WAV Compressor

How to use the WAV Compressor online

A WAV file is usually uncompressed, so its size is simply sample rate times bit depth times channels times length. CD-quality stereo, 44.1 kHz at 16 bits, uses about 10 MB per minute. Halve any one of those and the file halves.

For voice recordings, 16 kHz mono is what speech recognition systems and phone systems use, and it cuts a CD-quality WAV to about 18 percent of its size. For music, keep 44.1 kHz and stereo; if the size still matters more than being WAV, an MP3 or FLAC will be far smaller.

Everything happens inside your browser. The WAV is resampled by ffmpeg running as WebAssembly and saved as a standard PCM WAV that any program can open.

Choose the settings from where the WAV is going. A phone system or IVR menu usually wants 8 kHz, 16-bit mono, which is about 1 MB per minute. A game or app sound effect is fine at 22.05 kHz mono. A music master should stay at 44.1 kHz or above in stereo, and at that point FLAC is the better way to save space because it is lossless.

WAV Compressor settings explained

When to compress a WAV file

WAV files need shrinking when a device or system only accepts WAV but has a size limit: phone systems, intercoms, alarm panels, voice prompts for IVR menus, game engines and samplers. Recording apps also produce large WAV files by default, and a voice memo that only needs to be intelligible can be cut to a fraction of its size by recording settings you choose here.

Before you compress

Find out exactly what the receiving system accepts before choosing settings. Phone systems and IVR menus are usually specific, often 8 kHz, 16-bit, mono. Game engines and apps commonly want 22.05 or 44.1 kHz. Getting it right the first time avoids a second round of resampling.

How to use the WAV Compressor, step by step

1. Press the Choose button or drag files onto the box. You can add several at once, and they never leave your device.
2. Set sample rate, bit depth and channels to suit where the file is going. The defaults are a good starting point.
3. Press Compress. The first time, the compression engine downloads once, about 32 MB, and your browser keeps it for next time.
4. Check the result next to each file: the original size, the new size and the percentage saved. If the settings would make a file bigger, you are told instead of being given a larger file.
5. Press Download to save each compressed file.

What decides how small it gets

An uncompressed WAV is exactly sample rate times bit depth times channels times length, so every setting you change has a predictable effect. Halving the sample rate halves the file, mono halves it again, and 8-bit halves it once more. Which of those you can afford depends on what the audio is for: speech tolerates all three, music tolerates none of them well.

Is it safe to compress WAV files online?

With most online tools, "online" means your file is uploaded to a company's server, processed there and kept for a while before it is deleted. Here it is not. The page downloads the converter code to your browser, and your file is read and processed inside the tab on your own device. It is never sent to TapToConvert or anyone else.

You can check this yourself: once the page and, for audio and video, the converter engine have loaded, turn off Wi-Fi and the tool still works. That also means there is no queue, no daily limit and no size cap set by a server. The only limit is the memory your browser gives a single tab.