WAV to MP3 Converter
Your uncompressed WAV recordings, small enough to share anywhere. Drop WAV files, get MP3s back — 100% in your browser. No uploads, no accounts, no limits.
WAV sounds perfect and weighs a ton — a 3-minute recording is about 30 MB. MP3 keeps the sound and drops the weight, so it plays on phones, car stereos, email, and every transcription tool. This converts it on your device, privately.
Honest limits: 100 MB covers about 10 minutes of CD-quality stereo; long files take a while to convert in the browser; tags are not carried over; MP3 is lossy, so 320 kbps keeps the most.
Drop your WAV files (.wav) here
or — multiple recordings welcome, or paste a copied file
Up to 100 MB per file · up to 15 minutes per recording · up to 20 files per batch · nothing ever uploads
Privacy proof — verify it yourself
This page processes your recordings entirely on your device. All JavaScript and the engine are bundled locally. Your file data never leaves the device — the only third-party requests are the site’s own analytics (Google Analytics and a Cloudflare beacon), which load when the page opens and never see your files. Your recordings are personal; they never leave the machine you are sitting at.
Requests during processing: 0 to this site (the converter engine, fetched in two parts on first use) · 0 to anyone else (none — as it should be)
Converter engine: ffmpeg.wasm — loads on first convert
- Press F12 to open developer tools, then open the Network tab.
- Drop a WAV file above and let it convert.
- Watch the Network tab: no requests while it converts. The counter above shows the same split live. (The page’s own analytics load once when the page opens — before you start — and never touch your files.)
- Bonus: turn your internet off after the page loads and the engine has loaded once — conversion still works.
How to convert a WAV file to MP3 without uploading it
- Drop the .wav files above — up to 20 at once. Each file’s sample rate, bit depth, channels and length are shown straight away, with an estimated MP3 size at your chosen bitrate.
- Pick a bitrate — or a preset. Speech / voice memo (128 kbps) for spoken recordings, Music (192 kbps) for songs and DAW exports, Best quality (320 kbps) when you want to keep the most detail from the WAV.
- Listen to each MP3 in the built-in preview, then download it — or grab everything as one ZIP. Your originals are untouched and nothing leaves your device.
Why convert a WAV at all?
WAV is uncompressed audio: every sample stored in full, which is why DAWs, voice recorders and iPhone exports use it — and why the files are huge. A 3-minute CD-quality WAV is about 30 MB; the same 3 minutes at 192 kbps MP3 is about 4 MB. MP3 throws away detail your ears barely notice, so the file plays practically anywhere — phones, car stereos, email attachments, transcription tools — at a fraction of the size. Keep the WAV as your master copy and share the MP3.
Honest limitations
- MP3 is lossy, always — there is no lossless MP3 mode. 320 kbps preserves the most; 128 kbps is fine for speech but audible on music.
- MP3s are much smaller than WAVs — the page shows the before and after size on every file, so the saving is never a surprise.
- Metadata is stripped — titles, dates and any tags in the WAV are removed from the MP3 (verified in testing). Keep the original if you need the tags.
- 100 MB / 15-minute caps — in-browser encoding runs slower than real time for long files, so a longer recording would outlast a browser tab session. Split very long recordings first.
- First convert loads the engine — the converter (ffmpeg.wasm, ~31 MB) downloads once from this site on your first conversion. After that it is cached and works offline.
- Low sample-rate WAVs cap the bitrate — an 11 kHz recording encodes at most 64 kbps even if you pick 128, because the encoder caps it (measured in testing). The card tells you when this happens.
- Compressed WAVs are refused — WAVs holding ADPCM, GSM or MP3 audio inside the WAV container are not supported. Re-export them as PCM (16-bit or 24-bit) and try again.
- MP3-only output — this tool makes MP3s. If you need FLAC or OGG, use a desktop converter.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert a WAV file to MP3 without uploading it?
Use a tool that converts locally in your browser. This converter loads your WAV file into your device’s memory, decodes it with ffmpeg.wasm running on your machine, and encodes it as MP3 — all with JavaScript and WebAssembly running locally. Your file data never leaves the device — the only third-party requests are the site’s own analytics (Google Analytics and a Cloudflare beacon), which load when the page opens and never see your files. You can verify it by watching the Network tab in your browser’s developer tools while it converts — the live counter on this page shows no requests during processing.
Why is my WAV file so large?
WAV is uncompressed: every sample is stored in full, so a 3-minute CD-quality WAV (44.1 kHz, 16-bit, stereo) is about 30 MB, and a 10-minute one is about 100 MB. MP3 throws away detail your ears barely notice and packs the rest far tighter — the same 3 minutes at 192 kbps is about 4 MB, roughly 7 times smaller. That is the whole point of converting: WAV is the master copy, MP3 is the portable one.
Will converting WAV to MP3 lose quality?
Yes, a little: MP3 is lossy by design, so some detail is discarded and there is no lossless MP3 mode. Starting from a WAV you lose less than converting from another lossy format, because the WAV holds the full recording. At 320 kbps the difference from the WAV is inaudible for almost everyone — that is the bitrate to pick when quality matters most. At 192 kbps music still sounds very good, and 128 kbps is fine for speech. Keep your WAV as the master copy; use the MP3 for sharing and playback.
Does this converter work with 32-bit float WAV files?
Yes. 32-bit float WAVs — the kind DAWs export for mixing — convert the same way as 16-bit and 24-bit PCM WAVs, and so do 8-bit PCM and WAVE_FORMAT_EXTENSIBLE files. This was verified in testing: a 2-second 32-bit float stereo WAV converted to a valid 320 kbps MP3. WAVs using compressed formats inside the WAV container (ADPCM, GSM, MP3-in-WAV) are refused with a clear message — re-export those as PCM first.
Can I convert a long WAV recording — how long and how big?
Up to 15 minutes and 100 MB per file, and up to 20 files per batch. The 100 MB cap covers about 10 minutes of CD-quality stereo, so most recordings fit comfortably. Conversion runs in the browser via WebAssembly and scales roughly with length: in our test run a 3-second CD-quality WAV encoded in under 0.2 seconds once the engine had loaded, so a 9-minute recording takes on the order of half a minute on a typical laptop. Longer files take longer — split very long recordings first.
Is there a file size or daily limit?
There is no daily limit and no account. A 100 MB safety cap applies per file, 15 minutes per recording, and 20 files per batch, because browsers cannot safely hold larger jobs in memory. Convert bigger jobs in smaller batches.
Do MP3s keep my WAV file’s tags and metadata?
No — tags and metadata are not carried over. The converter strips all metadata from the MP3 (titles, dates, and any INFO tags in the WAV), which was verified in testing: a WAV carrying a title tag produced an MP3 with no trace of that title. That is partly a privacy win, but if you need the tags, keep the original WAV alongside the MP3.
How do I verify my recordings really never upload?
Open your browser’s developer tools (F12), go to the Network tab, then convert a file. You will see no requests during processing — the live counter on this page shows the same number. The only requests during processing are the converter engine itself (ffmpeg.wasm, about 31 MB), fetched in two parts from this same site on first use. All JavaScript and the WebAssembly engine are vendored locally. The only third-party requests are the site’s own analytics (Google Analytics and a Cloudflare beacon), which load when the page opens — they never see your files.