Audio File Size Calculator
Enter the sample rate, bit depth, number of channels and recording time to get the size of uncompressed PCM audio. You can also find how long a recording fits in a given storage size.
What this calculates (uncompressed PCM audio)
This tool calculates the size of the audio data of uncompressed PCM audio. PCM records the sound directly as numbers; WAV and AIFF are typical formats.
- A file called WAV can contain compressed audio. WAV and AIFF usually hold uncompressed PCM, but the name of the format does not guarantee it. Compressed audio is outside this calculation.
- A real file is larger than the result, because headers, metadata and so on are added.
- Compressed audio such as MP3, AAC and FLAC is outside this calculation. The size after compression depends on the codec and settings.
- 32-bit integer audio and 32-bit floating-point audio are the same size.
How it is calculated
- Bitrate (bits per second) = sample rate × bit depth × number of channels
- File size (bytes) = bitrate × length of the recording (seconds) ÷ 8
- Recording time (seconds) = storage size (bytes) × 8 ÷ bitrate (bits per second)
Dividing (or multiplying) by 8 is because the bitrate is in bits and the size is in bytes (1 byte = 8 bits). To check the difference between units such as GB and GiB, see the Data Size Converter.
Examples
- 44.1 kHz, 16-bit, stereo (the same format as a CD) for 1 minute: a bitrate of 1,411,200 bits per second and a size of 10,584,000 bytes (about 10.58 MB). 1 hour is 635,040,000 bytes (about 635 MB).
- 48 kHz, 24-bit, stereo for 1 hour: 1,036,800,000 bytes (about 1.04 GB).
- 96 kHz, 24-bit, stereo for 1 hour: 2,073,600,000 bytes (about 2.07 GB).
- Recording 48 kHz, 24-bit stereo onto 16 GB: about 15 hours 25 minutes 55 seconds.
With the same settings in mono (1 channel), the size is half the stereo size.
Notes
- Choose the sample rate from the list, or choose "Other" and enter a whole number from 1 to 1,000,000 Hz.
- The bit depth is 8, 16, 24 or 32. Enter the number of channels as a whole number from 1 to 64 (5.1 is 6 channels and 7.1 is 8 channels).
- The recording length can be from 0 seconds to 999 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds. The recording time that fits is shown with any fraction of a second dropped.
- The storage size can have decimals (up to 12 digits before the decimal point and 6 decimal places). You can choose units in powers of 1,000 (KB, MB, GB, TB) or powers of 1,024 (KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB). Use a period as the decimal separator; commas are accepted only as thousands separators.
- For the size of a video, see the Video File Size Calculator. For how long a file takes to transfer, see the File Transfer Time Calculator.
Frequently asked questions
How big is an hour of CD-quality audio?
At 44.1 kHz, 16-bit, stereo it is about 635 MB (635,040,000 bytes).
How much larger is stereo than mono?
Stereo (2 channels) is twice the size of mono (1 channel). The size grows in proportion to the number of channels.
Why is my WAV file a little larger than the result?
Headers (control information) and metadata are added to the audio data. How much depends on what the file contains.
Can this calculate MP3, AAC or FLAC sizes?
No. Compressed audio varies in size with the codec and its settings even for the same length. This tool is only for uncompressed PCM audio.