How to Remove Background Noise in Audacity (Step by Step)
Remove background noise in Audacity with Noise Reduction: get a noise profile, pick the right settings, avoid the robotic sound, and know when an AI noise remover works better.
RemoveBGNoise team · Nov 7, 2026
To remove background noise in Audacity, select a few seconds where only the noise is audible, open Effect › Noise Removal and Repair › Noise Reduction and click Get Noise Profile. Then select the whole track, open Noise Reduction again, set it to around 6–12 dB, preview, and click Apply.
That's the whole method. The rest of this guide covers the settings that decide whether the result sounds clean or robotic, which noises Audacity handles well, and what to use when it doesn't.
Quick steps
- 01Import your recording (File › Import › Audio).
- 02Select 1–2 seconds of pure background noise.
- 03Effect › Noise Removal and Repair › Noise Reduction › Get Noise Profile.
- 04Select the whole track (Ctrl+A, or Cmd+A on a Mac).
- 05Open Noise Reduction again, set 6–12 dB, Sensitivity 6, Smoothing 3.
- 06Preview, apply, listen back, then File › Export Audio.
Before you start
You need Audacity 3.x (free for Windows, macOS and Linux). Menu names below match recent 3.x releases; older versions put Noise Reduction directly in the Effect menu.
Two things make a big difference to the result:
- A stretch of pure noise. Noise Reduction learns what to remove from a sample. One or two seconds of room sound with nobody speaking is ideal. If you are still recording, leave five seconds of silence at the start of every take.
- A copy of the original. Audacity's effects change the audio in the project. Keep the untouched file so you can start again if you push the settings too far.
Cleaning the audio of a video? Audacity can import the soundtrack of an MP4 or MOV once the free FFmpeg library is installed (Edit › Preferences › Libraries), but it can't save the video again. You'll export the clean audio and re-attach it in your editor. If you edit video, cleaning the audio inside your editor is often simpler: see our guides for Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve.
How to remove background noise in Audacity, step by step
1. Import the recording
Open Audacity and choose File › Import › Audio, or drag the file into the window. Press play and listen to the first minute so you know what kind of noise you're dealing with: a steady hiss, a hum, or something that changes, like traffic.
2. Select a noise-only section
Find a gap where nobody is speaking. The waveform is flat there, with only a thin band of noise. Click and drag to select one to two seconds of it.
Avoid breaths, clicks and the tail end of words. Anything in this selection is treated as "noise", so if it contains voice, the voice will be removed later too.
3. Get the noise profile
Open Effect › Noise Removal and Repair › Noise Reduction and click Get Noise Profile. The window closes. Nothing seems to happen, but Audacity has now stored a fingerprint of your noise.
4. Select the whole track
Press Ctrl+A (Cmd+A on a Mac), or click in the empty area of the track's control panel. The whole recording should be highlighted.
5. Choose the settings
Open Noise Reduction again. This time you'll set three sliders:
| Setting | What it does | Start with | Turn down if… |
|---|---|---|---|
| Noise reduction (dB) | How much the noise is lowered | 6–12 dB | the voice sounds hollow or watery |
| Sensitivity | How much of the audio counts as noise | 6 | quiet words disappear |
| Frequency smoothing (bands) | Blends the reduction across nearby frequencies | 3 (0 for music) | the voice sounds dull |
Keep Noise: Reduce selected. Switch to Residue and press Preview to hear only what is being taken out. If you can hear words in the residue, the settings are removing part of the voice. Lower Sensitivity or the dB amount, then switch back to Reduce.
6. Preview, then apply
Press Preview for a few seconds of the result. When it sounds right, click Apply. A ten-minute file takes a few seconds on most computers.
7. Listen back and adjust
Play the quiet passages and the ends of sentences, where processing artifacts show up first. If some noise is left, undo (Ctrl+Z) and try again 3 dB higher, or run a second light pass at 6 dB. Two gentle passes usually sound more natural than one strong one.
8. Export
Choose File › Export Audio. Pick WAV to keep full quality for further editing, or MP3 to share or upload.
Recommended settings by type of noise
Noise Reduction works by subtracting the profile you captured, so it is strongest on noise that doesn't change. Here's what to expect:
| Noise | How well it works | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Steady hiss from a mic or preamp | Very well | 9–12 dB, Sensitivity 6 |
| Computer fan, air conditioning | Well | 9–15 dB; take the profile while the fan is running |
| 50/60 Hz electrical hum | Partly | First apply Effect › EQ and Filters › Notch Filter at 50 or 60 Hz, then a light Noise Reduction |
| Low rumble, desk bumps | Well with a filter | Effect › EQ and Filters › High-Pass Filter at 80 Hz |
| Traffic, voices, café noise | Poorly | The noise changes every second, so one profile can't match it. Use an AI tool (below) |
| Wind gusts | Poorly | High-Pass Filter for the rumble; the gusts need AI or a re-record |
For more on hiss specifically, see our guide to removing static and hiss from audio.
Fixing common problems
The voice sounds robotic, metallic or underwater. The reduction is too strong, or the profile contained voice. Undo, take a new profile from pure noise, and use a lower dB value. This "musical noise" effect is the classic sign of over-processing.
Noise is still there between words. Noise Reduction lowers noise; it doesn't silence it. To make the gaps silent, add a Noise Gate after it (in recent versions under Effect › Volume and Compression). Set the threshold just above the noise level so the gate closes between phrases and opens when you speak.
The voice sounds thin or muffled. Lower Frequency smoothing or Sensitivity, and make sure you didn't also run a strong high-pass filter.
"Get Noise Profile" seems to do nothing, or you get an error that the selection is too short. Select at least one second of noise and click Get Noise Profile before you select the whole track. The profile is kept until you capture a new one.
Noise Reduction vs. an AI noise remover
Audacity's Noise Reduction is a spectral filter: it measures the noise once and subtracts that pattern from the whole file. AI noise removers work the other way round. A speech model recognises the voice and keeps it, and removes everything else frame by frame, so it adapts when the noise changes.
| Audacity Noise Reduction | AI noise remover | |
|---|---|---|
| Needs a noise sample | Yes | No |
| Steady hiss and hum | Very good | Very good |
| Traffic, chatter, wind | Weak | Good |
| Settings to tune | Three sliders per file | None, or one strength choice |
| Video files | Audio only; re-attach in an editor | Some tools return the finished video |
| Cost | Free | Free tiers, then paid minutes |
If you'd like to stay inside Audacity, Intel's free OpenVINO AI plugins add an AI noise suppression effect on Windows and Linux. Otherwise, an online tool is the quickest route: RemoveBGNoise removes background noise from audio files in your browser with no settings to tune, and the video noise remover cleans the soundtrack of an MP4 or MOV and gives you the video back. If you want to compare engines, our AI audio denoiser page explains how the model works, and the Adobe Podcast alternative page compares the two.
Record less noise next time
The cleanest fix happens before you press record:
- Get closer to the mic. Halving the distance makes your voice much louder than the room, so there is less noise to remove.
- Switch off steady noise. Fans, air conditioning and fridges are easy to turn off for a take and hard to remove afterwards.
- Set the gain so peaks sit around -12 dB. Too low and you'll boost the noise later; too high and the audio clips, which no tool can repair.
- Record five seconds of room tone. It gives Audacity a perfect noise profile.
If your voice sounds quiet or flat after cleaning, the AI voice enhancer evens out the level and clarity in one step.