How is uncompressed audio file size calculated?

File size equals sample rate × (bit depth ÷ 8) × channels × duration in seconds. Each sample stores one value per channel, the bit depth sets the bytes per sample, and the sample rate sets how many samples per second.

Why is a 24-bit/96 kHz file so much bigger than CD quality?

Both axes scale the size. 96 kHz is 2.18 times the 44.1 kHz sample count, and 24-bit is 1.5 times the bytes-per-sample of 16-bit, so the file is roughly 3.3 times larger for the same duration and channel count.

Does this apply to MP3, AAC or FLAC?

No. Those are compressed formats. MP3 and AAC are lossy and far smaller; FLAC is lossless and typically 40-60 percent the size of WAV. This tool gives the uncompressed PCM size that WAV and AIFF store.

What about the WAV file header?

A standard WAV header is about 44 bytes, which is negligible next to the audio data — even a one-second stereo CD-quality clip is over 170,000 bytes. The tool reports the audio payload size, accurate to within that header.

What is the difference between MB and MiB shown here?

MB uses decimal units (1,000,000 bytes), as quoted by drive manufacturers and most cloud storage. MiB uses binary units (1,048,576 bytes), as reported by many operating systems. The tool shows both so figures match whatever tool you compare against.

Audio File Size Calculator

A storage-planning tool for recording engineers, podcasters, archivists and anyone capturing uncompressed audio. Enter your format and session length to see exactly how much disk space the WAV or AIFF files will take.

How it works

Uncompressed PCM audio stores a fixed number of bytes for every sample, on every channel. The size formula is direct:

bytes per second = sample rate × (bit depth / 8) × channels
total bytes       = bytes per second × duration in seconds

For CD quality (44,100 Hz, 16-bit, stereo): 44100 × 2 × 2 = 176,400 bytes per second, so one minute is about 10.6 MB and a three-minute song is roughly 31.8 MB.

Stepping up to a 24-bit/96 kHz stereo master: 96000 × 3 × 2 = 576,000 bytes per second — about 34.6 MB per minute, more than three times the CD-quality rate.

Worked example

A 3 minute 30 second stereo track at 24-bit/48 kHz:

Metric	Value
Bytes per second	288,000
Bit rate	2,304 kbps
Duration	210 s
File size	~57.7 MB

Tips and notes

Multitrack sessions multiply fast. A 24-track session at 24-bit/48 kHz consumes the per-track size times 24 — budget accordingly when recording a full band.
Channels count literally. A 5.1 surround mix at six channels is three times the size of a stereo file at the same rate and depth.
For long-form archival, consider FLAC: it is lossless and typically cuts the size by roughly half, while WAV remains the safe interchange master.

Every calculation runs locally in your browser; nothing is sent to any server.