The eighteen-minute limit was imposed because TED's organisers judged it the longest anyone would reliably pay attention to a single idea. Whether or not that was right, it produced a format almost perfectly matched to a commute, a walk or a gym session.
Most talks are also, functionally, radio. A person stands on a stage and speaks; the slides behind them are usually illustrative rather than load-bearing, and a listener who never sees them misses very little. Some talks are genuinely visual, but they are the minority.
What makes this page unusually straightforward is the licensing. TED publishes under Creative Commons and says openly that it wants the talks spread as widely as possible, so there is no grey area to navigate here — which cannot be said of most pages on this site.
Turning a talk into audio
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Copy the TED talk address
Take the ted.com address from your browser. TEDx talks published on the main site work the same way.
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Present the talk link here
Paste it into the field at the top of this page.
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Take the TED audio track
Where a separate audio stream is offered it appears beneath the video versions, at a fraction of the size.
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Queue it up
Tap the row when it turns blue. Downloads on Android, the Files app on an iPhone, ready for any podcast app.
Why audio suits this format particularly well
The length is the right length. Eighteen minutes fits a commute, a walk or a run almost exactly, in a way that neither a three-minute clip nor a ninety-minute lecture does.
A podcast app handles it better than a video player. It remembers where you stopped, plays at higher speed, queues things and keeps going with the screen off — none of which a video app does well.
And people build collections. Anyone using talks for study, training or a reading group ends up wanting a folder of audio files rather than a browser full of tabs.
Which talks lose something as audio
Most do not, but it is worth knowing the exceptions before you take a whole list of them.
| Kind of talk | Works as audio? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Idea or argument | Yes | The slides are illustration |
| Personal story | Yes | It is a person speaking |
| Data or charts | Partly | Numbers get described, mostly |
| Demonstration on stage | No | The point is what you see |
| Performance or art piece | No | Visual by nature |
The bottom two rows are a small minority of the catalogue. If a talk involves somebody building or showing something, take the video; for everything else the audio is the more useful file.
TED audio questions
Am I allowed to do this?
Yes, and unusually you can say so without qualification. TED publishes under a Creative Commons licence and actively encourages the talks being shared.
Does TED offer audio itself?
TED has published talks as podcast feeds over the years, which is worth checking — a subscription may suit you better than saving them individually.
Do TEDx talks work?
Those published on the main TED site are handled the same way.
Will I get the subtitles?
No. Subtitles are a separate track, and they do not apply to an audio file in any case.
Which talks are worth keeping as video?
Demonstrations and performances, where what you see is the point. For an argument or a story, audio loses almost nothing.
How large is an audio file?
An eighteen-minute talk is typically under twenty megabytes, against a few hundred for the video.
Can I use a talk in teaching?
Yes. Educational use sits squarely inside the licence and is much of why TED publishes this way.
Where does the MP3 save on TED?
Downloads on Android, the Files app on an iPhone, ready for any podcast app.
Can I use one commercially?
No. The licence excludes commercial use, which is one of its few real limits.
Is there a limit on TED how many?
No cap and no queue.