Convert WAV to MP3

Why convert WAV to MP3?

WAV is uncompressed audio. It is what recorders, audio interfaces, DAWs like GarageBand, Audacity or FL Studio, and many voice memo apps produce, and it sounds exactly like the original recording. It is also huge: one minute of CD-quality stereo WAV takes about 10 MB, so a single song can be 40 to 50 MB. That is too large for email, slow to upload and wasteful on a phone. MP3 compresses the same audio to roughly a tenth of the size while still sounding very close to the original. Converting WAV to MP3 makes your audio easy to share, store and play on any device, car stereo or app.

Choose the right MP3 bitrate

The bitrate decides how much detail is kept and how big the file is. This WAV to MP3 converter lets you pick one before you convert:

• 128 kbps: about 1 MB per minute. Fine for speech, podcasts, voice notes and background music.
• 192 kbps: about 1.4 MB per minute. The default and a good balance for music.
• 256 kbps: about 1.9 MB per minute. Hard to tell from the original for most listeners.
• 320 kbps: about 2.4 MB per minute. The highest MP3 quality, best for music you care about.

If you are not sure, keep 192 kbps. For a recording of your own band or a mix you want to send for feedback, 320 kbps is the safe choice. Even at 320 kbps the MP3 is still about four times smaller than the WAV.

A private WAV audio file to MP3 converter

Most online audio converters upload your file to a server first. With long WAV recordings that means waiting for hundreds of megabytes to upload, and your unreleased music, interviews or meeting recordings sit on a stranger’s server. VideoToolsFlow converts WAV audio to MP3 inside your browser. The file is decoded and encoded on your own device, then saved straight to your downloads. Nothing is uploaded, so it is fast, it works with large files and it is safe for private recordings. There is no account, no limit and no watermark or voice tag added to the audio.

How to convert WAV to MP3

1. Drop a .wav file on the box above, or tap to choose one. FLAC, OGG, M4A and AIFF files work too.
2. Pick a bitrate, or leave it at 192 kbps.
3. Press Convert and download your MP3 when it is ready. Most songs take only a few seconds.

The tool works the same way on Windows, Mac, Chromebook, iPhone and Android, with no software to install.

What happens to the sound

MP3 is a lossy format. It saves space by removing sounds that people are least likely to hear, such as very quiet details next to loud ones and the highest frequencies. At 192 kbps and above the difference is very hard to notice in normal listening. The sample rate, stereo channels and length of your recording are kept. Keep your original WAV as the master copy if you plan to edit or remix the audio later, because converting MP3 back to WAV does not bring the removed detail back.

WAV vs MP3: which should you keep?

Use WAV while recording, editing and mastering, because every edit on an MP3 would lose a little more quality. Use MP3 for the finished version you share, upload, put on a phone or play in the car. Many musicians and podcasters keep both: the WAV in an archive folder and the MP3 for everyday use.

More audio tools

Need to go the other way? The MP3 to WAV converter makes WAV files for editing software. You can also cut a recording with the audio cutter, make it smaller with the audio compressor, or extract the sound from a video with MP4 to MP3.