WAV to MP3 converter

WAV recordings from recorders, DAWs and voice apps are huge: about 10 MB per stereo minute at CD quality. MP3 is around a tenth of that.

Drop a WAV file hereThe converter loads in your browser.

What happens to your WAV

PCM audio is encoded with the LAME MP3 encoder (VBR ~190 kbps by default, or pick a fixed bitrate).

Tip: Speech is fine at 96 to 128 kbps; for music choose 192 kbps or VBR.

How to convert WAV to MP3

  1. Drop your WAV file on the box above, or tap it to pick one. The engine (about 31 MB) loads once per visit.
  2. The converter reads the file's streams and shows which codecs are inside.
  3. Pick a bitrate, or leave the default to keep the original audio when possible.
  4. Press the button, wait for the progress bar, then download your MP3.

Prefer the command line?

This is the FFmpeg command the converter runs for a typical WAV (pcm_s16le). Paste it into a terminal with FFmpeg installed for batch jobs or files too big for a browser tab:

ffmpeg -y -i input.wav -vn -sn -c:a libmp3lame -q:a 2 output.mp3

This re-encodes, so expect it to take a while on long files. Your own file may contain different codecs; the converter above detects them and adapts. For other jobs, ask the FFmpeg command helper.

Questions

Does WAV to MP3 lose quality?

Yes, slightly: MP3 is lossy. At 192 kbps or above most listeners cannot tell the difference. For lossless and smaller, choose FLAC.

Is my WAV file uploaded?

No. The WAV is read from your device by FFmpeg running as WebAssembly in the page, and the MP3 is written back to your device. No server ever receives it.

Is there a size limit for WAV to MP3?

We set none. The practical limit is browser memory: roughly 2 GB of output on a computer, and much less on phones.