Convert WAV to MP3
Shrink uncompressed WAV recordings to a tenth of the size, on your own device.
- Nothing is uploaded
- Works offline
- Open source
- No limits, no watermark
Done
Open the network tab. It stays empty.
Add files and run the tool to see every request this tab makes.
Your files are processed on this device and never sent to a server. Reload the page to clear everything from memory.
WAV is uncompressed audio: every sample stored as it was recorded, about 10 MB per minute in CD-quality stereo. It is what recorders, DAWs and sample packs use, and it is far too large to email, upload to most sites or keep hundreds of on a phone. MP3 at 256 kbps is about a fifth of that, and at 128 kbps about a tenth, with no difference most listeners can hear.
Because WAV files are big, uploading them to an online converter is the slow part: a 45 minute rehearsal recording is close to half a gigabyte. This page reads the WAV straight from your disk and encodes it with LAME inside your browser, so there is no upload and no size cap. Unreleased songs, stems and client recordings stay on your machine.
This page opens at 256 kbps, a good choice when the MP3 is the version you will share from a studio-quality source. Use 320 kbps for a master you will not re-encode again, or 128 kbps for demos and voice. Recordings made at 48 or 96 kHz are converted to 44.1 kHz, the standard MP3 rate.
How it works
- Drop one or more WAV files, or tap to pick them.
- Pick the MP3 quality: 256 kbps by default, 320 for the best, 128 for small files.
- Convert. Each MP3 downloads when it is ready; several come as a zip.
In your browser, not on a server
Your browser decodes the sound track with the same audio decoders it uses to play media on any website (AAC for MP4, MOV and M4A; Opus or Vorbis for WebM; FLAC, WAV and MP3). The samples are resampled to 44.1 kHz and handed to LAME, the reference MP3 encoder, compiled to WebAssembly and served by this site. WAV files are written directly by a few lines of code in the page. Everything happens in memory in your tab.
Compared with upload-based tools: Online converters upload the whole video just to keep its sound, cap free files at a few hundred megabytes, and make you wait in a queue. Home videos, lectures and voice memos are personal. Here the file never leaves your device, so a 2 GB video converts as fast as your computer can read it.
Verify it yourself. Load this page, turn off Wi-Fi or switch to airplane mode, and run the tool. Or open your browser's developer tools (F12, or Cmd-Option-I on a Mac), pick the Network tab, and watch it while you convert. The panel above does the same count for you.
Questions
How much smaller is the MP3?
A CD-quality stereo WAV is 1,411 kbps. At 320 kbps the MP3 is about 4.4 times smaller, at 256 about 5.5 times and at 128 about 11 times. A 50 MB WAV becomes roughly 11, 9 or 4.5 MB.
Does it keep 24-bit or 96 kHz quality?
No. MP3 has no bit depth of its own and tops out at 48 kHz; this tool writes 44.1 kHz. For archiving a high-resolution master keep the WAV, and use the MP3 for sharing.
Are track names and cover art kept?
No. The MP3 contains the audio only, with no ID3 tags. Add titles in your music app after converting.
Is the file uploaded anywhere?
No. There is no server in this process. The page is a static file and the work is done by code running inside your browser tab. You can load the page, turn off Wi-Fi, and it still works.