Uncompressed audio bit rate is sample rate × bit depth × channels. CD audio at 44.1 kHz, 16-bit, stereo runs at 44,100 × 16 × 2 = 1,411,200 bit/s, or 1,411.2 kbit/s. Divide by 8 for bytes: 176,400 bytes per second, about 10.58 MB for each minute of a WAV or AIFF file.
Sound engineers, podcasters and video editors often need to know how much data a raw recording produces before they pick a format, size a drive or plan a stream. This calculator takes the three numbers that define linear PCM audio — samples per second, bits per sample and channel count — and returns the bit rate in kbit/s, the bytes per second, the storage per minute and the total size for the duration you enter. The working is shown line by line so you can check it against a spec sheet. It covers uncompressed PCM only: MP3, AAC, Opus and FLAC files are smaller because the encoder sets the rate, and container headers add a few kilobytes that are not counted here.
Choose from 8 kHz telephone audio up to 192 kHz high-resolution recording.
Select 8, 16, 24 or 32 bits per sample; 16-bit is CD, 24-bit is the usual studio choice.
Use the − and + buttons for channel count and type the length in minutes to get the file size.
Result Bit rate (kbit/s): 1,411.2
File size (MB): 10.58
Storage per minute (MB): 10.58
Data rate (bytes/s): 176,400
The Red Book format stores 1,411.2 kbit/s, so a minute of stereo CD audio takes about 10.6 MB before any compression.
Result Bit rate (kbit/s): 2,304
File size (MB): 172.8
Storage per minute (MB): 17.28
Data rate (bytes/s): 288,000
A common video post-production format: 2,304 kbit/s, or about 173 MB for ten minutes of WAV.
Result Bit rate (kbit/s): 64
File size (MB): 0.48
Storage per minute (MB): 0.48
Data rate (bytes/s): 8,000
8 kHz, 8-bit mono is the 64 kbit/s G.711 voice channel used in digital telephony.
R = f × b × c; S = R × t × 60 ÷ 8
RfbctSLinear PCM stores one sample of b bits per channel f times each second, so the data rate is the plain product of the three. Multiplying by the duration (minutes × 60) and dividing by 8 converts bits to bytes. Sizes use decimal megabytes (1 MB = 1,000,000 bytes), as drive makers do; a computer showing binary mebibytes will report about 4.6 % less.
The Red Book standard fixes CD audio at 44,100 samples per second, 16 bits per sample and two channels. Multiplying those gives 1,411,200 bits per second. There is no compression on an audio CD, so that rate is constant for every disc.
Yes. Bit rate scales directly with bit depth, so moving from 16 to 24 bits at the same sample rate and channel count raises the data rate and file size by exactly half. At 48 kHz stereo that is 1,536 kbit/s versus 2,304 kbit/s.
The rate is 2,304,000 bit/s, which is 288,000 bytes per second. Over 3,600 seconds that comes to 1,036.8 MB, a little over one gigabyte, plus a header of under a kilobyte.
A WAV or AIFF file carries a header and sometimes metadata chunks such as broadcast extension data, markers or embedded artwork. These add from 44 bytes to a few kilobytes, which the PCM calculation does not include.
It covers both 32-bit integer and 32-bit floating-point PCM, which recorders and DAWs use for headroom. Either way each sample takes 32 bits, so the storage cost is double that of 16-bit audio.
A 320 kbit/s MP3 is about 23 percent of the CD rate of 1,411.2 kbit/s. The encoder discards detail it judges inaudible, so its rate is a setting, not a product of sample rate and bit depth.
Using this tool in an assignment, article or report? Copy a citation, or a link for your website.
Tools Directory Editorial Team. (2026, October 24). Audio Bit Rate Calculator. Tools Directory. Retrieved October 26, 2026, from https://tools.milunir.com/video-audio/media-utilities/audio-bit-rate-calculator/
Tools Directory Editorial Team. “Audio Bit Rate Calculator.” Tools Directory, 24 Oct. 2026, https://tools.milunir.com/video-audio/media-utilities/audio-bit-rate-calculator/. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.
Tools Directory Editorial Team. “Audio Bit Rate Calculator.” Tools Directory. Last modified October 24, 2026. Accessed October 26, 2026. https://tools.milunir.com/video-audio/media-utilities/audio-bit-rate-calculator/.
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