Generate your own sounds in bulk on Pro, each with a license certificate
Royalty-Free Foley & Body Sound Effects
100k+ free sound effects, growing every day. Foley and body sound effects: heartbeats speeding up or slowing to a stop, breathing and panting, snoring, coughing, babies babbling, laughing and crying, hand claps, finger snaps and knuckle cracks, plus everyday handling such as a can opening, a suitcase rolling, poker chips sliding and a snack bag tearing. These small sounds make a scene feel recorded rather than assembled. For vocal reactions like screams and laughs, see human voices; for walking and running, go to footsteps. Free account: 10 MP3s a month for your own channels, with credit. Paid plans: unlimited MP3 and WAV, client work and ads, no credit.
Describe the sound you need and get 2 free versions in about 10 seconds.
Make a foley sound with AI
Name the hand or body action, the object and how close it is: a coffee mug set down on a glass desk, slow nervous breathing up close, a leather wallet opened and coins counted out.
Free credits when you sign up · generation uses your account balance
Vibrating Diving Springboard Bouncing and Decaying5.0s9.9springboard, diving board, bounce
How to use foley and body sound effects in a video
Fill the gaps between lines
In a quiet dialogue scene, small handling sounds keep it alive between lines: a can opening, poker chips stacked, fingers drumming a table. Place each on the exact frame of contact and keep it under the voices. If two happen at once, leave one out so the action stays readable.
Let a heartbeat set the tension
Heartbeats can do the job music usually does. Start a slow heartbeat low under a tense shot, switch to the racing one as danger closes in, and use the heartbeat accelerating to cut so it ends on the final frame before a hard cut. The heartbeat slowing to a stop can close a scene with no music at all.
Place breaths at camera distance
Panting, a slow exhale or panicked breathing while hiding should sound as close as the camera is to the face. Keep breaths dry and present for a close shot. For breathing behind a door or across a room, lower the level and roll off the high end, so it sounds blocked rather than just quieter.
Foley and body sound effects: questions
What is foley?
Foley is the everyday sound of people moving and handling things, usually recorded in sync with the picture after filming. Location audio rarely captures it clearly, so editors add it back. This page has body and handling sounds plus a few footsteps on brush, mud and drill grounds; the full set of walking sounds is in footsteps, and most vocal reactions are in human voices.
Which sounds work for a horror scene?
Slow breathing close behind the listener, heavy breathing behind a door, a distant scream in the woods, an unsettling child humming far away and a body dragged across floorboards all sit well in horror. Keep them quiet and spaced out, and pair the heartbeat slowing to a stop with silence for the moment before the scare.
Which sounds help a comedy edit?
The comedic hiccup rhythm, the deadpan vocal reaction, a single finger snap and a high five slap land a gag when they hit exactly on the action. For an awkward pause, nervous foot tapping or impatient fingers drumming a table fill the silence without needing a line, and a knuckle crack sets up a character about to try too hard.
License
Every sound effect in this library is free to listen to. Downloading needs a free Sonilo account. A free account downloads 10 sound effects a month in MP3 for videos and posts on your own social channels, monetized channels included, as long as you credit “Sound effects by Sonilo” with a link to the sound’s page. Paid plans download as many as you need in MP3 and WAV, add client projects, paid ads and other commercial work, and need no credit; on Pro and above you can also get a license certificate for any sound effect here. No royalties, and Sonilo does not register library sound effects with YouTube Content ID. Use the files only as part of your own work. You may not sell, share or give away the files on their own, bundle them into sound, sample or music packs, or upload them to other stock or library sites.
Believe something here should not be listed? Contact [email protected] and we will remove it.
Sounds in this library are contributed by Sonilo users or generated by Sonilo’s own AI models, and are provided as is, without warranty. See section 6.4 of our Terms of Service.
Ready for your next edit
Find a transition, a precise impact or a background atmosphere. Preview sounds before downloading, then take the MP3 for a compact file, or the WAV on a paid plan for your editing workflow.
Made with Sonilo
This collection brings together 5,070 generated sound effects, organized by category and duration. Latest catalog addition: . Search by source, action or texture to narrow your choices.
For video, games and podcasts
Use short sounds for cuts, interface feedback and game actions. Layer longer textures under a scene or spoken segment, and adjust their level in your editor. Check the library license for the files you download.
Need something more specific?
Describe the material, action, setting and timing you want. Your search can become the starting prompt for a custom sound. Try AI sound effects with free account credits.
Working with a video?
Explore Sonilo’s text and video sound effects workflows when your scene needs more than a library clip. Explore sound effects generation.
Generating from an agent or your own code?
Connect Claude, Cursor or ChatGPT to your account through the Sonilo MCP server and ask for a sound effect in the conversation, or drive the same models from a terminal with the CLI. Prefer code? The developer API exposes them as REST endpoints, metered in the credits your plan already includes.
Sound effects FAQ
Can I use these downloads in commercial projects?
Yes, within what your plan covers. A free Sonilo account downloads 10 sound effects a month as MP3 for videos and posts on your own social channels, monetized channels included, as long as you credit “Sound effects by Sonilo” with a link to the sound’s page. Paid plans download without a monthly limit in MP3 and WAV, need no credit, and also cover commercial projects beyond your own channels, such as client work, paid ads, apps, websites and games. Sonilo does not register library sound effects with YouTube Content ID. On Pro and above you can get a license certificate for any file here. Audio you generate in your account follows your plan’s terms instead.
Do I need an account to preview or download a sound?
Listening needs no account. To download, sign in or create a free Sonilo account: it takes 10 sound effects a month as MP3, and paid plans download without a limit in MP3 and WAV. Creating new audio with the AI generator also needs an account.
What is the difference between MP3 and WAV?
MP3 is a compressed file that is convenient for quick previews and smaller projects. WAV is uncompressed and useful when you will edit, layer or process the sound. Every account downloads the MP3; the WAV comes with paid plans.
What if I cannot find the sound I need?
Describe the sound in the search box. If there are no matches, choose the AI generation option to bring that description into Sonilo’s sound effects generator. New accounts receive free credits; generation uses credits, and available exports and usage rights depend on your plan.
How is this different from a traditional sound library?
You can start with a ready-to-download sound or use your description to create a new one in the same product. Sonilo also offers video-to-sound-effects workflows, so you can move from finding a sound to making audio for a particular scene.
Can I share or embed a sound?
Each sound has a permanent detail-page link. Use Share to copy that link, or Embed to copy an HTML audio player with a link back to the sound. Your website editor must allow HTML audio; pasting a URL alone does not automatically embed it.
Can I make sound effects for an uploaded video or through an API?
Sonilo supports video-driven sound effects as well as text descriptions. Open the sound effects product page for the available workflows, or use the developer documentation for API integration. Account generation and API usage follow their own credit and licensing terms.
Custom generation licensing questions · Plans and free credits