Uncompressed Audio File Size Calculator
Enter the sample rate, bit depth, channel count and duration to estimate the size of uncompressed PCM audio such as a WAV file. The calculator returns the bitrate in kbps and the size in bytes and megabytes.
How to use the audio file size calculator
- Enter the sample rate in hertz, such as 44100 for CD quality.
- Set the bit depth and number of channels, for example 16-bit stereo.
- Enter the duration in seconds to read the bitrate and file size.
Examples
One minute of CD-quality audio
44100 Hz, 16-bit, 2 channels, 60 s
1411.2 kbps, about 10.09 MB
Studio stereo bitrate
48000 Hz, 24-bit, 2 channels, 1 s
2304 kbps
Frequently asked questions
How is uncompressed audio size calculated?
The bitrate equals sample rate times bit depth times channels. Multiply by the duration in seconds and divide by 8 to get bytes, since there are 8 bits in a byte.
Why is CD audio about 1411 kbps?
CD audio is 44100 Hz, 16-bit and stereo, so 44100 x 16 x 2 equals 1411200 bits per second, or 1411.2 kbps. That is the raw uncompressed rate before any codec.
Does this account for MP3 or AAC compression?
No. This is the uncompressed PCM size, the same as a WAV or AIFF file. Lossy formats like MP3 are far smaller because they discard data to hit a target bitrate.
Why are megabytes based on 1048576 bytes?
This calculator uses binary megabytes, where one MB is 1024 x 1024 bytes. That matches how operating systems usually report file sizes on disk.
Is the WAV header included?
No. The header is only a few dozen bytes and is negligible next to the audio data, so the estimate reflects the raw sample data itself.
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