10.5: Audio File Size and Bitrate Considerations

Understanding Sound From Ear to Engineer · LibreTexts

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    Audio File Size and Bitrate Considerations

    File size is influenced by:

    • Sample rate (e.g., 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 96 kHz)

    • Bit depth (e.g., 16-bit, 24-bit)

    • Bitrate (kilobits per second, kbps)

    Typical Bitrates

    Table showing bitrates and example file types.

    Quality Level

    Bitrate

    Example

    Low Quality

    96 kbps

    Mobile data saving mode

    Standard Streaming

    128–256 kbps

    Spotify free tier, Apple default

    High Quality Streaming

    320 kbps

    Spotify Premium

    Lossless

    700–1500+ kbps

    FLAC / ALAC

    Studio Quality

    2000–4000+ kbps

    24-bit / 96 kHz files

    Higher bitrate = higher fidelity but requires more bandwidth and storage.

    This page titled 10.5: Audio File Size and Bitrate Considerations was last modified on Fri, 01 May 2026 02:54:55 GMT and is shared under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Geoffrey Dunbar.