How to Add Instagram Audio to CapCut

Want to use that perfect trending audio from an Instagram Reel within your CapCut project? You’ve come to the right place. Creating scroll-stopping video content often means combining the powerful editing features of an app like CapCut with the viral sounds that define social media trends. This guide breaks down the exact steps to get any audio from Instagram into your CapCut timeline so you can create perfectly synced videos that capture attention.

Why Use Instagram Audio in CapCut Anyway?

You might be wondering if it's worth the extra steps. The answer is a definitive yes, and here’s why. Instagram’s built-in video editor is functional, but it’s basic at best. It lacks the precision and creative tools needed to make content that truly stands out.

CapCut, on the other hand, offers a suite of professional-grade editing tools right on your phone:

• Multi-layer Timelines: Easily overlay videos, text, graphics, and effects.
• Advanced Text Animations: Create dynamic, customized captions that pop.
• Keyframe Controls: Animate the position, scale, and opacity of any element for smooth, custom motions.
• Beat Detection: Automatically finds the beat of a song, making it incredibly simple to sync your video cuts to the music.

By bringing trending Instagram audio into CapCut, you get the best of both worlds: the cultural relevance of a viral sound and the creative freedom of a top-tier video editor. It’s the secret recipe for making Reels and TikToks that look polished, professional, and are perfectly timed to the beat.

The Easiest Method: Screen Recording the Audio

Since there’s no direct "Import from Instagram" button, the most reliable and straightforward way to get audio into CapCut is by screen recording it. This method works on both iPhone and Android and only takes a minute. Let’s walk through the process step-by-step.

Step 1: Find and Isolate Your Audio on Instagram

First, you need to find the Reel that has the sound you want to use. Once you do, don’t just hit record. For the clearest audio capture, you need to isolate the sound on its dedicated audio page.

1. Open Instagram and find the Reel with the audio you want.
2. Tap the scrolling audio title at the bottom left of the screen (it usually shows the song name and artist).
3. Tapping this opens a new page dedicated to that specific audio track. This is the best place to record because it plays the audio without the original video’s background noise.
4. Optional: If you’re not ready to edit right away, tap the "Save Audio" button at the top of this screen. You can then find it later by going to your Instagram profile ->, hamburger menu (☰) ->, Saved ->, Audio.

Step 2: Screen Record the Audio

Now that you’ve isolated the sound, it’s time to capture it. We highly recommend putting your phone on "Do Not Disturb" mode first to avoid any notification sounds - like texts or alerts - from ruining your audio recording.

For iPhone:

• Swipe down from the top right corner to open the Control Center.
• Look for the screen record icon (a solid circle inside a hollow one). If you don’t see it, go to Settings >, Control Center and add it.
• Important: Long-press the screen record icon until a new menu pops up. Make sure the Microphone icon says "Off." This ensures you're only recording the phone's internal audio, not any sounds around you.
• Tap "Start Recording." You'll get a 3-second countdown.
• Quickly switch back to Instagram and play the audio. Let it play for at least 30 seconds to get more than enough sound to work with.
• To stop, tap the red bar or pill-shaped icon at the top of your screen. The video will save to your Photos app.

For Android:

• Swipe down from the top of your screen to open your Quick Settings panel.
• Find the "Screen Recorder" tile. If it’s not there, you may need to edit your panel to add it.
• Before you start, tap the recorder settings and ensure "Media sounds" is selected, and your microphone is muted.
• Tap "Start Recording" and play the audio from Instagram.
• When you have enough, swipe down again and tap the stop button on the notification bar. The video will save to your gallery.

Step 3: Import and Extract the Audio in CapCut

With your screen recording saved, it's time for the final part. This is where you separate the sound from the video you just recorded.

1. Open CapCut and tap New Project.
2. Select the screen recording you just made from your camera roll and tap "Add."
3. Your screen recording will now appear in the CapCut timeline. Tap to select the video clip itself (it will get a white border).
4. In the menu at the bottom, swipe left until you see the "Extract audio" button. Tap it.
5. Instantly, CapCut will create a new audio track below your video clip. This is your isolated Instagram sound!
6. Now, tap on the original video clip again, and choose "Delete" from the bottom menu. You'll be left with just the audio track on an empty timeline, ready for your own video clips.

That's it! You've successfully added Instagram audio to your CapCut project.

Editing Your Video to the Beat in CapCut

Now for the fun part. The reason we brought the audio into CapCut was to do more precise, beat-synced editing. CapCut’s "Beats" feature is an editor’s best friend.

Marking the Beat

1. Tap on the audio clip you just extracted. The bottom menu options will change.
2. Tap on the "Beats" icon (it looks like a little flag).
3. CapCut will give you two options: "Auto-generate" or "Add beat."
4. Tap Auto-generate. CapCut's algorithm will listen to the audio and automatically place a small yellow dot on the timeline for every prominent beat in the music.

You now have a visual guide for the rhythm of the entire song. This makes syncing video cuts, text reveals, and effects laughably easy. You can trim your video clips so that each cut lands exactly on a yellow dot, creating a clean, professional transition that feels incredibly satisfying to watch.

A Quick Word on Copyright and Best Practices

This is an important part that many creators overlook. Most trending sounds on Instagram are copyrighted commercial music. Uploading a video to Instagram that contains the original recording of a popular song can get your video muted or even removed for copyright infringement.

So, does that make everything we just did pointless? Not at all! You just need to follow a simple "swap out" workflow that smart creators use every day.

The Pro Workflow:

1. Follow all the steps above to get the audio into CapCut and edit your video so it's perfectly synced to the beats.
2. When your edit is complete, tap on the audio track in CapCut and choose "Mute."
3. Export your final, high-quality, silent video from CapCut.
4. Open Instagram, start a new Reel, and upload this silent video file.
5. Before posting, tap the "Audio" button within the Instagram editor.
6. Search for the official version of the trending sound you used and add it to your Reel.

This process gives you the creative power of CapCut's beat-syncing tools while ensuring your final post uses Instagram’s licensed version of the music. It keeps your content safe from copyright flags and properly attributes the original artist, all while allowing you to create a far more polished edit than the native Reels editor ever could.

Final Thoughts

You now have the complete playbook for using any viral Instagram audio to create a perfectly edited masterpiece in CapCut. By combining screen recording, audio extraction, and CapCut’s beat-marking tool, you can produce content that not only looks professional but also taps into the trends that drive visibility on the platform.

Of course, creating perfectly synced Reels is only half the battle. Once your masterpiece is exported, getting it scheduled and published consistently is what actually builds your brand. As people who live and breathe social media, we built Postbase because we were tired of legacy scheduling tools that felt like they were designed a decade ago. It’s designed from the ground up for modern, video-first content like Reels and TikToks, so you can upload your work and trust that it will go live without a hitch.