Although we can enjoy all kinds of music, audiobooks, podcasts and other audio resources online from YouTube, we still want to download them to play anytime and anywhere. After all, we don't always have Wi-Fi and good Internet connection. Extracting audio from YouTube video can also save a lot of space on your PC and mobile phone. To download audio from YouTube on your computer, your best bet is to use a powerful YouTube audio downloader. In this article, we will detail 9 best YouTube audio downloaders for Windows and their recent changes in 2023, which will help you download any audio from YouTube with high quality!
Before we get into the huge market of YouTube downloaders with hundreds of options to choose from, it’s important to take some key criteria into consideration when looking for the best YouTube audio downloader for Windows. Here are some key factors:
After testing more than 30 free and paid software on my PC, I compiled a top list of 9 reliable YouTube audio downloaders for Windows users.
iFunia YouTube Downloader has been one of the best YouTube video and audio downloaders for more than a decade, and it has released a brand new version for Windows this year with an improved interface and optimized features. It’s simple and fast, allowing users to download audio from YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and over 1,000 other sites.
You can batch download YouTube music, audio books and live videos in M4A, WebM or MP3 audio formats, which are compatible with iOS, Android, TV or any media player. It will display the output file size under different quality options to choose from. More than just a YouTube audio downloader, it’s also a powerful HD video downloader that supports high resolutions from 720p to 4K/8K. This feature-packed downloader is a go-to option for Windows and Mac users to save YouTube audio files in the highest quality with ease.
Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7 
MediaHuman YouTube Downloader is a great tool for downloading YouTube music and videos in a high quality. It allows users to download and save YouTube videos in MP3, M4A or OGG formats, and provides audio bitrate options up to 320kbps. Its most unique feature is to track the playlist or channel you added and download new clips automatically as they are uploaded. It also supports not only YouTube, but also Vimeo, Bitchute, SoundCloud and Facebook. What’s more, you can easily modify the audio tag such as title name, album and artist before downloading.
As its name suggests, 4K YouTube to MP3 is designed to download and convert YouTube videos into audio files. It can download YouTube playlists at one go and save them as MP3, M4A or OGG. You can search for the audio you want to download using the built-in browser, without leaving the program.
What’s more, this audio downloader allows you to free download 10 audios per day, up to 5 tracks per channel. However, although this YouTube audio downloader claims to download 256k audio, according to my tests, even specifying the highest quality will still result in 128k bitrate, unless you purchase the Pro license and log in as a YouTube Premium member.
VideoHunter YouTube Downloader is a subscription-based YouTube audio and video downloader for Windows and Mac. It provides an easy way to download YouTube playlists and videos to MP3 in up to 320kbps. It also downloads private and unlisted YouTube videos as long as you get the URL. This best YouTube audio downloader only supports YouTube website, if you need to download audio from other sharing sites, you can choose another similar product called VideoHunter, which of course will charge more.
When it comes to downloading YouTube clips, there is always ClipGrab, one of the most popular cross-platform free YouTube downloaders. As a freeware, ClipGrab is no less powerful than some paid programs. It can download audio tracks from YouTube videos and save them in MP3 and OGG formats. The download speed is quite satisfactory and it offers a decent audio quality up to 256k. Although it lacks some advanced features you may need, such as batch processing and playlist downloading, ClipGrab is still a best choice among free YouTube downloaders.
Any Video Converter offers a free YouTube audio downloading function with limited features. This free YouTube audio downloader allows you download YouTube videos to MP3, M4A and OPUS in low or medium audio bitrate. It can’t detect and download the entire playlist or channel in one click, but you can add up to 10 URLs to download YouTube audio in batches. This is an all-in-one video converter and downloader with rich features, more suitable for users who need additional functions like video converter, recorder and editor.
TunePat YouTube Music Converter, as its name suggests, is a powerful YouTube audio downloader designed to convert and save YouTube music tracks and playlists to PC. Based on a YouTube Music web player window, it lets users search for the songs and albums to download and convert all tracks in the list. It can extract YouTube Music to MP3, AAC, FLAC, WAV, AIFF or ALAC files in different bitrates from 128 to 320 kbps. The downside of the program is just obvious: there is no way to download audio from regular YouTube videos or other streaming sites, and the download and conversion speed can be slower than other competitors.
Minitool uTube Downloader, a free YouTube downloader for Windows, has been merged into Minitool Video Converter since July 2023 and is a shareware feature now. This YouTube audio downloader for Windows helps users to extract audio from YouTube videos and playlists and save as MP3 files in 128 kbps. It also supports audio downloads from Facebook, Instagram and other major streaming sites. It allows 5 free audio downloads and then it will only download half of the audio clip.
Although it sounds like a freeware, Free YouTube to MP3 Converter is actually a payware that can only download the first 30s of a YouTube audio for free and at an extremely slow download speed. But with its Premium license, users can download entire YouTube playlists and channels at one go, save YouTube videos to MP3, M4A, FLAC, AAC with a higher audio quality.
The best quality of the downloaded YouTube audio depends first on the original clip itself. To get the best quality audio downloads, choose the highest bitrates available in the YouTube audio downloader settings. Using our top pick iFunia YouTube Downloader as an example, here are the detailed steps to download YouTube audio without quality loss on Windows:
1. Download and run iFunia YouTube Downloader on your PC.
Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7
2. Copy the URL of the YouTube video you want to download, paste it into the box and press Enter to get the audio information. You can add multiple YouTube videos by repeating this step.
3. Select the output audio quality and format. Click on the “Format” list and scroll down to the first audio-only option, which is also the best sound quality of the audio.
4. After you set the output format for each clip, click the Download button in the lower right corner to start downloading YouTube audio to your computer.
Tip: You can set a target location in advance, or find the downloaded audio files by clicking the Check icon.
ClipGrab, Any Video Converter Free, and 4K Video to MP3 mentioned above have free versions that allow downloading YouTube audio, and some web-based tools like SaveFrom.net, ytmp3 can also download YouTube audio to PC for free. For unlimited batch downloads and higher audio quality, consider a top payware like iFunia and MediaHuman.
Yes. The best YouTube audio downloaders, such as iFunia YouTube Downloader, let you download an entire YouTube music playlist and channel at one go, or add multiple YouTube URLs and download them together.
Almost all YouTube audio downloaders for Windows support MP3 audio, the most compatible format for any device. Other common audio formats for YouTube audio download:
Finding the best YouTube audio downloader for Windows is not an easy task given the large number of downloaders on the market. In general, if you are looking for a simple solution for high-quality YouTube audio downloads, you can use iFunia with rich features. If you just need to download YouTube Music and require a lossless format, TunePat is an ideal option.
For easy and efficient audio downloads from YouTube, a paid software is always your best bet. I hope this article helps you fine the right one and get your money’s worth.
Chloe LEE is good at explaining and solving complex technology problems to her readers. Since joining iFunia Studio, she has focused on writing articles about video and DVD software, and how-to tutorials.
Cattail
I have downloaded some songs and audiobooks from YouTube Music with your product. It seems that YouTube transcodes audio to M4A and WebM and does not offer MP3, no matter what the user originally uploaded.