Audacity 4.0 released with Qt-based UI rebuild
Original: Audacity 4.0
Why This Matters
Audacity 4.0's Qt-based rebuild modernizes one of the most widely used open-source audio editors, impacting a large global user base.
Open-source audio editor Audacity released version 4.0 on September 3, 2025. The major update rebuilds the interface on Qt and introduces a new clip-editing model with grouping, multi-clip selection, and expanded paste functionality.
Audacity 4.0 marks a significant milestone for the long-running open-source audio editor, rebuilding the entire application interface on the Qt framework. The release introduces a new clip-editing model that allows users to select clips directly by clicking clip headers, and Shift-click to select multiple clips for simultaneous editing. Selected clips can be moved, trimmed, and time-stretched together. A new grouping feature keeps clips together when moved, copied, pasted, or duplicated. Clips now move more freely between mono and stereo tracks, and moving a clip over another replaces the overlapped portion rather than blocking the move. A dedicated splitting tool has been added, accessible by pressing or holding S, along with commands for split-cut, split-delete, split at silences, and split to a new track. The paste function has been enhanced to automatically create tracks when needed, adapt compatible channel layouts, and paste audio from the OS clipboard. Additional improvements include alignment guides, sample-boundary snapping, and per-project snap settings. Most Audacity 3 workflows remain available, though some controls have moved or changed. The project has 17.9k stars on GitHub.