Convert MP3 to WAV
We turn MP3 into WAV right in your browser — the file never goes to a server.
What you will lose
- Title, artist and cover art will be lost: the target format does not carry them reliably.
How they differ
| MP3 | WAV | |
|---|---|---|
| Lossless | no | yes |
| Lossy | yes | no |
| Multichannel | no | yes |
| Tags | yes | no |
| Released | 1993 | 1991 |
| Author | Fraunhofer IIS | Microsoft, IBM |
MP3
Good at
- Plays literally everywhere, from a 2003 car stereo to a smart speaker
- Predictably small: an hour of speech fits in 30 MB
- Every player reads its tags, without exception
Awkward about
- Lossy, and re-encoding it again is audible
- Two channels at most — surround will not survive
- At the same size, Opus and AAC sound better
Use it when
- It has to open for anyone, on anything
- A podcast, an audiobook, a recorded lecture
- The file goes to a person, not into further processing
WAV
Good at
- Lossless and uncompressed: what was recorded is what is stored
- Opens instantly in any editor, nothing to unpack
- Works as a master for further processing
Awkward about
- Enormous: a minute of stereo is about 10 MB
- Tags exist on paper but not everything reads them
- Usually too big to send by email
Use it when
- Editing or processing is coming and quality must not drop
- A short fragment: an interface sound, a sample
- The file is for a program, not for a listener
Common questions
- Does the file get uploaded to a server?
- Yes, this pair needs the server: browsers cannot encode that format. The file and the result are deleted within a couple of hours and never shared.
- Will surround sound survive?
- Yes, WAV carries more than two channels — 5.1 stays 5.1.
- Can I get the original quality back afterwards?
- Nothing is lost, but nothing is gained either. WAV stores exactly what MP3 hands over, including the gaps MP3 left behind when it compressed. No tool can bring those back, and the file grows several times over. This conversion makes sense for editing, not for quality.
- How many files, and how large?
- Up to 10 files at a time, 200 MB each. No sign-up, no watermarks.