Audacity

Updated October 17, 2026

About Audacity

Audacity is free audio software, open source, that records several tracks at once and lets you cut, clean up and mix them on your computer.

People use Audacity to record and edit podcasts, music, and other audio, cutting and mixing tracks, cleaning up noise, and exporting to common formats. It suits podcasters, musicians, and anyone who needs to quickly edit or export audio, from solo creators to hobbyists.

Multi-track recording and playback
Non-destructive cutting, copying, and mixing
Built-in effects like noise reduction and reverb
Support for VST, LADSPA, LV2, and Nyquist plugins
AI-powered music separation, noise suppression, and transcription

Good to know: Free and open source, runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Key features

AI audio helpers: Split songs into separate parts, reduce background noise, transcribe speech, and sharpen low-quality recordings with built-in AI options.
Many file formats: Opens and saves MP3, WAV, AIFF, Ogg Vorbis and, with the FFmpeg add-on, M4A and WMA too.
Spectrogram view: See the frequencies in a recording to spot problems and fine-tune your edits.