How to add an audio file to CapCut

Open your project, tap Audio in the bottom toolbar, then Sounds. What you see first is CapCut's own library, which is where most people stop and conclude their own files are not supported.

Along the top of that panel there are tabs. One of them is From device, or Your sounds depending on the version. Tap it and you get a file browser onto the audio stored on your phone.

Find the file, tap the plus beside it, and it drops onto the timeline at the playhead. Drag it left or right to position it, and drag its edges to trim.

On iPhone, only audio that iOS can see is offered, which in practice means files saved into the Files app. A recording sitting inside another app will not appear until you save it out.

The desktop version is more conventional. Drag the audio file from a Finder or Explorer window straight onto the timeline and it lands as a new audio track.

Alternatively use the Import button in the media panel, add the file to your project media, then drag it down to the timeline when you want it.

Desktop also lets you stack multiple audio tracks cleanly, which matters if you are layering a voiceover over music. Mobile allows it but the timeline gets cramped quickly.

If the audio you want is inside a video file, CapCut can pull it out. Add the video to the timeline, select it, and use Extract audio. The audio appears as its own track and you can then delete the video.

This is the usual way people bring in a voiceover recorded on a phone camera, or audio from a screen recording.

Worth saying plainly: extracting audio from someone else's video does not give you the right to publish it. CapCut's own library exists partly because platforms take music claims seriously, and a video with a copyright claim on it can be muted or blocked after you post it.

CapCut handles MP3, M4A, AAC and WAV reliably. FLAC and OGG are the usual failures. Converting to MP3 or WAV first resolves almost every import problem.

Very long files can be slow to load on mobile, and a two-hour recording may appear to hang rather than fail. Trimming to the section you need before importing is faster than waiting.

On Android, files in unusual locations sometimes do not appear in the picker. Moving the file into the Music or Download folder generally makes it visible.

CapCut's audio tools are deliberately light: volume, fade, speed, a few effects, and basic noise reduction on recent versions. It is a video editor, and the audio side is there to support the picture rather than to repair it.

If your voiceover has background noise, uneven levels or filler words, dealing with that before import is much easier than fighting it inside a video timeline where you cannot see the waveform properly.

The order that works: record the voice, clean and level it, export as a WAV or high-quality MP3, then bring that finished file into CapCut and cut the picture to it.

Hilite does the middle step in the browser, including removing noise and filler words. We make it, so weigh that accordingly. Audacity does the same job for free with more manual work.