WAV to OPUS Converter

How to Convert WAV to Opus Online

1. Upload Your WAV File: Drag and drop or click "+ Add Files" to load one or many WAVs. Batch is supported — every file inherits the same Opus settings.
2. Pick Quality Preset or Bitrate: Default is the Quality Preset dropdown set to "Very High (Recommended)" — that's roughly 128 kbps Opus, transparent for most listeners. Switch the radio to Constant Bitrate for a fixed kbps (8 to 384 kbps), Custom Bitrate to type any value (bps / Kbps / Mbps), Variable Bitrate to pick an Opus VBR range (6k-24k for voice up to 256k-320k for music), or Specific file size to target an exact MB / kB output.
3. Set Channels, Sample Rate, or Trim (Optional): Audio Channel and Audio Sample Rate both default to "ORIGINAL" — leave them alone unless you need mono for telephony (set channels to 1) or a 48 kHz forced rate. Use Trim to cut a start offset and duration so only a clip is encoded.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert. Files process server-side over HTTPS, are auto-deleted, and download with no watermark, no sign-up, and no per-file count cap on the free tier.

Why Convert WAV to Opus?

WAV is the lossless PCM container Windows shipped with in 1991 — perfect for editing masters, but every minute of stereo 44.1 kHz / 16-bit audio is about 10 MB, and 24-bit / 96 kHz tracks balloon to 33 MB per minute. Opus, the IETF-standardised codec published as RFC 6716 in September 2012, was engineered to replace MP3, AAC, Vorbis, and Speex in one container. It hybridises Skype's SILK (speech) and Xiph's CELT (music) and runs end-to-end from 6 kbps voice to 510 kbps stereo. Re-encoding a WAV master to Opus typically cuts size 10x to 20x with no audible difference at 96 kbps and up.

• Podcasts and audiobooks — A 1-hour stereo podcast is around 600 MB as 16-bit WAV; the same audio at Opus 48 kbps mono is about 22 MB. Spotify, YouTube, and Google Podcasts all accept Opus uploads directly.
• Discord, WhatsApp, and Teams voice notes — All three use Opus natively as their wire codec, so uploading or pasting an Opus clip avoids a second transcode and preserves quality. Discord's free-tier upload cap dropped to 10 MB in September 2024, which makes WAV impractical for anything past 50 seconds — Opus comfortably fits 20+ minutes at speech bitrates.
• WebRTC and browser streaming — Opus is the mandatory-to-implement audio codec for WebRTC per RFC 7874, so converting a WAV stinger or notification asset to Opus lets it play in every WebRTC client without an extra decode pipeline.
• Game and app builds — Unity, Unreal, and Godot accept Opus in OGG containers, shipping voice barks at a fraction of the WAV size while staying loop-clean (Opus encodes pre-roll and supports seamless loop points via gapless metadata).
• Archive of session bounces — Keep editable WAV stems on disk, but compress finished mixes to Opus 192 kbps for shareable proofs. Reviewers stream them in Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari 14.1+ without installing anything.
• Telephony and accessibility recordings — Opus 12 kHz / 24 kbps mono is intelligible for transcripts, captions, and IVR prompts at roughly 1/40th the WAV footprint, and Whisper, AssemblyAI, and Deepgram all accept Opus input.

WAV vs Opus — Format Comparison

Opus Bitrate Quick Guide

Frequently Asked Questions

Will Opus actually sound the same as my WAV?

For most listeners, yes — at 128 kbps stereo, Opus is considered "transparent" in blind ABX tests against the original PCM source, and at 96 kbps it beats MP3 at 128 kbps. If you're a mastering engineer doing critical listening on studio monitors, keep the WAV; for anything you'd upload or stream, Opus 128-192 kbps is sonically indistinguishable in normal listening.

Which bitrate should I pick for a podcast?

Mono voice content at 48 kbps Opus is excellent quality and roughly 22 MB per hour. Stereo with intro music or two-host bouncing audio benefits from 64-80 kbps. Don't go below 32 kbps on stereo — you'll hear pre-echo on sibilants. The Quality Preset "Very High (Recommended)" maps to about 128 kbps which is overkill for speech but bulletproof for music interludes.

Why does my converter show .opus and .ogg as different things?

Opus is the codec; .opus and .ogg are both Ogg containers that carry Opus data. xConvert outputs .opus by default per RFC 5334's recommendation that Opus-only streams use the .opus extension. If a service requires .ogg, try WAV to OGG instead — same Ogg container, Vorbis or Opus codec inside.

Does Safari play Opus files?

Yes since Safari 14.1 (April 2021) on macOS and iOS, including iOS 17+ and current macOS Sonoma/Sequoia. Older Safari versions silently fail playback in <audio> tags. If you need universal playback on iOS 13-14, fall back to WAV to MP3 or WAV to AAC. Chrome, Firefox, and Edge have full Opus support back to versions released in 2014.

Can I get my WAV back from an Opus file?

You can decode the Opus back to WAV with Opus to WAV, but it will be the lossy Opus audio re-expanded to PCM — not the original samples. Opus is a lossy codec by design (the SILK and CELT layers discard inaudible information), so always archive the source WAV separately if you need bit-exact recovery later.

What's the maximum WAV file size I can upload?

Free anonymous users get a generous per-file limit and unlimited file count per session. Multi-gigabyte 24-bit / 96 kHz session bounces convert successfully; processing time scales roughly linearly with duration. If you have a 4 GB+ RIFF/RF64 WAV, split it first with the Audio Cutter or upgrade for higher caps.

Should I use Constant Bitrate, Variable Bitrate, or Quality Preset?

For streaming and playback, Variable Bitrate gives the best size-to-quality ratio — Opus VBR allocates bits to complex passages and skips silence. Constant Bitrate is required only for certain RTP / WebRTC scenarios where the stream needs a predictable rate. Quality Preset is a friendly wrapper that picks sensible VBR settings; pick "Very High (Recommended)" for music, "High" or "Medium" for voice.

Will channel and sample rate conversions happen automatically?

If you leave Audio Channel and Audio Sample Rate on "ORIGINAL", xConvert preserves your WAV's source values — but Opus internally normalises to one of 8/12/16/24/48 kHz, so a 44.1 kHz WAV is resampled to 48 kHz inside the encoder. To downmix 5.1 to stereo or force mono for a voice note, set Audio Channel explicitly. Need to compress an existing Opus file further? Use Compress WAV on the source before converting, or re-encode with a lower bitrate.