How to remove background noise on Zoom (live & recordings)

Zoom calls pick up more background noise than people expect: a laptop fan, a street outside the window, a housemate's TV. Zoom has a built-in noise suppression feature that helps a lot on live calls, but it has one limitation that trips people up: it can't be applied after the fact. If you're looking at a recording that already has noise baked in, you need a different fix. This guide covers both.

The fast way: clean a Zoom recording online

If the meeting already happened and the recording has noise in it, there's no Zoom setting that will fix it retroactively; you have to clean the audio file itself. The quickest way is an online background noise remover that lets you preview the result free before you pay:

1. Export or download your Zoom recording as an M4A (audio only) or MP4 (video) file from the Zoom app or your cloud recording page.
2. Upload the file to CleanNoise. For an MP4 recording, the video noise remover cleans the audio track directly and hands the video back as an MP4 with the picture untouched; if you only need the sound, the extract audio from video tool pulls a clean audio file out first.
3. CleanNoise detects the background noise automatically and removes it, leaving speech intact.
4. Listen to the free 30-second cleaned preview (no sign-up) and, if you like it, download the full file for $0.99 (up to 30 minutes), with no settings to tune. For echoey rooms, switch on Remove echo / reverb.

Your uploaded recording and the cleaned result are deleted automatically after 48 hours.

Fixing it live: Zoom's built-in noise suppression

For calls you're about to join, turn on Zoom's noise suppression before you start:

1. Open the Zoom desktop app, click your profile picture and go to Settings > Audio.
2. Make sure the microphone mode is Noise removal (the default). Then open the Background noise suppression dropdown and choose a level: Auto is the default and applies moderate reduction when needed, Low is minimal, Medium targets everyday noise like fans and pen tapping, and High is the most aggressive, aimed at things like keyboard typing or other people talking nearby. Zoom notes that High may increase CPU use.
3. Avoid Original sound for musicians unless you are sharing music. Zoom turns noise suppression off in that mode, so a call that sounds noisy is often just a case of it being left on from a music-sharing session.
4. Use Test microphone in the same settings panel to record a short clip and play it back, and confirm the hum or fan noise in your room is actually gone before you join.

This setting is real-time: it processes the audio stream as it leaves your microphone, so it helps everyone on the call hear you more clearly, live. That's also exactly why it can't help a recording after the meeting has ended: there's no live stream left to process, only a finished audio file.

Tips for a cleaner Zoom call

• Position matters more than settings. Sitting closer to the mic and further from the fan or window does more than any software setting.
• Headset mics beat laptop mics. A headset or USB mic picks up far less room noise than a built-in laptop microphone to begin with.
• High suppression can sound "processed." If voices start sounding thin or robotic on High, try Auto or Low; the goal is the least processing that removes the noise.
• Crowded room? Zoom also offers Personalized audio isolation in the same microphone mode list, which uses your voiceprint to suppress other voices and noise. It needs a supported app version and device.
• If a recording still needs work after suppression was on, the audio enhancer can also help boost clarity, not just remove noise.

Which method should you use?

Use Zoom's live noise suppression whenever you're hosting or joining a call; it costs nothing and helps in real time. Use CleanNoise whenever you're dealing with a recording: interviews, webinars, podcast co-recordings, or any Zoom call that was saved for later use where the noise already made it into the file. Most people end up doing both: suppression on for the live call, and a quick pass through CleanNoise on the exported recording for anything that got through. See pricing if you need to clean longer recordings (up to 60 minutes per file) or want credit packs or a monthly Pro plan.