Noise cancellation that's actually free
Every pick below costs nothing to keep using — no trial clock, no card. That rule is also why Krisp is no longer on the free list: it has no free plan any more, just a 7-day trial and then a paid plan, so we cover it as the paid option and say so on the button. Each free tool's exact limit is printed on its card, because that's the first thing you'd check anyway.
✓ What counts as free here
A tier you can keep using without paying: the noise filter already inside Zoom, Teams and Discord, NVIDIA Broadcast's unlimited use on RTX hardware, Audacity's everything. Limits are fine — hiding them isn't.
✗ What doesn't count
Seven-day trials, "free" downloads that paywall the export button, and credit systems that run dry after one file. Tools like that don't get listed as free on this site — that's the rule, and it's the rule Krisp now falls under: seven days free, then Core at $8 a month billed annually.
The six worth your time
Free limit stated on every card. Click through for what's actually paywalled, setup steps, and when you'd outgrow it.
The suppression your meeting app already ships: Zoom's four levels and Teams' toggle are on by default, and Discord's Krisp-powered filter is free inside Discord.
See where it ranks →NVIDIA BroadcastNeeds RTX GPUUnlimited · live calls & streams · WindowsTruly unlimited noise and echo removal — if you already own the RTX graphics card it runs on.
Read the review →Adobe Podcast Enhance1 hr/dayUploads · 30-min files · browserUpload a recording, get back studio-ish speech. Free hour a day, files up to 30 minutes and 500 MB.
Read the review →Audacity100% freeRecordings · open source · Win/Mac/LinuxThe old-school answer: profile-based noise reduction on any recording, forever free, no account, no limits.
Read the review →OBS noise filter100% freeStreams & recordings · Win/Mac/LinuxThe RNNoise filter hiding inside the streaming app you may already have installed. Two clicks to enable.
Read the review →Auphonic2 hrs/monthUploads · full post-production · browserPodcast-grade cleanup — denoise, levelling, loudness — with two genuinely free processed hours a month.
Read the review →Four of the six are not metered at all — the built-in app filters, Broadcast, the OBS filter and Audacity. Scale: 0 to 30 hours a month.
Not sure which of the six? Start with what's already installed.
Open your meeting app's audio settings before downloading anything — Zoom, Teams and Discord each ship a noise filter at no cost. If you want one filter in front of every app, in both directions, that's Krisp, and it's paid: a 7-day free trial with no card, then Core at $8 a month billed annually ($16 month to month).
Try Krisp free for 7 days Cleaning a recording instead? →Removing background noise for free: the whole map
Searches for free noise cancellation split into two very different problems, and half the frustration out there comes from applying the wrong kind of tool. The first problem is live audio — meetings, calls, streams — where the noise has to be removed in real time, before anyone hears it. The second is recorded audio — a podcast episode, an interview, a voice memo — where you want to remove background noise from audio online free, after the fact, usually by uploading a file and downloading a cleaner one. Every tool on this site belongs firmly to one camp, and we label which.
For live calls and streams
The free options are stronger than most people expect. If your PC has a GeForce RTX card, NVIDIA Broadcast gives unlimited noise removal at no cost. On any other Windows or Mac machine, start with the suppression already built into the meeting app: Zoom and Teams switch theirs on by default, Discord runs Krisp's filter free inside Discord, and Google Meet's noise cancellation comes with Workspace editions and Google One 2 TB plans (plus a device-based version for everyone on most Android phones). Tuned once, those handle steady noise like fans and traffic surprisingly well. Krisp's own app — one filter for every app — is now paid after a 7-day trial; our Krisp page has the prices. Streamers get a capable filter free inside OBS. The full ranking lives in our best free desktop noise cancellation roundup.
For recordings you already have
To clean up a noisy recording without installing anything, Adobe Podcast Enhance processes an hour a day free in the browser and can rescue genuinely rough audio, while Auphonic gives two free hours a month of proper podcast post-production — noise reduction, levelling and loudness in one pass. Prefer offline and unlimited? Audacity's noise reduction has been quietly excellent at constant hiss and hum for two decades. We compare all the free online background-noise removers — including which ones ambush you with watermarks at the download button.
The part most "free tools" lists skip
Free tiers are real products with real walls — daily minutes, monthly hours, file caps. We publish each limit on the card above, because a free tool you can't actually use isn't free; it's marketing. And when your usage genuinely outgrows the free allowances, we'd rather show you the honest upgrade math than pretend the walls don't exist.
Free noise cancellation, sorted by your actual problem
Colleagues hear your background on calls. Live cleanup, then: the suppression toggle already inside Zoom, Teams and Discord on any hardware, NVIDIA Broadcast if you own an RTX card, and Krisp's paid plan only if you need one filter for every app — the free desktop noise cancellation roundup ranks all of them by how much free you really get.
A recording already sounds like a café. Repair, not suppression: remove noise from audio online free — Enhance's daily hour for rescue jobs, Auphonic's monthly two for broadcast polish, Audacity's noise reduction for steady hum, offline, forever.
Streams and game nights. OBS's built-in noise suppression — three engines deep, free, already installed if you stream.
On a phone. Mostly a mirage — the honest route is uploading your file to the online tools from the phone's browser, covered at the end of the online roundup.
How we keep the "free" honest
Every limit on this site comes from the vendor's own pricing page or help center, re-checked review by review (last full pass: October 8, 2026 — the pass that took Krisp off the free list). When a cap moves, the receipt gets reprinted — and the fastest way to make that happen is telling us at the contact page when you spot a change before we do. No tool gets listed for paying us: four of the six can't pay us at all, and the only partner link that currently earns anything — Krisp's — belongs to the tool we just moved off the free list.
Quick questions
How can I remove background noise from audio online, free?
Upload it to Adobe Podcast Enhance (free hour daily, files up to 30 minutes) for dramatic voice cleanup, or to Auphonic (two free hours monthly) for more faithful, podcast-grade processing. Both are browser-only — no installs. Our online removers roundup compares them side by side.
What's the best free noise cancellation for meetings?
With a GeForce RTX GPU: NVIDIA Broadcast — unlimited and free. Without one: your meeting app's own suppression — on by default in Zoom and Teams, Krisp-powered and free inside Discord. Krisp's standalone app no longer has a free plan (a 7-day trial, then paid). The desktop roundup ranks all the options.
Is any noise cancellation software completely free — no limits at all?
Yes, four kinds: the filters inside Zoom, Teams and Discord (unlimited, but each works only in its own app), NVIDIA Broadcast (unlimited, but needs RTX hardware), OBS's built-in filter (unlimited, but only inside OBS), and Audacity (unlimited, but for recordings rather than live calls). The two metered picks — Adobe and Auphonic — have their exact allowance printed on their cards above.
Do free noise removers add watermarks?
The ones we list don't watermark your audio — with one disclosed exception: Auphonic marks free productions with a jingle, which we state plainly in its review. The wider category is messier; several popular web editors process your file free and then watermark the export. Our roundup includes the ambush patterns to check before uploading anything.
Is free noise cancellation as good as paid?
Against steady noise — fans, hum, traffic — usually yes. Paid tools earn their money in three specific places: unlimited use when free minutes run out, harder cases like background voices, and cleaning incoming audio too. If you're not hitting one of those walls weekly, stay free. The full logic is in free vs paid.
Is there a completely free noise cancelling app for my phone?
Not as a standalone app — but the meeting apps carry their own. Zoom and Teams list noise suppression for their Android and iOS apps, Discord's Krisp filter works in its mobile app, and Google Meet runs device-based noise cancellation on most Android phones. For recordings, upload to the online removers from your mobile browser.
What's the catch with free noise cancellation software?
Never money — always a stated cap: Enhance caps file length, Auphonic counts monthly hours, Broadcast demands an RTX card, the built-in filters stay inside their own app, Audacity charges patience. We print each cap on the card because a limit you can plan around is a fair deal, and a hidden one is a trap.
And when free stops being enough…
We'll tell you that too. Free tiers have walls — daily minutes, file caps, quality ceilings — and pretending otherwise wastes your time. When you're hitting one regularly, here's our honest read on when paying starts to beat working around the limits.