WAV to MP3
WAV to MP3 shrinks an uncompressed WAV recording to an MP3 about a tenth of the size at 128 kbps, encoded with LAME in your browser, with no upload.
Drop a video or audio file, paste it, or click to choose one
WAV from a recorder, a DAW export or a CD rip
Video or audio file · processed on your device, never uploaded
At a glance
- Accepts
- WAV (16 or 24-bit PCM, any common sample rate), plus other audio
- Outputs
- MP3 at 128, 192 or 320 kbps
- Where it runs
- Entirely in your browser, on your device
- What leaves your device
- Nothing - the file never leaves your device
- Limits
- MP3 is lossy and at most stereo; rates above 48 kHz are resampled to 48 kHz and rates below 32 kHz to 44.1 kHz
- Account
- Not required - there is no sign-up
- Price
- Free, with no watermark and no usage cap
- Made by
- Visrut
- Last updated
- 11 October 2026
WAV files are uncompressed, which makes them right for recording and editing and wrong for almost everything else: about 10 MB per minute of stereo, too big for most email attachments and slow to share. MP3 is the usual answer. This page encodes the WAV with LAME, the same open-source encoder behind most MP3 software, running in your browser tab, so an unreleased track or a private recording never touches a server.
What comes out, measured
- 16-bit, 44.1 kHz stereo, 10 s (1.68 MB): 392 KB at 320 kbps, 235 KB at 192 kbps, both 44.1 kHz stereo.
- 24-bit, 96 kHz stereo, 10 s (5.5 MB): 392 KB at 320 kbps, resampled to 48 kHz.
- Length: within 0.06 seconds of the WAV in every test, the difference being MP3's own encoder padding.
Before you convert
- Keep the WAV. MP3 throws away detail you can't get back, so the WAV stays your master copy for any later edit.
- A WAV with more than two channels is mixed down to stereo, because MP3 can't hold more.
- If the recording is noisy, clean it first with Remove Background Noise, then convert the result.
Frequently asked questions
How much smaller will the MP3 be?
A CD-quality stereo WAV (16-bit, 44.1 kHz) runs at 1,411 kbps, so a 128 kbps MP3 is about 11 times smaller, 192 kbps about 7 times and 320 kbps about 4.4 times. In our test a 1.68 MB, 10-second WAV became a 392 KB MP3 at 320 kbps. A 24-bit or 96 kHz WAV shrinks even more.
Which bitrate keeps the quality?
For most listeners, on most music, 192 kbps is hard to tell from the WAV, and 320 kbps is the most MP3 can do. For spoken word, 128 kbps is plenty. If the WAV is a master you will keep editing, hold on to the WAV and send the MP3.
My WAV is 24-bit / 96 kHz. What happens?
It converts. The audio is resampled to 48 kHz, the highest rate MP3 supports, and the LAME encoder works from 16-bit samples; an MP3 has no bit depth of its own, and its compression noise sits far above what the extra 8 bits would add. We tested a 24-bit, 96 kHz stereo WAV and got a correct 48 kHz MP3 of the same length.
Is there a size limit?
The WAV is read from disk a piece at a time, so its size isn't the problem; the MP3 is held in memory until you save it, and it's small. An hour of audio at 192 kbps is about 86 MB, which phones handle comfortably.