What audio bitrate should you use?
A practical starting point for speech, music and smaller downloads.
Bitrate is a size budget
Bitrate measures encoded bits per second. A constant 128 kbps file uses roughly 0.96 MB per minute, while 320 kbps uses roughly 2.4 MB. Container overhead makes actual downloads slightly different.
Begin with the recording
A quiet voice note and dense stereo music do not challenge an encoder in the same way. Try 96 or 128 kbps for speech and start at 192 kbps for music. These are listening-test starting points, not guarantees of transparency.
Compare the parts that reveal artifacts
Listen to cymbals, room ambience and consonants on the same headphones at the same volume. If the smaller copy sounds noticeably worse, increase the bitrate or keep a lossless copy.
Higher is not restoration
A 320 kbps export from a low-quality source can be larger without adding audible detail. WAV and FLAC do not use this lossy bitrate menu; their sizes follow sample format and compression characteristics.
Use Audio Compressor to compare two settings on a short excerpt.