Audacity download for Windows

Audacity is the free tool most people learn audio editing on. You can record a microphone, cut the coughs out of an interview, remove a long silence, apply an effect and export the result as a file anyone can play. It is open source, runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, and has been the standard answer to "how do I edit this recording?" for years.

Audacity download options for Windows

The Windows download page lists four files.

• x86_64 MSI installer. The normal choice for a PC with an Intel or AMD processor.
• ARM64 MSI installer. For Arm-based Windows laptops. It needs Windows 11.
• Portable archives (.7z) for both architectures. Unpack and run, with nothing installed.

Audacity is tested on Windows 10 and 11. The project says it may also work on older systems and points to specific earlier versions for Windows 7 and Vista.

Two things on that page are easy to miss. First, it publishes a SHA-256 checksum for every file, so you can confirm that a download is intact. Second, it carries links to Muse Hub, plugin bundles and the audio.com service. Those are optional extras. The editor itself is the file named Audacity.

If you are on ARM64

Read the notes before you install. The ARM64 build has no plugin support, and the regular FFmpeg installer does not work with it; a separate build is required. If you depend on VST3 effects, this matters.

Do you need FFmpeg?

Only for certain formats. Audacity opens and exports the common ones by itself, including WAV, MP3, FLAC and Ogg. FFmpeg is an optional add-on that extends that list to formats such as M4A, WMA and AC3. If nobody ever sends you those, leave it out.

A first session

Start small: one recording, one fix, one export.

1. Record or import. Choose your microphone, press record and speak, or drag an existing audio file into the window.
2. Cut what you do not want. Drag across a section of the waveform to select it and press Delete. Undo covers every step, so experiment.
3. Even out the volume. Select the whole track and apply a normalising effect so quiet and loud passages sit closer together.
4. Export. A saved Audacity project only opens in Audacity. To get a file for a phone, a website or a colleague, export to MP3 for small size or to WAV or FLAC for full quality.

When you want to see what is in a recording as well as hear it, switch a track to Spectrogram view. Hum, hiss and clicks show up as shapes you can find at a glance.

Where your projects should live

Audacity needs fast, uninterrupted access to the disk while it works. The project warns that network storage, consumer external drives and USB sticks may be unreliable for this. Keep the project on an internal drive while you edit and copy the finished files elsewhere afterwards.

Limits

Audacity is an editor and recorder for audio. It supports VST3 and Nyquist plugins, but it is not a complete music production studio with virtual instruments; for that, look at LMMS. The cloud features, such as project backups and sharing through audio.com, need an account and are entirely optional.

Common questions

Is Audacity still free?

Yes. It is free to download and use, and its source code is open for anyone to read or modify.

Installer or portable?

Take the MSI installer for your own computer. The portable archive is for PCs where you cannot install software, or for keeping a copy on a tools drive.

Can Audacity record what my computer is playing?

It records from the input devices Windows offers it. Whether "what you hear" is among them depends on your sound hardware and driver.

Which version works on Windows 7?

Not the current one. The download page directs Windows 7 and Vista users to an older release.