WAV to MP3
Turn bulky WAV to MP3 files you can email, text or keep on your phone. Free and unlimited, no sign-up, and the recording never leaves your device.
Your file is converted in your browser and never uploaded to our servers.
How to Convert WAV to MP3
- 1
Drop in the WAV
Pick a .wav or .wave file from a recorder, a DAW bounce or a sampler export. It is read from your disk, not sent anywhere.
- 2
Choose a bitrate for the content
192 kbps is preselected and fits most listening. Use 128 kbps for voice notes and interviews, 320 kbps for finished music.
- 3
Convert and save
The first run fetches the converter once, about 9 MB. The MP3 keeps the file name, so Interview_take2.wav becomes Interview_take2.mp3.
Why Use This WAV to MP3 Converter
Local, not uploaded
FFmpeg runs in your browser tab as WebAssembly and encodes with LAME. A two-hour session file is never pushed over your connection to someone else's server.
No quota at all
No account, no watermark and no daily cap. Convert one file after another for as long as you need.
Three honest bitrates
Fixed choices of 128, 192 or 320 kbps. You can work out the WAV to MP3 file size before you press Convert.
Keeps the source layout
The sample rate and channel count of your WAV carry over. A mono voice recording stays mono instead of being doubled into stereo.
WAV vs MP3 File Size, by Bitrate
Calculated from the bitrate for 16-bit, 44.1 kHz stereo audio. Real files land close to these approximate figures.
| WAV (16-bit) | MP3 128 kbps | MP3 192 kbps | MP3 320 kbps | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data rate | 1,411 kbps | 128 kbps | 192 kbps | 320 kbps |
| One minute | About 10.6 MB | About 0.96 MB | About 1.44 MB | About 2.4 MB |
| One hour | About 635 MB | About 58 MB | About 86 MB | About 144 MB |
| Fits in 25 MB | About 2 min | About 26 min | About 17 min | About 10 min |
| Smaller than WAV | Baseline | About 11x | About 7x | About 4.4x |
| Best for | Masters and editing | Speech, lectures | Everyday listening | Finished music |
Where Big WAV Audio Comes From
Most WAV files are the raw output of some device or program, and few of them need to stay that size.
Field and voice recorders
Many handheld recorders save WAV by default. An hour-long interview is around 635 MB as WAV and roughly 58 MB as a 128 kbps MP3.
DAW bounces and mixes
Send a rough mix to the band or a client as MP3 and keep the WAV bounce for mastering.
Sampler and drum machine exports
Pattern and song exports pile up fast. Convert the ones you only need to audition or share, not the loops you will build on.
Screen-capture audio
Some capture tools write the narration or system sound as a separate WAV. As MP3 it is light enough to attach to a ticket or a lesson.
Phone storage
A 15-song album of four-minute tracks is about 636 MB as WAV. At 192 kbps the same songs take about 86 MB.
Email and cloud folders
Many mail services stop attachments at about 25 MB. That holds roughly 2 minutes of WAV or 17 minutes of 192 kbps MP3.
What MP3 Throws Away, and When to Keep the WAV
A WAV file stores every sample as a plain number, so nothing is lost and nothing is saved. MP3 is a perceptual codec: it drops sounds your ear is unlikely to notice, such as quiet detail masked by a louder sound at a nearby pitch. At lower bitrates the encoder also trims the very top of the treble.
After a WAV to MP3 pass at 192 kbps, most people hear no difference on phones, laptops or earbuds. Cymbals, reverb tails and applause are where artifacts show first, which is why 320 kbps suits finished music.
The loss is permanent. Keep the WAV for masters, for anything you will still edit, mix or restore, and for loops and one-shots, since MP3 adds a short silence at the start that can break a clean repeat.
Mistakes When Converting WAV to MP3
Mistake: Deleting the WAV once the MP3 plays fine.
Do this instead: Treat the MP3 as a copy for sharing. Archive the WAV on a drive if you may ever remix, master or edit it.
Mistake: Using MP3 versions of loops and drum hits in a project.
Do this instead: MP3 pads the start with a brief silence, so loops can stutter. Keep samples in WAV.
Mistake: Choosing 320 kbps for a meeting or voice memo.
Do this instead: Speech sounds clear at 128 kbps, and the file is under half the size of the 320 kbps version.
Mistake: Converting the MP3 back to WAV to get the quality back.
Do this instead: The discarded detail does not return. You only get a file that is larger again. Go back to the original WAV.
Mistake: Converting a multi-hour WAV on an older phone.
Do this instead: Very large files can run out of memory in a mobile browser. Use a desktop browser for long sessions.
Privacy, Price and Limits
Your recording stays put
Cloudflare hosts the page and jsDelivr delivers the open-source converter. Neither receives your audio; the encoding happens on your machine.
Free with no ceiling
No tiers, no sign-up and no limit on how many files you convert.
What it does not do
It converts one file at a time and has no trimming, normalizing or tag editing. We have not measured a maximum file size. Our test runs used 16-bit PCM WAV, and each produced a valid MP3.