About Audacity

What is Audacity?

Audacity is the world’s most popular free software for recording and editing audio. So if you’re producing music, a podcast, or just playing around with audio, Audacity is for you. It is available to download as a desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux.

Is Audacity free?

Yes! Audacity has always — and will always — remain free for everyone. It is available to download from the Audacity website.

Who is Audacity for?

Audacity is for anyone who wants to get creative with sound. It’s also the perfect tool for anyone who needs to quickly edit or export audio, for any reason.

Here are a few of the most common ways Audacity is used every day:

  • Podcasters recording and editing spoken content. Audacity is the world’s most popular app for podcasters.
  • Musicians and bedroom producers, who can edit multiple-parts, mix and add simple effects in an app that’s faster and more intuitive than most DAWs.
  • Field recorders and educators, who can capture, edit or analyze the sounds of environments, ambience, animals and more.

Is Audacity open source?

Audacity is proudly open source. This means its source code remains open to anyone to view or modify. Audacity is licensed under the GNU General Public License. Details can be found here.

A dedicated worldwide community of passionate audio lovers have collaborated to make Audacity the well-loved software it is today. Many third-party plugins have also been developed for Audacity thanks to its open source nature.

Download & install

What devices are compatible with Audacity?

Audacity is tested compatible with the following operating systems:

  • Windows 10 & 11, with Vista, 7 and 8.1 believed to work
  • MacOS 12 & 13, with OS X versions since 10.9 believed to still work
  • Linux: Ubuntu 22.04, with most major distributions believed to work.

Is Audacity only available for desktop?

Yes, Audacity is only available for desktop computers or laptops.

There is no mobile version of Audacity available.

Where can I download Audacity?

Audacity is available to download from the Audacity website.

You can either download the app directly, or download Audacity through the free Muse Hub.

If you download Audacity via the Muse Hub, you’ll also get access to a free selection of sounds, loops and effects available to use in your Audacity projects.

Why should I download Audacity through the Muse Hub?

The Muse Hub is a gateway to creativity for any audio producer. It’s packed with the best free apps, sounds and effects for composing, producing or performing. In the Muse Hub you’ll find:

  • Muse Sounds: premium collections of sampled instruments, including keys, strings, brass, woodwind, percussion, choirs and electronics. Hear your music played back in astonishing detail with these moving — and completely free — preset packs.
  • Elements: free looping sound clips. Drop them easily into your Audacity performances or podcasts.
  • Muse FX: effects plugins including reverb, delay, compress and more, for fine-tuning your Audacity projects. You can download Audacity via the Muse Hub. If you already have Audacity, you can download the Muse Hub and access the free extras here.

How do I install Audacity or update to the latest version?

You can learn how to install Audacity on Windows, macOS and Linux on our support page.

Is Audacity safe to download?

Yes. Audacity is entirely safe to download and install on your desktop computer if it has been downloaded directly from the Audacity website.

We also publish official versions through the Microsoft Store, via winget, via Github and Fosshub. There also are third party Audacity builds around, though we cannot guarantee for the integrity of versions downloaded from places other than mentioned here.

Features

What features come with Audacity?

In the app, every audio creator can:

  • Record live with a microphone or mixer. Or digitize imported recordings.
  • Edit your tracks fast with intuitive tools, including cutting, pasting and smooth volume mixing.
  • Perfect your audio with more advanced effects:
  • Reduce background static with noise reduction tools.
  • Adjust tempo without altering pitch or vice versa.
  • Alter frequencies with equalizers, high and low-pass filters and more.
  • Add impact with distortion, echo, reverb and more effects.
  • Import, export and convert files in every popular audio format, including mp3, m4a, AIFF, FLAC, WAV and more. You can even combine clips from multiple formats into the same project.
  • Take your editing to the next level with an extensive selection of third-party effects plugins, designed by the passionate Audacity, open-source community.
  • Collaborate and backup projects with Cloud saving.
  • Visualize and analyze your audio clips in Spectrogram view.
  • Upload and share your files online to audio.com, instantly.

To learn more about specific features, check out the Audacity manual.

What audio file formats are compatible with Audacity?

Audacity supports import, export and conversion of files in every popular audio format, including mp3, m4a, AIFF, FLAC, WAV and more. In fact, you can just use Audacity to convert files into different formats if you like.

You can even combine clips from multiple formats into the same audio project.

What audio quality is compatible with Audacity?

Audacity supports 16-bit, 24-bit and 32-bit audio. Sample rates and formats are converted using high-quality resampling and dithering.

Can I use Audacity to produce music?

Yes! Audacity can be used to record and produce your music tracks. Because it’s free and easy-to-use, Audacity is a great DAW for music production beginners or those who want to make quick edits to recordings of live performances.

For more information on how to use specific Audacity features, check out the Audacity manual.

Can I use Audacity to produce podcasts?

Yes! In fact, Audacity is the world’s most popular software for recording and producing podcasts — because it’s easy-to-use and completely free.

For more information on how to use specific Audacity features, check out the Audacity manual.

Is Audacity a DAW?

Audacity is blurring the line between audio editor and DAW. It’s capable of much more than a mere audio editor (for example, non-destructive editing and realtime effects), but it also is lacking some key features which DAWs traditionally have (MIDI editing and virtual instruments).

The gap towards being a full DAW is being rapidly closed, with each release bringing new features that make Audacity increasingly capable, while remaining simple to use.

I’m just getting started with Audacity. Are there any free tutorials available?

We have a beginner tutorial series available on https://support.audacityteam.org/, beginning with installing Audacity and FFmpeg, recording your voice, recording desktop audio, editing audio, saving and exporting projects and more!

Is Audacity compatible with third party plugins?

Yes! As an open-source application many third party plugins have been developed for Audacity. Check out a list of some of our team’s favorite Audacity plugins at https://plugins.audacityteam.org/

Audacity supports VST3, LADSPA, LV2, Nyquist, VST and Audio Unit plugins.

Where can I find more information about specific Audacity features?

Try the free, online Audacity manual for in-depth, technical information on specific features.

Legal & privacy

What is Audacity’s privacy policy?

The Audacity app only collects data relevant to error reporting (such as device information) and software updates.

The Audacity team will take all the necessary steps to keep your data protected. It is fully GDPR compliant.

Read Audacity’s privacy policy in full here. The cookie policy for this website can be found here.

Is Audacity spyware?

No. Audacity is entirely safe to use and doesn’t store personal information. Audacity only collects data relevant to error reporting (such as device information) and software updates.

The Audacity team is fully GDPR compliant. Read Audacity’s privacy policy in full here.

If you are the sole creator of the audio project, the intellectual property rights and mechanical copyright is retained by you. Similar to other UGC (User Generated Content) platforms, by using audio.com you grant a license to host and show your work. You are also free to distribute your work on other platforms, if you wish. For more details read the full Terms & Conditions.

Team & news

Who is the Audacity Team?

Audacity is developed by a small team working remotely and supported by the community.

Current team members are:

  • Product owner: Martin Keary
  • Project manager: Yana Larina
  • Developers: Matthieu Hodgkinson, Grzegorz Wojciechowski, Dmitry Makarenko
  • Designers: Dilson’s Pickles, Leo Wattenberg
  • Testers: Sergey Lapysh, Antons Činakovs
  • People from MuseScore Studio helping with Audacity 4 development: Jessica Williamson, Igor Korsukov, Elnur Ismailzada

Code contributors can be found on Github in the commit history and graphs, contributors to the manual, contributors to the forum and contributors to the support site can be found on the respective pages.

Where can I stay up to date with the latest Audacity news and updates?

Check out our blog, subscribe to Audacity YouTube Channel, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

I have a question or issue with Audacity. Is there a support team I can contact?

Many frequently asked questions and issues are answered on our support page here. For detailed information on Audacity features, please check out the Audacity manual.

If you have a question you can’t find the answer to, please leave a comment on the Audacity forum, where one of our team (or someone in the Audacity community), will be happy to help!

I’m an open-source developer working with Audacity. How can I get in touch with the team?

Audacity is currently undergoing major code restructuring, so we unfortunately have very limited capacity to support third parties. That said, feel free to drop by our dev discord.

What is the history of Audacity?

Audacity has transformed the lives of musicians and audio content creators for over two decades. Since launching in 2000, the desktop app has been downloaded over 200 million times.

In 2020, we joined with the makers of Ultimate Guitar, MuseScore and others to form Muse Group, with a mission to empower millions of creatives all over the globe. Since then, our sister service audio.com launched.

We remain committed to our free, open-source roots — and passionate about helping the next generation create the very best sounds, music and podcasts with Audacity.