Adobe Audition is a professional audio workstation for recording, mixing, editing and restoring audio, sold by Adobe as a subscription rather than a one-time purchase. What decides whether it suits you is largely whether you want it as a standalone single app or as part of a wider Creative Cloud subscription, and whether working against picture in a Video Panel and mixing to surround matter to your work.
What is Adobe Audition?
Adobe Audition is made by Adobe Inc., headquartered in San Jose, California. It is an installed desktop application for Windows and Mac, and it needs an Adobe ID and an internet connection to activate and use, even though it does not run in a browser.
Editing audio in Adobe Audition
Audition combines multitrack, waveform and spectral display in one toolset for creating, mixing, editing and restoring audio, with a Video Panel that syncs a picture to the timeline while you mix. Its Noise Reduction and Restoration effects include Noise Reduction, DeNoise, Adaptive Noise Reduction, Hiss Reduction, DeHummer, DeReverb and click and pop removal. The Match Loudness panel measures and corrects loudness against broadcast standards including EBU R128, ITU BS1770 and ATSC A/85, with true peak limiting. Save All Audio as Batch Process applies the same processing across every open file, and Audition supports VST3, VST and Audio Units (Mac) plugins. Mixdown options export mono, stereo and 5.1 surround files together, and the Channel Mixer effect adjusts balance between surround channels.
No AI-branded editing model is named for Audition: its DeNoise, Sound Remover and related restoration effects are signal-processing tools rather than a described AI feature, and it has no stem-separation or dialogue-isolation feature.
Working with other people
Audition integrates with Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Adobe Media Encoder and Adobe Stock, and it also exports to OMF for Avid Pro Tools and Final Cut Pro Interchange format for moving a session between editors. It runs on Windows and Mac. Support for the single-app plan runs through phone, chat and the Adobe Community.
Adobe Audition pricing: what each plan gives
Audition is sold as a subscription: either as its own single-app plan or bundled into a wider Creative Cloud plan, billed monthly or as an annual plan billed monthly. There is no one-time purchase or perpetual license. A 7-day free trial is offered; there is no free plan.
Privacy and support
Creative Cloud does not train Adobe's AI features on subscribers' personal content, a policy that applies to Audition as an Adobe product. Adobe also addresses GDPR at the company level. Support for the single-app plan runs through phone, chat and the Adobe Community.
Who Adobe Audition suits
Audition suits anyone doing multitrack recording and mixing who also wants spectral editing, broadcast-standard loudness correction and a Video Panel for syncing audio to picture, especially alongside other Adobe video tools like Premiere Pro and After Effects. Its 5.1 surround mixdown also suits anyone delivering broadcast or video work.
It suits less well anyone who wants to own a copy outright, since Audition is sold by subscription with no perpetual license, or anyone without reliable internet, since an Adobe ID and connection are needed to activate and use it.
How Adobe Audition compares
Adobe Audition scores 6.0 out of 10 among the audio editors we rate. These two do the same job and are the closest to it, compared on what each vendor publishes.
Audacity
Audacity is free and open source; Adobe Audition is sold only by subscription, billed monthly or annually, with no free tier beyond a trial. Audition edits audio against picture in a Video Panel and mixes down to 5.1 surround, neither of which Audacity offers. Audacity counters with optional free plugins for AI stem separation and dialogue isolation, features Audition lacks, plus a scripting API for automation. Both support spectral editing and third-party plugins.
Pick Audacity if if you want free AI stem separation and no subscription.
Pick Adobe Audition if if you need to edit audio against video and surround.
Sound Forge
Adobe Audition edits several tracks at once; Sound Forge is a single-file waveform editor by design, not a multitrack tool, and runs on Windows only. Sound Forge sells a one-time purchase alongside its subscription, from $24.95 a month, while Audition is subscription only, billed monthly or annually, with no outright licence option. Audition adds spectral editing that Sound Forge lacks, and both can edit audio against video and mix in surround.
Pick Sound Forge if if you want a one-time purchase for single-file waveform editing.
Pick Adobe Audition if if you need multitrack editing with spectral repair tools.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Adobe Audition cost?
Audition is sold as a subscription, either as its own single-app plan or as part of a wider Creative Cloud plan, billed monthly or as an annual plan billed monthly. A 7-day free trial is available; there is no free plan and no one-time purchase.
Can Adobe Audition edit audio synced to video?
Yes. Its Video Panel lets you insert a video file so its picture is synced to the timeline in the Multitrack Editor while you mix the audio below it.
Does Adobe Audition mix for surround sound?
Yes. Its mixdown options let you export mono, stereo and 5.1 surround files at the same time, and its Channel Mixer effect adjusts balance between surround channels.
Does Adobe Audition train AI on my work?
Creative Cloud does not train Adobe's AI features on subscribers' personal content, a policy that applies to Audition as an Adobe product.
