WAV to MP3 converter
Compress a large WAV recording to MP3 at a bitrate you choose.
Processed in your browser. This file is converted on your device and is never uploaded.
Converter
.wav up to 250 MB. You can also drag a file here.
No file selected.
About this tool
A WAV recording is often far too large to email or upload: an hour of audio runs to about 600 MB. Converting to MP3 typically cuts that by a factor of ten with no difference most listeners can hear.
Because the conversion happens in your browser, a large recording never has to be uploaded anywhere first, which is usually the slowest part of using an online converter.
Supported formats and limits
- Input
- .wav
- Output
- .mp3 (audio/mpeg)
- Output name
- The original name with the new extension, for example data.wav becomes data.mp3.
- File size limit
- 250 MB
- Processing
- In your browser. The file is not uploaded.
WAV against MP3
| Feature | WAV | MP3 |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | None, every sample as recorded | Lossy, discarded sound cannot return |
| Three minutes of stereo | About 30 to 32 MB | About 3 to 7 MB |
| Artist and album tags | No | Yes |
| Plays in browsers | Yes | Yes |
| Published | 1991 | 1993 |
How to use it
- Choose a .wav file.
- Pick a bitrate. 160 kbit/s suits speech and most music.
- Select Convert, then download the .mp3 file.
Limitations
- MP3 is lossy. The conversion cannot be undone, so keep your original if it matters.
- The output is encoded with LAME at a constant bitrate. Variable bitrate is not offered.
- Tags and cover art are not preserved.
- The first conversion downloads a 32 MB engine, and conversion is slower than a desktop program. A long recording can take several minutes.
- Very large files can exhaust memory on phones and tablets.
Common problems
The file was refused before anything started.
WAV to MP3 converter checks the extension before it reads a byte, and it accepts .wav. Browsers report file types inconsistently enough that the extension is what decides.
Rename the file if the extension is simply wrong, or convert it to one of those first. A file whose extension does not match its contents is refused for the same reason, and that one needs converting rather than renaming.
It said the file was too large.
The limit here is 250 MB. It is not a policy but a measurement: everything runs on your own device, and past that size a phone runs out of memory rather than finishing slowly.
Split the file, reduce it before converting, or use a desktop program for that one. A machine with more memory will manage more, but the limit does not know which machine it is on.
I selected several files and only one converted.
This tool takes one file at a time. Doing several at once would multiply the memory in use, which is the thing most likely to fail on a phone.
Convert them one after another. Nothing is kept between them, so there is no state to reset.
Nothing happened for a long time on the first run.
WAV to MP3 converter downloads a library before it can begin, and it is fetched once and then reused. That wait is before the conversion rather than during it, which is why the progress bar sits still.
Leave the tab open and in the foreground; a background tab is throttled by the browser. Every conversion after the first one in a session skips this.
The tab reloaded itself part-way through.
The browser ran out of memory and restarted the page. At sizes approaching 250 MB this is the failure a phone hits first, and it looks like a crash rather than an error.
Try a smaller file, close other tabs, or run it on a computer. Nothing was uploaded or lost — the original file is untouched on your device.
The result opened in the wrong program.
The output is a .mp3 file, and your system opens that extension with whatever it was told to. Nothing about the conversion decides it.
Open it from inside the program you want, or change the default for .mp3 in your system settings. The file itself is correct.
Frequently asked questions
- Is my file uploaded?
- No. The conversion runs entirely in your browser. The only network request is for the conversion engine, which carries nothing about your recording.
- Which bitrate should I choose?
- 96 kbit/s is fine for speech and podcasts. 160 kbit/s is a good balance for music. 256 kbit/s is close to transparent for most listeners and most material.
- Would Opus be better?
- Technically yes, at any given size. MP3 remains the safer choice when you do not control what the file will be played on. The general audio converter offers Opus if you do.
- How long will it take?
- Roughly real time or better on a desktop machine, and slower on a phone. The engine has to be downloaded first, which adds a moment to the first conversion.
- Do I need to install anything or create an account to use WAV to MP3 converter?
- No, to all of it. WAV to MP3 converter runs inside the browser you already have, with no sign-up, no download, no watermark on the result, and no cap on how many files you convert. There is nothing to uninstall afterwards either, because nothing was installed.
- Does WAV to MP3 converter work offline?
- After the first conversion, yes. Audio work needs the FFmpeg engine, which is a separate download of a few tens of megabytes fetched the first time you convert something. Once your browser has cached it the work is entirely local and a connection is no longer needed.
- How large a file can WAV to MP3 converter handle?
- The limit is 250 MB. It is a deliberate one rather than a technical ceiling: the real constraint is memory, and a file that decodes to more than the device can hold fails in a way that is hard to explain. Phones run out well before laptops do, which is why the limit is set where it is.
- Can I convert several files at once with WAV to MP3 converter?
- Not here: this tool takes one file at a time, because what it does depends on choices you make about that particular file. Convert them one after another, or look at the batch converters in the same category, which are built for a folder at a time.