Audacity is a free, open-source audio editor and multi-track recorder for Windows, macOS and Linux. It records from a microphone or your sound card, cleans up noise, cuts and layers tracks, and exports to MP3, WAV and FLAC. It has been the default answer for podcast, voiceover and home-studio work for two decades, and there is nothing to pay at any point.
Why Choose Audacity?
Most "free" audio editors are trials that watermark your export or cap the length. Audacity is open source under the GPL — no watermark, no time limit, no account, no paid upgrade. What you record is yours, at full quality.
It is also the tool most tutorials assume. If you search for how to remove background hiss, level a voiceover or top-and-tail a podcast, the instructions you find will almost certainly be written for Audacity, which matters more than any feature list when you are learning.
On honesty: Audacity is now maintained by Muse Group, and recent versions include optional update checks and error reporting that you can decline on first run. The editor itself works entirely offline and contains no advertising.
Audacity Features
- Multi-track recording and editing — layer voice, music and effects on separate tracks
- Noise reduction — sample a second of room hiss and strip it from the whole recording, the single most useful repair tool for home audio
- Exports MP3, WAV, FLAC and OGG — the MP3 encoder is built in now, so Audacity MP3 export needs no separate LAME download
- Records system audio as well as microphone input, using WASAPI loopback on Windows
- Full effect set — amplify, normalise, compressor, equaliser, fade, change pitch and tempo independently
- Spectrogram view for finding and removing clicks, pops and single-frequency hum
- Plugin support for LADSPA, LV2, VST and Nyquist, so the effect library is effectively open-ended
How to Install Audacity on Windows
- Ask for the official link. Use the request button on this page and we send you the current audacityteam.org address. A safe Audacity download only ever comes from there — several look-alike sites rank well and bundle extras.
- Run the installer and accept the defaults. There is no bundled software to decline.
- Choose your input. At the top of the window, pick your microphone from the recording device dropdown before you press record. This is the step that causes most "Audacity is not recording" problems.
- Do a ten-second test. Record, watch the meter stay below roughly -6 dB at its peaks, and stop. If it hits the top and flattens, lower the input level rather than fixing it afterwards.
- Clean it up. Select a second of silence, Effect → Noise Reduction → Get Noise Profile, then select all and apply it. That is how to remove background noise in Audacity, and it is usually the only repair a home recording needs.
Downloading Audacity in India
Audacity is identical worldwide — no India-specific build, no regional licence, nothing to pay. An Audacity download in India pulls the same package as everywhere else, from audacityteam.org.
We link only to that official source. Audacity is a heavily impersonated name, and a free audio editor download taken from a portal site is exactly where bundled adware comes from — not from the software itself.
Is Audacity really free?
Open Source. Source code is public; free to use, study and modify. You can download and use it without paying, and without creating an account with us.
How to download Audacity safely
Use the request button on this page and we will email you the current link for www.audacityteam.org — the publisher's own website — so you receive the authentic, digitally signed build. We do not host, mirror, patch or repackage this software in any way.
Avoid third-party "download manager" sites offering Audacity. They commonly wrap the genuine installer in their own bundler, which is how adware and browser hijackers get onto a machine that the user believed was clean.
Alternatives to Audacity
Other free audio & music software worth comparing before you decide:
Ardour
Professional open-source digital audio workstation.
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LMMS
Free music production studio for beat-making and composition.
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The standard free music notation and scoring software.
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Free DJ software with real controller support.
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Compare Audacity head-to-head
Frequently asked questions
Is Audacity really free?
Yes, completely. Audacity is open source under the GPL. There is no paid version, no export watermark, no recording length limit and no account requirement.
Is Audacity safe to download?
Yes, from audacityteam.org. Audacity carries no adware. Because the name is widely impersonated, the risk lies entirely in which site you download from, which is why this page points at the publisher only.
Can Audacity export MP3 without extra downloads?
Yes. Current versions include the MP3 encoder, so File → Export → Export as MP3 works immediately. The old requirement to install the LAME encoder separately no longer applies.
Can Audacity remove vocals from a song?
Partly. Effect → Vocal Reduction and Isolation works when the vocal sits centred in a stereo mix, which is common but not universal. Expect a usable result on some tracks and artefacts on others — it is a studio trick, not a guarantee.
Does Audacity collect my data?
The editor runs offline and contains no advertising. Versions maintained by Muse Group include optional update checking and error reporting, which you can decline when first launching the program.
Tell us what went wrong — a person reads every message and replies. Corrections to this page are treated as priority fixes.
People also search for
The terms visitors use to find this page. Each one lands here because it describes the same program.
Searches from India
Audacity is identical worldwide — these are search phrasings, not different downloads. Every one of them gets the same official build from www.audacityteam.org.