7 Best AI Audio Editing Tools in 2026

Key takeaways

• iZotope RX 12 is the best all-around pick and the standard for serious repair work. It now belongs to Boris FX, which bought iZotope in July 2026, and RX Elements starts at $99 as a one-time purchase.

• Auphonic is the easiest way to level and master a podcast: upload the file and it balances speakers and hits your loudness target, with two free hours a month.

• Cleanvoice strips filler words, mouth sounds and long pauses from speech in a browser, starting at $11 a month.

• DaVinci Resolve and Audacity are both free. Resolve has AI dialogue leveling built in, and Audacity gets AI noise removal and stem separation through Intel's free OpenVINO plugins.

• For pulling vocals, drums or dialogue out of a mixed track, LALAL.AI is the simplest option.

How we ranked

We looked at what each tool's AI actually does to recorded audio (noise and reverb removal, leveling, dialogue repair, filler removal, stem separation), how much control you keep over the result, whether it runs in a browser, on your computer or as a plugin, and what regular use costs. Text-to-speech and music generators are left out: this list is about editing audio you already have.

The seven tools compared

1. iZotope RX 12 - Best all-around audio repair

RX is the repair suite film, TV and music engineers reach for when a recording has a problem. Version 12 came out in April 2026, and Boris FX acquired iZotope that July. Boris FX says existing licenses and subscriptions carry on as before.

What works: RX fixes almost anything: hum, clicks, clipping, wind, room echo and voices bleeding into each other's mics. Dialogue Isolate pulls speech away from background noise, and the new Scene Rebalance, in the Advanced edition, splits a finished mix into dialogue, music and effects so you can adjust each one. De-bleed now runs in real time, and the modules also work as plugins inside most audio and video editors. Elements costs $99, Standard $399 and Advanced $1,399, all one-time purchases.

What doesn't: It's a technical tool with a learning curve, and the most capable modules sit in the pricier editions. There's no free plan, only a 10-day trial, and it runs on Mac and Windows only.

Best for: Audio engineers, video editors and podcasters who need to rescue a recording rather than just polish it.

2. Auphonic - Best for leveling and loudness

Auphonic is an automatic post-production service for podcasts and spoken audio. You upload a finished recording, and it balances levels between speakers, cuts noise and hits the loudness target your platform expects.

What works: Its Intelligent Leveler evens out a loud host and a quiet guest without making either sound squashed, which is the hardest part of mixing a conversation. Noise and reverb reduction, filtering, loudness targets and filler-word and silence cutting are all on the free plan. The free plan covers two hours of audio a month, and Plan S covers nine hours for $11 a month billed yearly. There's also an API for automating episodes.

What doesn't: It isn't a multitrack editor, so beyond trimming its automatic cuts and adding your own in the Cut Editor, you can't arrange or rework a recording the way you would in a full audio editor. Free-plan files carry an Auphonic jingle, and multitrack processing on the free plan is limited to under 20 minutes.

Best for: Podcasters who want every episode leveled and mastered the same way without touching a mixer.

3. Cleanvoice - Best for removing filler words and mouth sounds

Cleanvoice is a web tool that listens for the small things that make speech sound unedited and takes them out.

What works: It removes filler words like "um" and "uh," mouth clicks, loud breaths, long silences and background noise, and its audio enhancer evens out the voice. You upload a file and download a cleaned version, with no editing skills needed. The first 30 minutes are free with no card, the subscription costs $11 a month for 10 hours, and pay-as-you-go credits ($11 for five hours) last two years.

What doesn't: It cleans speech but doesn't do deeper repair like separating overlapping voices or fixing clipping. Automatic filler removal can occasionally clip a word you wanted, so listen through before you publish.

Best for: Podcasters and interviewers who want natural-sounding speech without cutting every "um" by hand.

4. DaVinci Resolve - Best free AI audio in a video editor

DaVinci Resolve is a professional video editor whose Fairlight page is a full audio workstation, and the free version includes some of its AI audio tools.

What works: Dialogue Leveler, which evens out speech volume automatically, is in the free version. Resolve Studio, $295 one-time, adds Voice Isolation to strip background noise from dialogue, plus a Dialogue Separator and Music Remixer that split audio into parts. Version 21 added EQ Match and a Level Matcher for making clips recorded in different places sound alike. Everything runs on your own computer.

What doesn't: Voice Isolation, the most useful AI tool here, is Studio only. Resolve is a big, demanding program, and it's a lot to learn if you only need to fix audio.

Best for: Video editors who want AI audio cleanup in the same app they cut in.

5. Acon Digital Extract:Dialogue 2 - Best affordable dialogue plugin

Extract:Dialogue 2 is a plugin that uses deep learning to split a recording into dialogue, noise and reverb, so you can turn each one up or down.

What works: It does one job, separating speech from what's around it, and it does it inside the editor you already use, as a VST, VST3, AU or AAX plugin on Mac and Windows. You can export the separated parts as stems. At $99 it costs the same as RX Elements, and it's also included in Acon's Acoustica 8 Premium editor ($299).

What doesn't: It's a plugin, so you need a host app to run it. It covers dialogue cleanup only, with none of the click, hum or clipping repair that RX includes. There's a trial but no free version.

Best for: Video editors and sound designers who want strong dialogue cleanup without buying a whole repair suite.

6. Audacity with OpenVINO - Best free tools that run locally

Audacity is the long-running free, open-source audio editor. Intel's free OpenVINO plugins add AI tools to it that run on your computer, so nothing gets uploaded.

What works: The plugins add AI noise suppression, music separation into vocals and instruments, Whisper transcription and audio super resolution, which restores detail to low-quality files. Audacity and the plugins cost nothing and work offline. Intel's installers are for Windows, and Mac support is in beta.

What doesn't: Setup takes more effort than any other tool here. The current plugin release is built for Audacity 3.7, and they don't yet work with Audacity 4.0, which came out in September 2026, so you'll need to stay on 3.7 to use them. The AI tools are basic next to RX.

Best for: People who want free AI cleanup and separation without sending their audio to anyone's servers.

7. LALAL.AI - Best for stem and vocal separation

LALAL.AI splits a mixed recording into its parts: vocals, drums, bass, guitar, strings and more. It runs in a browser, as a desktop app and as a plugin.

What works: Upload a song or a recording and download the parts you want, such as an a cappella vocal, an instrumental or a single instrument. Voice Cleaner removes background noise from speech, and the Echo and Reverb Remover dries out a roomy recording. The Lite plan costs $90 a year for 90 fast minutes a month, and Pro adds the plugin and local processing.

What doesn't: The free tier processes 10 minutes in a slow queue and won't let you download the results, so it's only a preview. It separates and cleans audio but doesn't edit it, so you'll still need an editor.

Best for: Musicians, DJs and editors who need a vocal, instrument or dialogue track pulled out of a finished mix.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best AI audio editing tool?

iZotope RX 12 is the best all-around choice. It repairs noise, echo, clipping and overlapping voices, and RX 12 Advanced's Scene Rebalance can split a finished mix into dialogue, music and effects. For podcasts, Auphonic is the easiest way to level and master each episode.

Is there a free AI tool to clean up audio?

Yes. DaVinci Resolve's free version includes Dialogue Leveler, Audacity with Intel's OpenVINO plugins adds AI noise suppression at no cost, and Auphonic processes two hours of audio a month on its free plan.

What's the best AI tool to remove background noise from a recording?

iZotope RX 12's Dialogue Isolate gives the most control. Voice Isolation in DaVinci Resolve Studio and Acon Digital's Extract:Dialogue 2 are cheaper ways to pull speech away from noise, and Cleanvoice handles light noise along with filler words.

Can AI separate vocals from music?

Yes. LALAL.AI is built for it, and Audacity's free OpenVINO plugins include music separation. iZotope RX 12's Music Rebalance lets you turn vocals, bass and drums up or down inside a mix.

Who owns iZotope now?

Boris FX. It announced its acquisition of iZotope on July 2, 2026, after Native Instruments, iZotope's former parent, went through insolvency and was sold to inMusic. Boris FX says existing RX licenses and subscriptions stay active.