Free tool

Video to WAV Converter

Save a video's soundtrack as a WAV file: uncompressed 16-bit PCM at the original sample rate. It is the format audio editors, DAWs and analysis tools handle most reliably, and making it here takes seconds without uploading anything.

01 — Your file

Choose a file

02 — Result

Your converted file

Choose a file and press Convert to WAV. The conversion runs in this tab, so even large files never leave your computer or phone.

Steps

  1. Open the video with the box above.
  2. Press "Convert to WAV". There is no quality setting, because WAV is uncompressed.
  3. Download the WAV and import it into your editor.

Why convert to WAV

Lossy formats such as MP3 and AAC throw away detail to save space. Each time you decode and re-encode them, a little more is lost. WAV stores every sample as a plain number, so it is the safest working format: you can cut, mix and apply effects, then export once at the end. Most audio editors, from Audacity to professional DAWs, open WAV without needing any codec.

WAV is also what many scientific, speech and machine-learning tools expect as input, because they can read it without a decoder.

Sizes to expect

A WAV is large. The tool keeps the video's own sample rate and channel count, so the size depends on the source:

48 kHz stereo (typical camera or phone video)
about 11.5 MB per minute
44.1 kHz stereo
about 10.6 MB per minute
48 kHz mono
about 5.8 MB per minute

A one-hour video therefore makes a WAV of roughly 600 to 700 MB. Because the result is built in your browser's memory, the tool refuses outputs above about 1.5 GB, which in practice means recordings longer than two hours. For those, use FLAC, which is lossless but smaller.

What WAV can't do

Converting to WAV stops further loss; it does not undo the compression the video already applied. A phone video's AAC sound becomes a much larger WAV that sounds the same. That is still the right choice for editing, just not a quality upgrade. The MP3 vs WAV article discusses when the size is worth it.

Transcription doesn't need WAV

Speech recognition works just as well from compressed audio, so for a transcript send the video or an MP3 to mydubly's video to text tool and skip the large file.

How the free converter works

The converter is ffmpeg, the open-source media toolkit, compiled to WebAssembly so it runs inside your browser tab. Your file is read straight from your disk by that engine; it is never uploaded to mydubly or anywhere else, and no account is needed.

  • The engine is about 30 MB and downloads the first time you convert something. After that your browser normally keeps it.
  • Large inputs are fine because the file is read in place, but the result is built in memory, so outputs are capped at about 1.5 GB.
  • Speed depends on your device. Copying streams takes seconds; re-encoding video is the slow case.
  • Keep the tab open until the download button appears. Closing it stops the conversion.

More free tools

Turn the file into text

Frequently asked questions

What kind of WAV does this produce?

16-bit PCM WAV at the video's original sample rate and channel layout, the most widely compatible kind.

Does converting to WAV improve the sound?

No. It prevents any further loss while you edit, but it can't restore detail the video's lossy sound already lost.

Why is the WAV file so big?

WAV is uncompressed: every sample is stored. A minute of 48 kHz stereo takes about 11.5 MB.

Can I get 24-bit WAV?

The tool writes 16-bit, which already exceeds the precision of the lossy sound inside almost every video. Choose FLAC on the extract audio tool for a smaller lossless file.