Audacity has been around for decades, and if you have ever needed to quickly record or edit some audio without spending money on professional software, there is a good chance you have used it. Now, the open source audio editor is getting one of its biggest makeovers yet with the release of Audacity 4.0.
This is much more than a fresh coat of paint. Audacity 4 introduces a rebuilt interface based on Qt, a new project format, major changes to clip editing, redesigned recording and playback workflows, and plenty of smaller improvements. Unfortunately, the transition also means some features from Audacity 3 are temporarily missing.
The new interface is probably the first thing longtime users will notice. Audacity 4 supports native high-DPI rendering along with movable and dockable panels. Users can create customizable Workspaces and switch between light, dark, and high-contrast themes. Accent colors and track colors can also be customized.
There is even a new Home screen that displays recent projects with preview thumbnails. Audacity has always been powerful, but its interface could sometimes feel like software from another era. Version 4.0 appears to be an attempt to modernize that experience without turning Audacity into something unrecognizable.
Clip editing has received plenty of attention too. Clips can now be directly selected and grouped, while multiple clips can be edited at the same time. Users can move clips between mono and stereo tracks, and placing a clip over existing audio can replace the overlapping section.
Audacity 4 also introduces alignment guides, sample-boundary snapping, per-project snapping settings, smarter pasting, and a dedicated splitting workflow. Several of the old editing modes have disappeared in the process. Select, Envelope, Draw, and Multi-tool modes are gone, with their functionality instead becoming contextual.
Recording and playback should feel different as well. Recording can start from anywhere on the timeline, while playback can seek without requiring users to stop first. The playhead can also be dragged around during playback. Audacity can automatically react when the operating system’s audio devices change, which should make switching microphones, headphones, and other hardware less annoying.
Windows users get an especially interesting addition. Official Audacity 4 builds now include ASIO support for playback and recording. Plugin support includes VST3 and Nyquist, along with LV2 on Linux and Audio Units on macOS.
Projects are changing under the hood too. Audacity 4 uses a new .aup4 project format instead of the .aup3 format used by Audacity 3. Existing projects can be converted, and Audacity leaves the original files untouched during that process. Once converted, however, an Audacity 4 project cannot be saved back to the older .aup3 format.
That is worth keeping in mind before moving an important workflow over to version 4.0. In fact, the project format is not the only reason some users may want to hold off on upgrading.
Several Audacity 3 features are currently unavailable in Audacity 4. That list includes Time Tracks, Note and MIDI tracks, Mixer, Macro Manager and scripting pipe, VAMP and LADSPA plugin hosting, and play-at-speed. Some analyzers, effects, and export or rendering functionality are missing as well.
The Audacity developers say they are working to bring missing functionality back in future releases. Still, anyone who depends on one of those features should check the release notes carefully before jumping to 4.0 just because it has a shiny new interface.
Oh, and Audacity has a new logo too. Because apparently you cannot rebuild an application in 2026 without redesigning its logo.
Despite the missing pieces, Audacity 4.0 looks like an ambitious attempt to prepare the venerable open source audio editor for its next chapter. The new editing model and Qt interface could ultimately make Audacity considerably nicer to use, but version 4.0 also feels like the beginning of that transition rather than its conclusion.
For casual users, the new features may make upgrading an easy decision. For longtime Audacity users with established workflows, however, sticking with Audacity 3 for a little longer might be the smarter move.
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