What usually happens to your file
Type "audio converter" into a search engine and almost every result works the same way: you upload your file, their server converts it, and you download the result. For a few seconds or a few days, depending on the service, a copy of your audio lives on a computer you don't control.
For a podcast episode that's already public, that may not matter. For an unreleased track, a confidential interview, a medical dictation or a recording of your family, it can. You're trusting the service's security, its retention policy and everyone who can access its servers.
What WAVR does instead
WAVR moves the whole job into your browser tab. When you drop a file, your browser reads it from disk, decodes it with its own audio engine, and WAVR's encoders write the new file in memory. The download button saves that file straight back to your device. At no point is the audio sent over the network.
- Private: no copy of your audio exists anywhere but your device.
- Fast: no upload queue, no download wait, no timeouts on big files.
- No limits: no file-size cap, daily quota or account. Your device's memory is the only limit.
What WAVR does send
To show the conversion counter, WAVR sends one tiny anonymous record after each conversion: the output format, the source file extension, the file size and the length in seconds. No audio, no file names, no tags. The How it works page has the details.
Privacy questions
How can I check that my files aren't uploaded?
Open your browser's developer tools, go to the Network tab and convert a file. You'll see the page load and small stats requests of a few hundred bytes, but no request large enough to contain your audio.
What does WAVR send over the network?
After each conversion it sends an anonymous record with the output format, the source file extension, the file size in bytes and the length in seconds, so the site can show a conversion counter. It never sends audio, file names or tags.
Is local conversion slower?
Usually it's faster, because there is no upload or download. Speed depends on your device; a modern laptop converts a typical song in a few seconds.