Is a WAV transcript more accurate?
We publish no accuracy number for any format, so we do not know and we do not guess. What a WAV gives you is uncompressed audio: the transcript is made from the same sound a CD would play.
WAV to text
Transcribe a WAV recording to text
Transcribe a WAV recording to text: uncompressed stereo is about 10 MB a minute, so lighten or split the file before the upload. Free $0, 3 files a day.
3 files a day up to 30 minutes, free99+ languagesSpeaker separation and timestamps
In short
Upload a WAV and get the words as text with a timecode on every line. The catch is the weight: uncompressed stereo runs about 10 MB a minute, so a file is up to 30 minutes — split it, or save a lighter copy, and upload that.
How to get a WAV into the widget
- 1
Weigh the file before uploading
Uncompressed audio is 10 MB a minute at CD quality, so a stereo recording fills the 30 minutes limit in a few minutes. Look at the size before you send anything.
- 2
Make the file fit
Save the same recording at a lower sample rate or in a compressed format, or cut the session into parts. The limit is on the file, not on the recording.
- 3
Send it and set the language
Drop the file on the widget above.Rthe recording language is detected automatically.
- 4
Take the text away
Every line carries the time it starts and ends. Export plain text, Markdown, SRT, VTT or CSV on any plan, and DOCX on the Pro plan, once the transcript is saved.
What you get
- TXT
Plain text for an email, a note or a chat
- SRT
Subtitles for video editors and platforms
- VTT
Subtitles for a browser and a website
- CSV
A table: time, speaker, text
- DOCX
A Word document with speakers and times
- Markdown
Text with headings for notes
What one WAV may weigh
| What | Value |
|---|---|
| The format | Waveform Audio File Format, developed by IBM and Microsoft, first published in 1991 |
| The content | usually LPCM, that is uncompressed audio |
| The weight | CD-quality stereo is 1,411.2 kbit/s, about 10 MB a minute |
| The ceiling of the format | less than 4 GiB, about 6.8 hours of CD-quality audio |
| The file | audio and video are both accepted: mp3, wav, m4a, mp4, webm, ogg, flac, aac, wma, mov |
The case
Why the size is the whole problem
A WAV file is the raw material of audio work: uncompressed, editable and heavy. Wikipedia puts CD-quality stereo at 1,411.2 kbit/s, about 10 MB for every minute, and the format itself stops at 4 GiB — roughly 6.8 hours. The obstacle is the size, not the format.
Tips
Check the size of the file before the upload, not after.
A compressed copy is lighter than the same recording in WAV.
Split by topic, not by length, when you cut a session.
Export the text; the recording itself is not changed.
Questions this page answers
Why is my WAV so big?
Because nothing is compressed in it. Wikipedia calls LPCM the usual bitstream of a WAV file, and CD quality at 1,411.2 kbit/s is about 10 MB a minute of stereo.
Can I upload a WAV 30 minutes on the free plan?
No. The limit of 30 minutes is on one file, on every plan. At CD quality the 30 minutes is spent in a few minutes, so the size is the first thing to check.
Does the WAV keep its metadata?
Nothing is written back into your file. The transcript is made from the sound, and the export holds the words, the times and the speakers.
Sources
- EWikipedia — WAV (the Waveform Audio File Format)en.wikipedia.org · checked 22 October 2026
- TTranscribsi — the pricing pagetranscrib.si · checked 22 October 2026
Reading: 6 minutesUpdated 
Transcribsi editorial team
Drop a recording — the text arrives in a minute
Speakers by name, a time on every line, export to TXT, SRT, VTT, CSV and Markdown.
3 files a day up to 30 minutes, free99+ languagesSpeaker separation and timestamps