Compress Audio

🗜ī¸
Click to upload or drag and drop

Audio files only (Max 10MB)

ℹī¸ How it works:
  • Upload your audio file
  • Choose compression level and process
  • Download compressed file

Make an Audio File Smaller

If a recording is too big to send, this shrinks it. Upload an MP3, WAV, FLAC, M4A, AAC, OGG or WMA file, move one slider to say how hard to squeeze it, and download the result as a compact MP3. You do not need to know anything about bitrates or codecs to make an MP3 smaller — the slider handles that. No sign-up and no watermarks.

How to Reduce Audio File Size

  1. Click the upload area above or drag and drop your audio file (up to 10 MB).
  2. Set the compression level. Higher means a smaller file and lower sound quality.
  3. Process and download your compressed MP3.

How Much Smaller Will It Get?

That depends far more on what you upload than on the slider. The compression level sets an output bitrate running from about 128 kbps at the lowest setting down to 32 kbps at the highest, and the saving is whatever the difference is between that and your original.

  • A WAV file is uncompressed and enormous by comparison — expect it to lose 90% or more of its size.
  • A 320 kbps MP3 roughly halves at the lowest setting, and drops by about 90% at the highest.
  • A 128 kbps MP3 is already small, so only the higher settings will achieve anything useful.

In other words, the emptier the original, the less there is to take out.

When You Might Need This

  • An email bouncing back because the attachment is too big
  • A voice memo or interview recording that will not upload
  • Audio for a web page, where every megabyte slows the page down
  • Clearing space on a phone full of recordings
  • A podcast draft you need to send someone for review, not for broadcast
  • Fitting a lecture or sermon recording inside a messaging app's limit
  • A backup of spoken audio where perfect fidelity does not matter

Features

  • One slider – sets the output bitrate for you, from roughly 128 kbps down to 32 kbps
  • Wide input support – MP3, WAV, OGG, FLAC, AAC, M4A and WMA
  • MP3 output – re-encoded to a format that plays on essentially anything
  • Size shown before and after – you see exactly what you saved
  • Nothing to install – it runs in your browser
  • Private – files are processed securely and not shared

Frequently Asked Questions

Upload it, move the compression slider, and download the result. Underneath, the tool is lowering the bitrate — how much data is spent on each second of sound. Less data per second means a smaller file, and that is the whole trade. You do not have to pick a number yourself; the slider chooses one for you.

Because your original was already more compressed than the setting you chose. The lowest compression level re-encodes at around 128 kbps, so if your file was already a 64 kbps recording, asking for 128 kbps makes it larger without adding any quality back — the detail is already gone. If that happens, either move the slider higher or keep your original file. Audio that is already small usually has nothing left worth removing.

For speech — interviews, voice notes, lectures, podcasts — you can go high, around 70 to 90, and it will still be perfectly clear. Voices simply do not need much data. For music, stay low, around 10 to 30, because cymbals, reverb and anything with sparkle are the first things to fall apart. If you are unsure, the default of 40 is a reasonable middle.

Yes — this is lossy compression, so detail is genuinely discarded rather than packed away. At moderate levels most listeners will not notice on ordinary playback. What gives it away first is high frequencies going slightly watery, which is why speech survives so much better than music. The change cannot be undone, so keep your original if it matters.

An MP3, whatever you upload. That is deliberate — MP3 is both compact and playable on virtually every device, which is what you want from a file you are about to send someone. If you need a different format, or want to keep the one you have, use Convert Audio instead.

Anywhere from almost nothing to over 95%, depending entirely on the original. A WAV loses the most, because uncompressed audio is vastly larger than it needs to be. A high-bitrate MP3 typically halves or better. A file that is already small and heavily compressed has the least to give. The download page shows the before and after sizes, so you can see the actual result rather than guess.

They do related things for different people. This page asks how much smaller you want the file and works out the bitrate for you, then hands back an MP3. Change Audio Bitrate lets you set an exact figure in kbps, adjust the sample rate as well, and keep your original format. Come here to solve “this file is too big”; go there when you already know the number you need.

One audio file up to 10 MB. As a rough guide that is about ten minutes of a 128 kbps MP3, four minutes at 320 kbps, or only around a minute of uncompressed WAV. For something longer, Trim Audio can cut out the part you actually need first.

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