computer or phone, using a WebAssembly build of FFmpeg loaded in the page. It's free, with no account and no daily quota. It accepts MP4, M4V, MOV, WebM, MKV and AVI.
What it gets right
- Nothing is uploaded. The video is read straight from your disk into the browser tab, so a 900 MB recording starts converting immediately instead of after a ten-minute upload, and it never reaches a server.
- Real batches, no cap. Drop up to 50 videos at once (up to 1 GB each), set the options once, and download the MP3s one by one or as a ZIP. Then do another 50. There is no daily limit.
- The settings that matter for MP3. Bitrate from 96 to 320 kbps (192 by default), sample rate (keep the source, 22.05, 44.1 or 48 kHz) and stereo or mono — which is the setting that halves the size of spoken-word recordings.
Where it falls short
- MP3 out, nothing else. No WAV, FLAC or M4A. If you need a lossless copy of the audio, Online Audio Converter is the better fit.
- No trimming, fades or tags in the same pass. You get a straight conversion. Cutting the first two minutes means a second step in our audio trimmer, and there's no way to set ID3 tags at all.
- Your device does the work. Speed depends on your hardware, the tab has to stay open until the batch finishes, and a long batch on an older phone is noticeably slower than a server would be.
At a Glance
| CloudConvert | Online Audio Converter | MyTools | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Freemium, ~25 conversions/day free | Freemium, ads on free tier | Free, no quota |
| Signup required | Optional free account | No | No |
| Files uploaded | Yes | Yes | No — converts in your browser |
| Output formats | MP3 and many others | MP3, WAV, M4A, FLAC, OGG and more | MP3 only |
| Trim / fades / tags | Trim and volume | Fades and track info | None |
| Batch | Yes, within the daily cap | Yes, ZIP download | Up to 50 at a time, ZIP |
Which One Fits Your Recording?
If you want to clean up the audio in the same step — cut off a silent intro, raise a quiet recording — CloudConvert's trim and volume options save you a second tool. It's also the safest bet for an unusual source format.
If the MP3 is headed for a music library, or you'd rather have FLAC or M4A, Online Audio Converter is the better tool. The track-info editor alone is worth it for anyone ripping concert recordings or music videos they own.
If you have a pile of videos, a slow connection, or a recording you don't want to upload, MyTools is the one to open. Fifty files in one drop with no daily ceiling covers a whole course or a week of meetings, and since the video is never sent anywhere, the size of the file only affects how long your own device takes, not how long an upload takes.
The Bottom Line
The two server-based tools win on extras: CloudConvert on settings and format coverage, Online Audio Converter on output formats and tags. MyTools wins when the job is plain extraction at volume, or when the video should stay on your machine. For most people turning videos into something to listen to, a straight MP3 at 192 kbps is all they need.
Have a folder of videos you only want to hear? Convert them to MP3 in your browser →