Compress AudioRight in Your Browser

Audio bloat usually comes from recording formats: voice memos captured as WAV or high-bitrate M4A, podcast sessions exported at studio settings, or a video whose soundtrack is all you need. Re-encoding to MP3 at a sensible bitrate shrinks these files five- to twenty-fold — and because MP3 is the most universally supported audio format there is, the result plays everywhere from browsers to twenty-year-old car stereos.

The bitrate choice is a content decision. Speech is easy to compress: 64 kbps in mono is transparent for voice memos, interviews and lecture recordings — and the mono option alone halves the size of a stereo recording with two identical channels. Music wants more headroom: 128 kbps is fine for casual listening, and the higher settings approach transparency for most ears and equipment. When in doubt, 96 kbps is a sensible middle for mixed content.

Know the limits: MP3 is lossy, so compress deliverables, not masters — and never re-compress an already-low-bitrate file expecting it to sound the same, because generational loss in audio is very audible. If you're archiving original recordings or producing music, keep lossless originals elsewhere and use this for the copies you send and upload.

The encoder (FFmpeg's MP3 encoder, compiled to WebAssembly) runs entirely in your browser. Voice memos are among the most personal files people handle — meetings, medical appointments, family — and here they never leave your device.