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YouTube to WAV: Convert Any Video to Lossless WAV for Editing

By Video to MP3 Converter team · Updated 2026-11-01 · 4 min read

Short answer

To convert YouTube to WAV, open the video, click the Video to MP3 Converter icon, choose WAV and press Convert. WAV is uncompressed, so it opens in any editor — Audacity, GarageBand, Ableton — without another round of compression. It is about 10 MB a minute, so trim long recordings in your editor.

YouTube to WAV is the conversion to ask for when the sound is going somewhere other than your ears: a voice-over you are re-cutting, a drum hit you are sampling, a clip for a video edit, a reference track in your DAW. Here is how to get a clean WAV file from any YouTube video in three clicks, what it costs in disk space, and when MP3 or M4A is the better choice.

If the audio is going into an editor — a voice-over you are re-cutting, a sound you are sampling, a clip for a video edit — WAV is the format to ask for. It is not that WAV sounds better than the source; it is that WAV doesn't throw anything else away when you cut, stretch and export again.

What you need

  • Chrome or Edge on a computer
  • The Video to MP3 Converter extension
  • An audio editor: Audacity (free), GarageBand, Adobe Audition, Ableton, Reaper…

Steps

  1. 1

    Open the video and click the icon

    Play the video and click the Video to MP3 Converter icon. The side panel opens next to the player and shows the video it found.

  2. 2

    Switch the format to WAV

    Keep Audio, press Change next to the format and pick WAV · lossless. The main button changes to Convert to WAV. The panel remembers WAV for next time, so if you are collecting several clips you only do this once.

  3. 3

    Convert and drag it into your editor

    Press Convert to WAV. When the notification says the file is saved, click Show in folder and drag the WAV straight into Audacity, GarageBand or your DAW's timeline.

Why WAV for editing

MP3 and M4A are lossy: each time a lossy file is decoded, edited and saved as a lossy file again, a little more detail is discarded. WAV stores the audio uncompressed, so your editor works on exactly what was converted and your final export is the only lossy step.

What WAV can't do is restore detail the video never had. The audio on video sites is already compressed when it is streamed, so think of WAV as "no extra loss from here on", not "studio master". For plain listening, MP3 or M4A is the better choice — see WAV vs MP3 vs M4A.

File size

LengthWAV (44.1 kHz, 16-bit stereo)MP3 320 kbps
1 minute≈ 10 MB≈ 2.4 MB
10 minutes≈ 100 MB≈ 24 MB
1 hour≈ 600 MB≈ 144 MB

Audio conversions handle videos up to 2 hours, but a two-hour WAV is over a gigabyte. If you only need a few seconds, convert the whole video and cut the part you need in your editor.

Trimming the sample in your editor

  1. Open the WAV in Audacity (File → Open) or drag it onto a track.
  2. Select the part you need with the mouse; zoom in with Ctrl/Cmd + 1 to place the edges exactly.
  3. Use File → Export → Export Selected Audio (Audacity) or bounce the region in your DAW. Keep WAV as the export format if you will keep editing.

Use only audio you have the rights to

Sampling someone else's recording in a release usually needs permission. Your own uploads, Creative Commons material with a licence that allows reuse, public-domain recordings and clips you have cleared are fine; everything else is your responsibility. Our terms of service spell this out.

Key facts

  • WAV is uncompressed: about 10 MB per minute of stereo audio at 44.1 kHz, 16-bit.
  • WAV avoids an extra round of lossy compression when you edit; it cannot add detail the source never had.
  • WAV files carry the title tag only; MP3 and M4A also carry artist and cover art.

Get clean audio into your editor

Install Video to MP3 Converter and pick WAV once — it remembers.

Add to Chrome — It's FreeFree during early access · Chrome and Edge

Questions

Is YouTube to WAV better quality than MP3?

It avoids adding new compression loss, which matters when you edit. It can't add detail the original stream didn't have, so for listening MP3 at 320 kbps or M4A sounds the same.

Can I save just part of the video as WAV?

The extension saves the whole audio track. Cut the part you need in Audacity or your DAW — it takes a few seconds and keeps the edit lossless.

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