WAV is uncompressed audio — great for editing and production, but enormous for sharing and storage. A 3-minute WAV file can be 30 MB; the same audio as MP3 is under 3 MB. Here's how to convert quickly.
WAV (Waveform Audio File Format) is an uncompressed audio format. It stores every sample of audio data without any compression — what's called "lossless" audio. This makes it ideal for audio editing, professional recording, and archiving, but the file sizes are massive compared to compressed formats.
A CD-quality WAV file (44.1 kHz, 16-bit stereo) takes up about 10 MB per minute of audio.
MP3 compresses audio by discarding sounds that human hearing is least sensitive to — a technique called perceptual coding. At 128 kbps or higher, the compression is virtually inaudible for most music and speech. File sizes are 5–10× smaller than equivalent WAV.
MP3 is supported by every device, app, and platform on earth — it's the safe choice for sharing audio.
Yes, in theory — MP3 is a lossy format. In practice, at 128 kbps or above, most people cannot hear the difference in a blind listening test, especially for speech or podcast content.
The important rule: always keep your original WAV file. Once you've converted to MP3, the discarded data is gone. If you need to re-edit the audio, use the original WAV, not the MP3.
💡 For music production: Work in WAV, export to MP3 only for distribution. Never re-edit an MP3 and then re-export.
Conversion runs in your browser via FFmpeg WebAssembly. Your audio file is never uploaded to any server.