WAV to MP3
Encoded in this tab. The recording never leaves your device.
Up to 300 MB. 192 kbit/s, which is where most listeners stop hearing a difference.
Checking whether the video and audio converter is already on this device
0%The short answer
A WAV stores every sample uncompressed, which is why a three-minute recording runs to 30 MB. MP3 at 192 kbit/s brings that to roughly a tenth, and the difference is inaudible to most people on most equipment. The encoding happens here, in the tab, with nothing uploaded.
A WAV stores every sample uncompressed, which is why three minutes runs to 30 MB. MP3 at 192 kbit/s brings that to roughly a tenth, inaudibly for most people on most equipment.
The formula
ffmpeg -i audio -c:a libmp3lame -b:a 192k out.mp3
Worked examples
- A 3-minute WAV
- 30 MB becomes about 4 MB
- An M4A or FLAC
- also accepted, same output
- An MP3 already
- re-encoded, so slightly worse
Reference table
| Format | A minute is | Lossless |
|---|---|---|
| WAV, 44.1 kHz stereo | 10.6 MB | Yes |
| FLAC | 5–7 MB | Yes |
| MP3 at 192 kbit/s | 1.4 MB | No |
| MP3 at 128 kbit/s | 0.9 MB | No |
How to use it
- 01Let the converter loadIt arrives in the background and stays on your device for next time.
- 02Drop the audio inWAV, FLAC, M4A, AAC and most other formats are accepted.
- 03Save the MP3192 kbit/s, which is the setting most people cannot pick out in a listening test.
Also searched for
Searches that land here include wav to mp3, convert wav to mp3, audio converter, m4a to mp3 and flac to mp3.
Lossless in, lossy out
What MP3 actually removes
It models what human hearing does not notice: sounds masked by louder sounds nearby in frequency or time, and detail at the top of the range most adults cannot hear at all. At 192 kbit/s what is left is close enough that picking it out reliably takes good equipment and a careful test. At 64 it is obvious to anyone.
Where the tenfold saving comes from
A WAV spends the same number of bits on every moment of audio whether or not there is anything there. MP3 spends bits where the ear is listening. That difference — not clever compression of the waveform — is most of the tenfold reduction, which is why a quiet recording compresses no better than a loud one.
Formats other than WAV
FLAC and ALAC are lossless too, at roughly half the size of a WAV, and both are accepted here. M4A and AAC are already lossy, so converting them to MP3 means a second round of loss for no size benefit — worth doing only when something refuses to play anything but MP3.
Questions people ask
Will I hear the difference?
On ordinary equipment, almost certainly not at 192 kbit/s. In careful listening tests most people stop being able to tell somewhere between 128 and 192 on most material. Cymbals, applause and other dense high-frequency sound are where a lossy encoder struggles first, so that is where to listen if you want to check.
Why is a WAV so large?
Because it is not compressed at all. CD-quality stereo is 44,100 samples a second, two channels, sixteen bits each, which works out to about 10.6 MB a minute regardless of what the audio contains. A minute of silence and a minute of orchestra are the same size.
Should I keep the WAV?
If you might edit it again, yes. Every lossy encode discards detail permanently, and editing an MP3 and re-saving it compounds that. Keep the lossless file as the master and treat the MP3 as the copy you send. If you only need to send it once, there is nothing to keep.