Opus to WAV Converter
Opus is built for sending audio across a network, not for editing or transcribing it. Decode your .opus files to WAV once and every editor, speech-to-text service and archive system can read them.
Audio Converter
or drop MP3, WAV, M4A … files here ·
Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes
Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.
Constant bitrate (CBR) gives a predictable size and works on every player. Variable bitrate (VBR) spends bits where the music needs them and is usually smaller at the same quality.
Keep the source rate unless a device asks for one. 44.1 kHz is CD standard, 48 kHz is video standard, 8 kHz is used by phone systems and AMR.
Mono halves the size of lossless files and is fine for voice recordings.
16-bit is CD quality. 24-bit keeps headroom for editing and mastering; converting a 16-bit source up does not add detail.
Optional. Seconds (e.g. 75) or minutes:seconds (1:15). Leave empty to start at the beginning.
Optional. Same format as the start time. Leave empty to keep everything up to the end.
How to use this tool
- 1
Add the .opus files
Upload voice notes, call recordings or downloaded clips, up to 20 files of up to 95 MB each.
- 2
Pick the WAV settings
Sample rate is 48 kHz and Bit depth 16-bit, which matches how Opus decodes. Choose 16 kHz and Mono under Channels for transcription.
- 3
Convert to WAV
Press Convert to WAV, download the files and open them in your editor or upload them to your transcription service.
Why decode Opus to WAV
Most .opus files on a computer were never meant to be kept: a WhatsApp voice note saved from a phone, a recording from a browser-based call, a clip downloaded from a site that streams Opus. They are tiny because the codec is aggressive, and that is exactly what makes them hard to work with. Some editors cannot import them, transcription services may reject them, and evidence or records systems often require an uncompressed format.
WAV, defined by Microsoft and IBM in 1991, is the opposite: raw PCM samples with a short header, readable by practically every audio program ever written. Decoding once gives you a working copy that you can cut, clean up and export without stacking further compression on the voice. If you only need the recording to play on any phone or car stereo, Opus to MP3 makes a far smaller file.
Opus to WAV settings by destination
Speech recognition only needs the voice band, so a small file uploads faster and transcribes the same.
- Sample rate: 16 kHz
- Channels: Mono
- Bit depth: 16-bit
- About 1.9 MB per minute
Match the 48 kHz standard of video timelines so the editor does not resample on import.
- Sample rate: 48 kHz
- Channels: Same as source
- Bit depth: 16-bit or 24-bit
- About 11.5 MB per minute in stereo
Noise reduction and EQ work best with headroom; keep the decoded rate and use 24-bit.
- Sample rate: Same as source
- Bit depth: 24-bit
- Normalise volume: off until the edit is done
Keep the recording as close to the original as possible and preserve the tags it carries.
- Sample rate: Same as source
- Keep tags and cover art: on
- Store the original .opus alongside the WAV
Opus to WAV in numbers
- rate the Opus decoder runs at
- 48 kHz
- per minute of 48 kHz 16-bit mono WAV
- 5.76 MB
- per minute at 16 kHz mono for transcription
- 1.92 MB
- largest size a standard WAV file can reach
- 4 GB
Decodes once
The WAV is the final, uncompressed form. Edits and re-exports from it add no new codec loss.
Restores nothing
Low-bitrate artifacts in a voice note, such as a metallic tone, are part of the decoded audio and stay in the WAV.
Grows the file
A one-minute voice note of a few hundred kilobytes becomes several megabytes, so keep the .opus for sending.
Opus and WAV compared
OPUS
Opus audio
Opus is an open, royalty-free lossy audio codec standardised by the IETF in 2012. It adapts from low-bitrate speech to full-band music and has very low latency, so it is used by WhatsApp voice messages, Discord, Zoom, WebRTC and YouTube. At the same bitrate it generally beats MP3 and AAC. Many older players, car stereos and editors cannot open .opus files.
- Compression
- Lossy
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 2012 · IETF (Xiph.Org, Skype, Mozilla)
WAV
Waveform Audio File
WAV is an audio container created by Microsoft and IBM in 1991, usually holding uncompressed PCM audio. It preserves full quality, which makes it standard for recording, editing, sound effects and mastering. A minute of CD-quality stereo takes about 10 MB, so files are large. Every operating system, editor and most players open WAV, though metadata support is limited.
- Compression
- Lossless
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 1991 · Microsoft and IBM
Opus is excellent for carrying speech over a network but awkward to edit, transcribe or file as a record, so voice notes and call recordings are decoded to WAV once, giving editors and speech-to-text tools plain PCM they all accept.
Opus to WAV questions
Which sample rate suits a WAV headed for speech-to-text?
16 kHz mono is the common choice. Speech recognition engines analyze the voice band, and OpenAI's Whisper, for one, resamples all input to 16 kHz anyway. A 16 kHz mono WAV is a third the size of a 48 kHz one and uploads faster without changing the transcript.
Why won't my video editor import the .opus file?
Many editors only decode PCM, AAC and MP3 audio, and Opus support varies by program and version. Converting to WAV removes the question, because every editor and DAW imports PCM WAV. Pick 48 kHz to match the video timeline; other sources such as Ogg Vorbis game audio go through OGG to WAV the same way.
Is the WAV an exact copy of the Opus audio?
It is an exact copy of what an Opus decoder plays, written as uncompressed samples. The detail the Opus encoder discarded stays lost, so the WAV sounds the same as the original, not better. From here on, though, editing and re-saving adds no further loss.
How large will an hour-long call recording be as WAV?
At 48 kHz, 16-bit stereo, about 691 MB; in mono, half that. WAV also has a hard ceiling of 4 GB because the RIFF header stores the size in 32 bits, which a 48 kHz 16-bit stereo file reaches after roughly six hours.
Can I convert just one part of a long recording?
Yes. Under Trim & volume, enter Start at and End at, for example 12:30 and 18:00, and only that stretch is decoded. Run the file again with other times for each further section you need.
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