Convert .aup4 to WAV online
Get an uncompressed WAV out of an Audacity 4 project without opening Audacity. Choose 16-bit PCM for anything that has to play everywhere, or 32-bit float to keep the project's own precision. The file never leaves your device.
How do I get a WAV file out of an .aup4 project?
Drop the .aup4 file here and export it as WAV. The page reads the project's SQLite database in your browser, rebuilds the timeline from its clips and blocks, mixes the tracks, and writes a RIFF/WAVE file — 16-bit PCM or 32-bit float, at the project's own sample rate. Nothing is uploaded. In Audacity 4 the same job is File then Export Audio then WAV, with the project's realtime effects rendered.
Drop the .aup4 or .aup3 project.
Play the mix to confirm the tracks are the ones you expect.
Choose 16-bit PCM or 32-bit float and download the WAV.
Pro exports every track as its own WAV in one ZIP.
Convert .aup4 to WAV online
WAV is the right output when the audio is going back into another editor, into a mastering chain, or into an archive: there is no encoder in the path and nothing is thrown away. Audacity stores most projects as 32-bit float internally, so exporting float WAV hands the next tool exactly the samples the project holds, including any headroom above 0 dBFS that an amplitude envelope introduced. 16-bit PCM is the safer choice for playback and for anything that will be shared, and is what most people mean by a WAV file.
On a Mac? Audacity's own recovery utility only gained a macOS build in January 2026, and it is still a terminal program that asks for about four times the project's size in free space. Everything on this page runs in the browser instead, on any operating system.
What the WAV contains
The output is a standard RIFF/WAVE file: a 44-byte header followed by interleaved samples. 16-bit exports are written as PCM (format tag 1), float exports as IEEE float (format tag 3), both at the project's own sample rate and always in stereo unless the project is entirely mono.
The samples themselves come from the project's blocks, converted to float once and mixed. Audacity records each sequence's stored format and, since version 3.0.3, an 'effective' format that says how much precision the data is really worth — a track imported from a 16-bit WAV and never processed carries 16-bit data inside a 32-bit float sequence. Exporting to 16-bit in that case reproduces the stored samples bit for bit: a block is read as the integer divided by 32768 and written back as the float multiplied by 32768, rounded and clipped to the 16-bit range — the same constant, CONVERT_DIV16, that Audacity's own conversion uses in both directions.
Amplitude envelopes are applied before the mix, which is where levels above full scale can appear: an envelope control point may sit above 1.0, and Audacity treats that as a boost. A float export keeps those peaks intact; a 16-bit export clamps them, the same as Audacity's own export does.
What this export does not do is dither. Audacity decides that once per export and skips it only when nothing has touched the samples — every track at unity volume with a flat envelope, the output at the project rate, no effects, and no block wider than the output format. Any envelope or volume change, a mixdown to fewer channels, resampling, or a 32-bit float block turns on its high-quality dither, which is shaped noise by default. Waveward rounds instead, so on 32-bit float material a 16-bit WAV from here and one from Audacity differ in the last bit: one part in 32,768, but not byte-identical.
- Container
- RIFF/WAVE, 44-byte header
- 16-bit output
- PCM, format tag 1 — plays everywhere
- Float output
- IEEE float 32-bit, format tag 3 — keeps headroom above 0 dBFS
- Sample rate
- The project's own rate, unchanged
- Stored formats
- 16-bit, 24-bit and 32-bit float blocks are all read
- Effective format
- Recorded by Audacity 3.0.3+; tells you when 16-bit output is bit-exact
- Dither
- None — samples are rounded; Audacity's export applies shaped dither by default once a mix changes them
New to the format? What an .aup4 file is, table by table — and how it differs from .aup3.
Sources
Where the facts on this page were checked. Audacity's code is cited at the tagged release it was read from.
- Dither.cpp, Audacity 3.7.9 — 16-bit conversion uses one constant both ways, CONVERT_DIV16 = 1 << 15: an integer is read as n / 32768, and a float is stored as lrintf(f × 32768) clipped to −32768…32767. The two dither settings default to none (real-time) and shaped (high-quality).
- SampleFormat.cpp, Audacity 3.7.9 — gHighQualityDither starts as shaped and gLowQualityDither as none; InitDitherers() reloads both from the preferences.
- Mix.cpp, Audacity 3.7.9 — NeedsDither() decides once per mix: dither is skipped only when no resampling, mixdown to fewer channels, fractional volume, envelope or effect touches the samples and no source's effective format is wider than the output; otherwise a high-quality mixer applies the high-quality dither choice.
- ExportPluginHelpers.cpp, Audacity 3.7.9 — Every export creates its mixer with highQuality set to true, so an export that needs dither uses the high-quality choice — shaped unless the preference was changed.
Converting this file
Q. 16-bit or 32-bit float?
16-bit PCM plays anywhere and is half the size; pick it unless the file is going straight back into an editor. 32-bit float keeps the project's own precision and any level above 0 dBFS that an envelope or a boosted clip created, which 16-bit has to clamp.
Q. Can I get each track as its own WAV?
With Pro, yes: every track as its own file in one ZIP, or every clip as its own file, in the format you pick — 16-bit PCM, 32-bit float or MP3. The stereo mix stays free for projects up to 256 MB. If Audacity 4.0.1 or newer is installed, its Export multiple command, new in that release, writes each track or each labelled region to its own file too.
Q. Are labels or project metadata written into the WAV?
No. The file is a 44-byte RIFF/WAVE header — the RIFF, fmt and data chunks — followed by the samples, and nothing else: no LIST/INFO tags with a title or artist, no cue points for the project's labels, no broadcast-wave chunk. If the WAV needs tags or markers, add them in the tool it is going to next.
Free to open, play and export the stereo mix for projects up to 256 MB; larger projects still open and play free, and downgrading to .aup3 is free up to the same size. Recovery, per-track stems, and exports or downgrades above that size are a one-time $19 license — no subscription, no recurring fees.
Every job an Audacity project needs
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