WAV to MP3 Converter

Convert WAV audio files to compressed MP3 format for easier sharing.

Drop your WAV file here

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How to Convert WAV to MP3

Add your WAV file - Click the drop area or drag and drop. Recordings from Audacity, Zoom exports, and field recorders all work.
Preview it - Play the file in the built-in player to make sure it is the right take.
Convert - Click the button and the uncompressed audio is encoded to MP3 in your browser.
Download - Save an MP3 that is around one tenth the size of the original.

Why WAV Files Are So Big

A stereo CD-quality WAV records 44,100 samples per second at 16 bits per sample, on two channels. Multiply that out and you get 1,411 kbps of raw data, every second, regardless of content. A minute of silence costs the same 10.6 MB as a minute of a full orchestra. That is fine while you are recording and editing, and terrible the moment you try to email the file, attach it to a chat, or upload it somewhere with a size cap. MP3 exists precisely for that moment: it analyzes which details human hearing will not miss and spends its bits only on what you can actually perceive.

What the Shrink Looks Like

Here is a 10 minute recording, first as the source WAV and then as MP3:

Source WAV

106 MB

MP3 128 kbps

9.6 MB

The ratio holds at any length: an hour of WAV is about 635 MB, the same hour as 128 kbps MP3 is about 58 MB.

What Survives the Compression

At 128 kbps the encoder keeps everything that defines the recording: the full frequency range of speech, the melody, rhythm, and character of music, stereo placement, and dynamics. What it trims is redundancy and detail masked by louder sounds, the material your ear was going to ignore anyway. For voice memos, interviews, podcast episodes, and demo recordings, the result is effectively indistinguishable from the source. The sensible workflow is to archive the WAV if the recording is irreplaceable and hand the MP3 to everyone else.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much smaller will my file get? Plan on the MP3 being about one tenth the size of the WAV. Uncompressed CD-quality audio costs roughly 10.6 MB per minute, while 128 kbps MP3 costs just under 1 MB per minute. A 45 minute recording session drops from around 480 MB to about 43 MB.

Will I hear the difference after converting? For speech, podcasts, and casual listening, almost certainly not. At 128 kbps the encoder mostly discards frequencies and detail that sit below the threshold of human attention. Critical listening on good headphones with dense, cymbal-heavy music is where sharp ears can occasionally pick out compression, which is why keeping the WAV as an archive copy is a good habit.

Why is my WAV so enormous in the first place? WAV stores every audio sample uncompressed: 44,100 samples per second, 16 bits each, times two channels. That is 1,411 kbps of data no matter what the audio contains. Even pure silence takes the full 10.6 MB per minute, which is why recorders and editors that default to WAV fill storage so fast.

Is the WAV file sent to a server for encoding? No. The encoding is handled by a JavaScript MP3 encoder running inside your browser tab, so the audio data stays on your machine from start to finish. This matters doubly for WAV, since sending a several-hundred-megabyte recording to a conversion server would be slow before it was ever a privacy question.

Can I convert recordings from Audacity, Zoom, or a field recorder? Yes. Standard 16-bit PCM WAV files, which is what nearly every recorder and editor produces by default, convert directly. If a file refuses to load, it may be 32-bit float or an unusual variant; exporting it once from your editor as 16-bit PCM solves it.