Convert MP3 to WAV
Convert MP3 to WAV by dropping the .mp3 into the box above and pressing the button; the WAV downloads when decoding finishes. The decoder is ffmpeg compiled to WebAssembly, running inside your browser tab, so the recording is never uploaded.
Drop your MP3 here
It becomes a WAV right in your browser, up to 200 MB
Your file never leaves your device
Why convert MP3 to WAV?
WAV is what audio software trusts. Editors, DAWs, transcription pipelines, samplers and broadcast tools all prefer uncompressed PCM input, and some flatly refuse compressed formats; converting an MP3 to WAV upfront removes a whole class of import errors. From the WAV onward, every edit and save is lossless, so this is the standard first move before cutting, cleaning or resampling a recording. It also helps with legacy hardware and phone systems that expect plain WAV files for prompts and sounds. What it does not do is improve the sound itself, which is worth being honest about before you start.
What is MP3?
MP3 is the audio format that ate the world in the late 1990s, and it remains the most universally supported way to store sound: lossy compression at roughly a tenth of CD size, playable on literally anything with a speaker. Newer codecs like AAC and Opus beat it on quality per kilobyte, but no format comes close to its compatibility across car stereos, ancient MP3 players, browsers, editing software and upload forms.
What is WAV?
WAV is uncompressed audio in its plainest form: the 1991 RIFF container holding raw PCM samples, the same data a CD carries. Nothing is lost and nothing is guessed, which makes WAV the standard handoff format for audio editing, mastering, transcription tools and samplers. The price is size: about 10MB per stereo minute, an order of magnitude more than a decent MP3 of the same sound.
Quality and what to expect
Decoding cannot resurrect what MP3 compression discarded: the WAV contains exactly the audio the MP3 decoded to, no better and no worse. Expect the file to grow roughly tenfold, because PCM stores every sample. Sample rate and channel count follow the source. From this point on the file is immune to generation loss, which is the real reason to convert; editing an MP3 directly and re-saving it as MP3 degrades it a little more on every save, while editing the WAV costs nothing until the final export. ID3 tags such as artist and title are not carried into the WAV, which has no standard place for them.
MP3 to WAV FAQ
Will the WAV sound better than the MP3?
No, it will sound identical. The compression artifacts are baked into the audio and the WAV preserves them faithfully. What you gain is an editing-safe copy that loses nothing further, no matter how many times it is processed and saved.
Why did a 5MB MP3 become a 50MB WAV?
Uncompressed stereo audio at CD quality costs about 10MB per minute. The MP3 was small because it discarded data; the WAV stores every sample explicitly. That ratio is normal and expected.
Is my recording uploaded to a server for conversion?
No. ffmpeg runs as WebAssembly inside your browser, the same engine professionals use, just executing locally. You can watch the network tab while converting: the audio bytes never leave your machine.
What happens to the artist and title tags?
WAV has no standard tag container, so ID3 metadata from the MP3 is not transferred. The audio itself is complete; only the labels are left behind. Keep the MP3 if the tags matter to you.