Audio File Size Calculator — WAV, FLAC, MP3
Estimate how large your audio file will be before you record. Choose duration, sample rate, bit depth and number of channels, then compare uncompressed WAV/PCM size against FLAC, MP3 and AAC to plan storage or upload bandwidth.
minutes
Sample rate
Bit depth
Channels
Format
WAV uncompressed PCM (exact)
- 1
Duration in seconds
3 × 60 = 180 - 2
Uncompressed PCM bytes
44,100 × 16 × 2 × 180 ÷ 8 = 31.752Sample rate × bit depth × channels × seconds ÷ 8 gives raw byte count, shown here in MB. - 3
WAV file size
(31,752,000 + 44) ÷ 1,000,000 = 31.75
How does this calculator work?
Uncompressed audio (WAV) size = sample rate × bit depth × channels × duration ÷ 8 bytes. A 3-minute CD-quality stereo WAV is ~30 MB; the same at 128 kbps MP3 is ~2.8 MB. FLAC lossless is roughly 55% of WAV. Enter your parameters to compare all four formats at once.
Formula
How this is calculated
Uncompressed digital audio (WAV / PCM) stores every sample as a fixed-width integer. The formula is straightforward: multiply the sample rate (samples per second per channel) by the bit depth (bits per sample) by the number of channels, and by the duration in seconds, then divide by 8 to convert bits to bytes. A 3-minute CD-quality stereo file (44 100 Hz, 16-bit, 2 channels) comes to 44 100 × 16 × 2 × 180 ÷ 8 = 31 752 000 bytes ≈ 30 MB.
Lossless compression (FLAC) typically reduces this to around 50–60% of the raw size by encoding the differences between consecutive samples — this calculator uses 55% as a representative estimate; actual savings depend on content. Lossy formats like MP3 and AAC discard perceptually irrelevant information and are estimated here at a fixed 128 kbps, which is a common streaming and podcast quality. At 128 kbps, every second of audio takes 128 000 ÷ 8 = 16 000 bytes regardless of sample rate or bit depth. Higher-quality lossy exports (192, 256, 320 kbps) scale proportionally.
The WAV format adds a 44-byte header, negligible for anything longer than a few seconds. This calculator does not account for metadata tags, album art, or multi-track DAW project overhead.
Frequently asked questions
WAV stores every digital sample without compression. MP3 uses psychoacoustic modelling to discard frequencies the human ear is least sensitive to, then encodes the rest efficiently — yielding roughly 10× compression at 128 kbps compared to 16-bit 44.1 kHz stereo WAV.
44 100 Hz (CD quality) is the most compatible choice. Many podcasters reduce to 22 050 Hz mono for voice-only content, which halves the uncompressed size and still sounds excellent for speech. At 128 kbps MP3, a 1-hour mono podcast is about 57 MB.
No — 55% is a common estimate for music. Highly dynamic content (orchestral) often compresses less well (60–65%), while repetitive audio (silence, spoken word) compresses much better (30–45%). For exact numbers, encode a sample and measure the actual ratio.
Also known as
TG we-Calculate Editorial Team. (2026). Audio File Size Calculator — WAV, FLAC, MP3 [Online calculator]. TG we-Calculate. https://we-calculate.com/calculator/audio-file-size-calculator
TG we-Calculate Editorial Team. "Audio File Size Calculator — WAV, FLAC, MP3." TG we-Calculate. 2026. https://we-calculate.com/calculator/audio-file-size-calculator.
TG we-Calculate Editorial Team, "Audio File Size Calculator — WAV, FLAC, MP3," TG we-Calculate, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://we-calculate.com/calculator/audio-file-size-calculator
@misc{wecalculate_audio_file_size_calculator, title = {Audio File Size Calculator — WAV, FLAC, MP3}, author = {{TG we-Calculate Editorial Team}}, howpublished = {\url{https://we-calculate.com/calculator/audio-file-size-calculator}}, year = {2026}, note = {TG we-Calculate} }
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