Will the WAV sound better than the MP3?

No. This is the single most common expectation and it is worth being blunt about: converting MP3 to WAV cannot restore anything. MP3 compression permanently discarded parts of the recording, and the WAV stores whatever survived, losslessly. The file becomes roughly ten times larger and sounds exactly the same — because it is exactly the same audio, in a container that does not compress it further.

Then why would anyone do this?

Two good reasons. Software that refuses MP3 — audio editors, digital audio workstations, game engines, telephone systems and older hardware often want uncompressed PCM and nothing else. And editing: every time you save as MP3 you compress again and lose a little more, so working in WAV and exporting to MP3 once at the end avoids that accumulation.

How much bigger will the file be?

About ten times, give or take. Uncompressed stereo audio is roughly ten megabytes a minute, so a four-minute song near four megabytes as an MP3 lands near forty as a WAV. That is the trade WAV exists to make and there is no setting that changes it — WAV does not compress, which is the point of it.

What sample rate and bit depth do I get?

The sample rate of the original — usually 44,100 Hz for music — at 16 bits per sample, which is CD quality and what almost everything expects. Neither number can meaningfully be raised: resampling to 96 kHz would make the file larger without adding anything that was not there, which is a different way of misunderstanding the same thing.

Is my audio uploaded?

No. The MP3 is decoded and the WAV written inside your browser, using the same audio decoder the browser uses to play the file. Nothing is sent anywhere, there is no account, and there is no limit on how many files you convert.

Can I convert a whole folder at once?

Yes — drop up to a hundred files and each converts on its own, then download them together as a ZIP. Since nothing is uploaded, a large batch costs you no bandwidth and involves no queue.

MP3toWAV

Convert MP3 to WAV

Up to 100 files at once. Mixed formats are fine.

Converting MP3 to WAV produces uncompressed audio that editors, DAWs and older hardware will accept — about ten times the file size and, to be clear, exactly the same sound. Drop the file above and it converts inside your browser without an upload. WAV cannot restore what MP3 compression removed; nothing can.

Converting to a lossless format does not undo the loss

A lot of people arrive here expecting an improvement, and the honest answer is that there is not one available. MP3 compression works by permanently throwing away parts of the recording that the ear is least likely to miss. That information is gone from the file — not hidden, not compressed, gone. A WAV made from an MP3 contains precisely what the MP3 contained, written out sample by sample without further compression.

The result is a file around ten times larger that sounds identical, because it is identical. This is not a limitation of any particular converter; it is what "lossy" means. The only way to get the missing detail back is to obtain the recording again from a source that still has it.

The two situations where this conversion is exactly right

The first is compatibility, and it is the common one. Audio editors, digital audio workstations, game engines, broadcast systems, telephone platforms and a great deal of older hardware want uncompressed PCM and will simply refuse an MP3. Audacity, Pro Tools, Unity and countless others are happier with WAV, and converting is the whole answer.

The second is editing. Every save as MP3 compresses again, and the damage accumulates — an audio file that has been through five edit-and-export cycles as MP3 is audibly worse than one that has been through one. Converting to WAV first, working there, and exporting to MP3 once at the end means you compress exactly once. That does not improve the source, but it stops it getting worse.

What the numbers will be

The WAV keeps the sample rate of the original — 44,100 Hz for almost all music, sometimes 48,000 for audio taken from video — at 16 bits per sample, in stereo if the source was stereo. That combination is CD quality and is what virtually every program expects to receive.

Raising either number is possible in principle and pointless in practice. Resampling to 96 kHz or padding to 24 bits makes the file larger and adds no information, because the information is not there to add. If a piece of software demands a specific rate, it will usually resample on import itself, and it will do it with more context than a converter has.

Ten megabytes a minute, and no way around it

Uncompressed stereo audio at CD quality is close to ten megabytes per minute. A four-minute song is about forty megabytes; an hour-long interview is over half a gigabyte. There is no quality setting to adjust, because WAV does not compress at all — that is the entire distinction between it and every other audio format on this site.

If the size is a problem but you still need something lossless, FLAC is the answer: it compresses without discarding anything, typically to about half the size of the equivalent WAV, and every audio editor made in the last fifteen years reads it. The only reason to prefer WAV is software that insists on it.

Why this runs on your own machine

Your browser already contains an MP3 decoder — it uses one every time a web page plays audio. This page uses that decoder and then writes the samples out as a WAV, which is a container so simple that no library is needed for it. Neither step requires a server.

So the file is never uploaded, there is no queue, no account and no daily limit. That matters most for the batch case: converting a folder of forty recordings through a site that uploads them means forty uploads and a cap. Here it means leaving the tab open for a moment.

How to convert an MP3 to WAV

Drop your MP3 onto this page, or click to choose one. A whole folder at once is fine.
It is decoded and written as uncompressed PCM, inside your browser.
Download the WAV, or take a batch together as a ZIP.

MP3 vs WAV: compressed against uncompressed

MP3 compared with WAV
	MP3	WAV
Full name	MPEG Audio Layer III	Waveform Audio
File extension	.mp3	.wav, .wave
Media type	audio/mpeg	audio/wav
Compression	Lossy — file size is bought with quality	Uncompressed

Quality: Nothing is lost. The result holds exactly the same picture, text or data as the original.
Where it runs: This conversion runs inside your browser. Your file is never uploaded, and it works with the network disconnected.
What can be lost: The file gets much larger without getting better. What the original compression removed is gone; a lossless format can only preserve what is left.

MP3 to WAV: common questions

Will the WAV sound better than the MP3?: No. This is the single most common expectation and it is worth being blunt about: converting MP3 to WAV cannot restore anything. MP3 compression permanently discarded parts of the recording, and the WAV stores whatever survived, losslessly. The file becomes roughly ten times larger and sounds exactly the same — because it is exactly the same audio, in a container that does not compress it further.
Then why would anyone do this?: Two good reasons. Software that refuses MP3 — audio editors, digital audio workstations, game engines, telephone systems and older hardware often want uncompressed PCM and nothing else. And editing: every time you save as MP3 you compress again and lose a little more, so working in WAV and exporting to MP3 once at the end avoids that accumulation.
How much bigger will the file be?: About ten times, give or take. Uncompressed stereo audio is roughly ten megabytes a minute, so a four-minute song near four megabytes as an MP3 lands near forty as a WAV. That is the trade WAV exists to make and there is no setting that changes it — WAV does not compress, which is the point of it.
What sample rate and bit depth do I get?: The sample rate of the original — usually 44,100 Hz for music — at 16 bits per sample, which is CD quality and what almost everything expects. Neither number can meaningfully be raised: resampling to 96 kHz would make the file larger without adding anything that was not there, which is a different way of misunderstanding the same thing.
Is my audio uploaded?: No. The MP3 is decoded and the WAV written inside your browser, using the same audio decoder the browser uses to play the file. Nothing is sent anywhere, there is no account, and there is no limit on how many files you convert.
Can I convert a whole folder at once?: Yes — drop up to a hundred files and each converts on its own, then download them together as a ZIP. Since nothing is uploaded, a large batch costs you no bandwidth and involves no queue.