Make WAV files smaller — with or without losing anything
WAV files are big because they are usually uncompressed: every sample of every channel is stored as a plain number. This WAV compressor gives you the real ways to shrink them. Convert to FLAC and the file gets smaller with every sample kept exactly. Or keep it a WAV and lower what costs space — 24-bit to 16-bit, a lower sample rate, mono, or 8-bit G.711 µ-law and A-law. For the smallest file, encode an MP3 at a bitrate or a size you choose.
Studio bounces, field recordings, voice-overs, sample libraries and dictation all work, one file or a whole batch. The files never leave your device: WAV is read and written by hand in your browser, FLAC uses the reference libFLAC encoder (BSD licence, through the MIT-licensed libflacjs) and MP3 uses LAME (LGPL) with Mediabunny (MPL-2.0), all compiled to WebAssembly.
How to use the WAV Compressor
- Drop one or more WAV files on the box. Each row shows the encoding (for example PCM 24-bit or 32-bit float), length, sample rate, channels, size and whether it carries tags.
- Pick an Output format: FLAC (lossless), Smaller WAV or MP3.
- For FLAC choose a compression level and, if you want, a lower bit depth; for WAV choose the encoding; for MP3 choose a bitrate or a target size in MB.
- Set Channels and Sample rate if you want to reduce them, check the estimated result, and press Compress.
- Compare the players, then download each file or all of them as a ZIP.
WAV Compressor features
Lossless FLAC
libFLAC 1.4 at levels 0–8 with its verify mode on: every frame is decoded again and checked against your samples while encoding.
Smaller WAVs that still play everywhere
16-bit or 8-bit PCM, lower sample rates and mono, plus µ-law and A-law. Bit-depth reduction uses triangular (TPDF) dither, so quiet passages fade into gentle hiss instead of distortion.
High-quality resampling
Sample-rate changes use a Kaiser-windowed sinc filter with about 80 dB of alias rejection.
Metadata kept
LIST INFO, ID3, iXML and Broadcast WAV (bext) chunks are copied byte for byte; cue points and loops are kept when the sample rate stays the same. In FLAC the INFO title, artist and album become Vorbis comments.
Honest results
Choices that cannot save space — 24-bit output from a 16-bit file, or settings identical to the original — keep the original, and a result that comes out bigger is flagged.
How big is a WAV, and what each option saves
An uncompressed WAV is sample rate × bytes per sample × channels × seconds. CD-quality stereo is 44,100 × 2 × 2 = 176,400 bytes per second, or 10.58 MB per minute. Halve any one factor and the file halves.
| Format | Per minute | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 48 kHz 24-bit stereo | 17.28 MB | Typical studio or camera recording |
| 44.1 kHz 16-bit stereo | 10.58 MB | CD quality |
| 44.1 kHz 16-bit stereo as FLAC | ≈ 5–7 MB | Estimate for music; lossless |
| 22.05 kHz 16-bit mono | 2.65 MB | Clear speech, audio up to 11 kHz |
| 8 kHz µ-law or A-law mono | 0.48 MB | Telephone quality |
Lossless or not? Choosing the right option
IMA ADPCM, a 4-bit WAV encoding, is not offered: Chrome and Edge cannot play it, so you could not check the result here.
- FLAC is the answer if nothing may change. It predicts each sample from the previous ones and stores only the small error, so music typically ends up around half to two thirds of the WAV size, speech and quiet recordings smaller still. Decoding gives back the identical samples. 32-bit float WAVs become 24-bit FLAC, because FLAC stores whole numbers.
- 16-bit keeps 96 dB of dynamic range — more than any listening room — and saves a third against 24-bit. Keep 24-bit masters for further mixing.
- Lower sample rates remove high frequencies: 22.05 kHz keeps everything up to about 10 kHz, fine for speech, dull for music.
- µ-law and A-law (ITU-T G.711) are the telephone codecs: 8 bits per sample on a logarithmic scale, about as clear as 13- or 14-bit audio. They suit phone systems, voicemail and IVR prompts. They decode in Chrome and open in Windows’ own audio stack in our tests, but some editors and devices accept only plain PCM.
- MP3 is lossy and by far the smallest — about 1.4 MB per minute at 192 kbps — but keep the WAV as your master. The MP3 compressor explains bitrates in detail.
Before you compress
Trim silence and false starts first with the audio cutter — the cheapest saving is audio you don’t keep. To compare formats for a long recording before converting, try the audio file size calculator, and for FLAC files you already have, the FLAC compressor repacks them at a higher level.
WAV Compressor FAQ
How do I compress a WAV file without losing quality?
Choose FLAC (lossless) as the output format and press Compress. The FLAC decodes to exactly the same samples as your WAV, typically at around half the size for music. Keep the bit depth and sample rate on their original settings.
How can I reduce a WAV file’s size but keep it a WAV?
Choose Smaller WAV and pick 16-bit PCM, then optionally mono and a lower sample rate. 24-bit to 16-bit saves a third, mono halves the size, and 44.1 kHz to 22.05 kHz halves it again.
Is the WAV compressor free and private?
Yes. There is no sign-up, watermark or size limit, and your recordings are processed on your own device — nothing is uploaded.
Why was my file kept when I chose 24-bit PCM?
It is already 16-bit or lower. Writing it as 24-bit would only add zero bits and make it bigger, so the original is kept.
Will my tags and Broadcast WAV data survive?
With Keep tags and metadata chunks ticked, LIST INFO, ID3, iXML and bext chunks are copied unchanged. Cue points, loops and bext time references count samples, so they are dropped if you change the sample rate.
Which players can open µ-law or A-law WAV?
Chrome, Edge and Windows play them in our tests, and so do phone systems and many audio editors. If a device only lists “PCM WAV” support, use 16-bit or 8-bit PCM instead.