How to Cut an MP3 and Make a Ringtone (iPhone & Android)

To make a ringtone, cut the part of the song you want with the Audio Splitter: choose Extract a segment, enter the Start and End (about 30 seconds apart), and press Split Audio. Listen to the clip, download it, and set it as your ringtone — directly on Android, or after converting it to M4A for iPhone.

Cut the clip step by step

1. Find the moment. Play the song in any music player and note when the part you want begins — the chorus, a hook, an intro — for example 0:47.
2. Open the Audio Splitter and add the MP3 (or M4A, WAV, FLAC…).
3. Choose Extract a segment.
4. Type the Start (such as 00:00:47) and the End about 30 seconds later (00:01:17). You can also drag the slider to set the end.
5. Press Split Audio, then play the clip in the player that appears.
6. Not quite right? Adjust the times by a second or two and split again.
7. Download the clip — it keeps the original format, cut without re-encoding.

How long should a ringtone be?

• iPhone: up to 40 seconds for ringtones (alert tones should be much shorter).
• Android: any length, but calls rarely ring longer than about 30 seconds, so a longer clip is never heard.

25–30 seconds is the sweet spot. Start right on the recognisable part — the first two seconds decide whether you know it's your phone.

Set it as a ringtone on Android

1. Copy the MP3 to your phone (or download it there directly).
2. Open Settings › Sound & vibration › Phone ringtone (names vary by brand).
3. Tap + or Add ringtone / From device, and pick your clip.

On some phones, moving the file into the Ringtones folder with a file manager makes it appear in the list.

Make an iPhone ringtone

iPhones use a special ringtone format (AAC in a file ending .m4r). There are two ways:

With GarageBand on the iPhone (no computer):

1. Save your clip to Files.
2. Open GarageBand, start any project (for example the Audio Recorder), and switch to the tracks view.
3. Tap the loop icon, choose Files, and drag your clip onto a track.
4. Go back to My Songs, long-press the project, and choose Share › Ringtone, then Use sound as… › Standard Ringtone.

With a computer:

1. Convert the clip to M4A (AAC) with the Audio Converter.
2. Rename the file from .m4a to .m4r.
3. Connect the iPhone, open Finder (Mac) or Apple Devices / iTunes (Windows), and drag the .m4r file onto the iPhone in the sidebar.
4. On the iPhone: Settings › Sounds & Haptics › Ringtone, and choose it.

Tips for a great ringtone

• Fade-in matters less than you think — but a clip starting mid-word sounds jarring. Start on a beat or at the start of a phrase.
• Make it loud enough. Quiet acoustic intros can be missed in a noisy place; pick a louder section.
• Different tones for different people: make short clips from favourite songs for family and friends.
• Join two parts — say the intro riff and the chorus — with the Audio Joiner.

Why the cut is lossless

The splitter copies the audio out without re-encoding, so the clip sounds exactly like the original. Cuts land on the nearest audio frame — within a few hundredths of a second of the times you typed.

Privacy

The song is cut in your browser with ffmpeg (WebAssembly) and never uploaded. Only use music you own or have the right to use.

Frequently asked questions

Can I make a ringtone from a video?

Yes — the splitter accepts videos with sound too, or extract the audio first with Extract Audio.

Why doesn't my iPhone show the ringtone?

Check the file ends in .m4r, is under 40 seconds, and was synced through Finder or the Apple Devices app — or use the GarageBand method.

Can I make text or notification tones?

Yes — the same steps with a very short clip, 1–3 seconds long.