Audio Bitrate Calculator
Get the recommended audio bitrate for your codec and use case — streaming, podcast, or archival.
Audio Bitrate Calculator
Recommended bitrate
128 kbps
128–256 kbps for high-quality streaming
Range: 96–256 kbps
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Start free trialHow to Use the Audio Bitrate Calculator
1.
Select the audio codec
Choose AAC for streaming and video delivery, MP3 for maximum compatibility, Opus for the best quality-to-size ratio, or WAV/FLAC for lossless archival.
2.
Select your use case
Choose streaming (music, video), podcast/voice-over, or archival. Each context has different quality requirements and tolerance for compression.
3.
Read the recommended bitrate
The result shows the recommended kbps value, the acceptable range, and a note explaining why that bitrate is appropriate for your chosen codec and use case.
4.
Apply it in your export settings
Enter the bitrate in your DAW, NLE, or FFmpeg command. For AAC and MP3, the recommended value is a good starting point for most projects.
Why This Matters for Video Creators
Choosing the wrong audio bitrate is a common and easily avoided mistake. Too low and listeners notice compression artefacts — metallic voices, swirling background noise, and muddy music. Too high on a lossy format and you're wasting storage and bandwidth with no audible benefit beyond around 256 kbps for AAC. For video hosted on vitelnk, our HLS encoding packages your audio as AAC at a high quality bitrate automatically — you don't need to pre-process it, but understanding bitrate helps you deliver the best possible source file.