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Audacity 4.0 Ships With a Full Qt6 Rebuild of the Free Audio Editor

On September 3, 2026 the Audacity team released version 4.0, rebuilding the veteran open-source audio editor on Qt6 with a new clip-editing model, a redesigned spectrogram, and a reworked interface. It stays free and open source — but several 3.x features are not in it yet.

2026-09-03 · by Moe Ameen

Published 2026-09-03 · Updated

Short answer

Audacity 4.0 came out on September 3, 2026, rebuilt on the Qt6 toolkit in place of wxWidgets. It brings dockable panels, workspaces, a new clip-editing model with grouping and a split tool, a redesigned spectrogram, and a new .aup4 project format that converts old .aup3 files. It stays free and open source, but MIDI, macros and some effects and analyzers are not back yet.

Key takeaways

  • Audacity 4.0 released September 3, 2026, rebuilt on Qt6 and still free and open source.
  • New clip editing adds direct selection, grouping and a dedicated split tool.
  • Plugins: Nyquist and VST3 everywhere, Audio Units on macOS, LV2 on Linux, plus ASIO on Windows.
  • Projects save as .aup4, and .aup3 files convert without changing the originals.
  • MIDI, macros and some effects and analyzers are missing for now, so keep 3.x if you need them.

What changed in Audacity 4.0?

The Audacity team released Audacity 4.0 on September 3, 2026, a ground-up rebuild of the veteran audio editor. The headline is a full interface rebuild: Audacity moved off the aging wxWidgets toolkit and onto Qt6, which brings native high-DPI rendering and a modern, reworked UI. Toolbars and panels can now be moved, docked, floated, shown, or hidden, and the release ships customizable workspace layouts, a new project dashboard/home screen, theme options, and colored clips. It remains free and open source.

The editing model changed too. Clips can now be selected directly by clicking their headers, edited several at a time, and grouped so they move together; clips slide more freely between tracks with automatic overlap handling, and splitting gets its own dedicated tool. Audacity 4.0 also redesigns the spectrogram with clearer guides and faster rendering, shows volume envelopes in a clip gain mode, adds label tracks, and lets playback seek to a new position without stopping. On plugins, it supports Nyquist and VST3 across platforms, Audio Units on macOS, and LV2 on Linux, and it adds ASIO support on Windows.

Projects now save in a new .aup4 format, and Audacity 4.0 is backward compatible with older .aup3 projects — they convert automatically on open without altering the originals. That means existing clips, tracks, and labels carry across when you upgrade.

There is an important caveat: this is a from-scratch rebuild, and several features from Audacity 3.x are not in 4.0 at launch. Based on the team's own notes and early coverage, that list includes MIDI support, macros/batch processing, and some effects and analyzers, among other gaps. The developers have said they are working to restore missing capabilities in future updates. If you depend on a specific 3.x feature, verify it is present in 4.0 before switching, and keep your 3.x install until you have confirmed your workflow survives.

Why does Audacity 4.0 matter for creators?

  • Recording and cleaning audio just got less painful. The Qt6 rebuild fixes the high-DPI blurriness and cramped panels that made Audacity feel dated, so the free tool most creators already use for voiceovers and podcast tracks is easier to actually work in.
  • The new clip-editing model — direct clip selection, grouping, freer moves between tracks, and a dedicated split tool — makes assembling a multi-segment episode or a voiceover with inserts faster, closer to how a modern editor behaves.
  • The redesigned spectrogram, with clearer guides and faster rendering, makes it easier to spot a hum or a click before you fix it, in an editor that still costs nothing.
  • Do not upgrade blindly. Several 3.x features — including MIDI, macros/batch processing, and some effects and analyzers — are not in 4.0 yet. If a macro chain is central to how you finish episodes, wait, or keep 3.x installed alongside it.
  • A cleaner editor still only gets you a clean audio file. Audacity finishes the recording; it does not turn that recording into captioned clips, quote cards, a blog draft, or scheduled posts — that production step still lives somewhere else.

How can creators act on this with Kompozy?

Audacity 4.0 makes the first mile better: record the voiceover, cut the episode, clean up the takes, export a clean WAV or MP3. What it deliberately does not do — and never has — is turn that finished audio into a week of content across platforms. That handoff is where Kompozy picks up.

The practical workflow: export your polished audio from Audacity, then feed it to Kompozy as a source. From one recording it generates a run of net-new pieces held to a single Persona Brief so they read as one creator — clipped shorts cut from the long-form audio, Persona Shorts with a talking-head avatar and burned-in captions, quote graphics pulled from the best lines, a blog article, and an email newsletter. Autopilot then schedules and publishes the set across the nine social platforms plus blog and email behind a per-post review. It is worth noting the one gap Audacity 4.0 shipped with — macros and batch processing are not back yet — so the "do it once, get many finished outputs" step Kompozy runs is exactly the kind of repetitive production Audacity can no longer automate for you today. Clean the audio in Audacity; let Kompozy repurpose and ship it.

What are the quick takeaways?

  • Audacity 4.0 released September 3, 2026 — a full rebuild on the Qt6 toolkit, still free and open source.
  • New: modern dockable/floatable UI, a new clip-editing model with grouping and a dedicated split tool, a redesigned spectrogram, volume envelopes in a clip gain mode, and label tracks.
  • Plugins: Nyquist + VST3 across platforms, Audio Units on macOS, LV2 on Linux, plus ASIO on Windows.
  • New .aup4 project format; .aup3 projects convert automatically on open without changing the originals.
  • Not in 4.0 yet: MIDI, macros/batch processing, and some effects and analyzers — the team says it is restoring them in future updates, so keep 3.x if you rely on one.

What does this look like in Kompozy?

A quote graphic made in Kompozy, the kind of card it pulls from a recording's best line.

Quote graphic generated in Kompozy
Real output · Kompozy Quote graphic format · from the Kompozy workspace

Who is this for, and who should skip it?

Best for:

  • Podcasters and voiceover creators who edit in Audacity
  • Anyone who found the old interface blurry on high-DPI screens
  • Creators who assemble episodes from many clips

Not ideal for:

  • Users who rely on MIDI, macros or batch processing, which are not in 4.0 yet
  • Anyone who needs a feature from 3.x before confirming it exists in 4.0
  • Creators who want captioned clips and posts from the audio, which Audacity does not make

Frequently asked questions

When was Audacity 4.0 released?

Audacity 4.0 was released on September 3, 2026 by the Audacity team. It is a ground-up rebuild of the editor on the Qt6 toolkit and remains free and open source.

What are the main new features in Audacity 4.0?

A full Qt6 interface rebuild with dockable/floatable panels and customizable workspaces, a new clip-editing model (direct clip selection, grouping, freer moves, a dedicated split tool), a redesigned spectrogram, volume envelopes in a clip gain mode, label tracks, seek-during-playback, VST3/Nyquist/AU/LV2 plugin support, ASIO on Windows, and a new .aup4 project format.

Will my old Audacity projects still open in 4.0?

Yes. Audacity 4.0 is backward compatible with the older .aup3 format — projects convert automatically when you open them, without modifying the originals, so your clips, tracks, and labels carry across.

Is anything missing in Audacity 4.0?

Yes. Because 4.0 is a from-scratch rebuild, several 3.x features are not in it at launch, including MIDI support, macros/batch processing, and some effects and analyzers. The developers say they are restoring missing features in future updates, so keep your 3.x install if your workflow depends on one.

How do we know this?

We checked every figure, date, quote and product claim on this page against the sources listed below on 2026-10-23, and removed or rewrote anything we could not confirm. Feature and date details come from Audacity's GitHub release notes, with the Qt6 move from Phoronix and label tracks from Gardiner Bryant's hands-on. Kompozy platform and format details come from kompozy.io.

Sources

  1. GitHub — Audacity 4.0.0 release notes (read 2026-10-23)
  2. Phoronix — Audacity 4.0 audio editor released with Qt6 based UI (read 2026-10-23)
  3. OMG! Ubuntu — Audacity 4.0 released (read 2026-10-23)
  4. OpenSourceForU — Audacity 4.0 brings a major new look to open source audio editing (read 2026-10-23)
  5. Gardiner Bryant — Audacity 4.0 is awesome and still a little buggy (read 2026-10-23)
  6. Kompozy — Pricing and plans (read 2026-10-23)

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