Most people sniff dozens of times a day and never hear themselves do it — which is exactly why a clean sniff in a film cut reads as deliberate and slightly comic. These 23 sniffing recordings cover the spectrum that foley actually needs: a single sharp nose pull caught dry, longer congested sniffles for a cold-and-flu scene, the soft repeated sniffle of someone holding back tears, and a wet dog sniffing along a baseboard with the mic close enough to catch the nostril flare. A handful of takes lean toward the runny end for comedy.
Cartoon work pulls the harder pulls because they exaggerate cleanly when pitch-shifted up. Drama and emotional scenes lean on the suppressed-tears sniffle, which carries vulnerability without any voice. Foley for detective and crime work uses the dog sniffing sound for tracking-scent beats — short, dry, dropped in as one-shots. The whole sniffing sound effect set downloads free with no signup or attribution required.