Compress MP3 to 2MB
Compress a MP3 file to about 2MB. Lowers the bitrate to hit your target, dropping to mono and a narrower band only if the target needs it.
Up to 50 MB per file. Sign up free to compress files up to 100 MB.
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Checking files and selected compression settings.
This page stops at 50 MB and one file per run. Pro compresses files up to 1 GB and a full batch in one go, with a priority queue.
What reaching 2 MB costs an MP3
Set 2 MB as the target and the engine works down to it in steps, stopping at the first result that fits rather than padding the file back out.
Size is bitrate times duration, so the bitrate is worked out from your target and the length of the recording rather than searched for. Stereo is kept while the budget allows it; mono and a narrower band are used only once nothing else reaches the target.
Files are processed on our servers, not in your browser. The upload and the result are both permanently deleted within 1 hour, no backups and no copies kept.
No watermark, and no account needed to use it. 5 files a day at up to 50 MB each, sent singly or together; signing in is free and raises each file to 100 MB.
Spending the extra megabyte well
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1
Decide whether stereo earns its keep
Two people recorded on separate sides, or music with any width to it, justify the second channel. A single voice does not, and keeping it mono leaves the whole budget for detail instead.
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2
Work out your bitrate from the length
Divide: two megabytes is sixteen thousand kilobits, so a four minute recording has about 70 kbps to spend and a ninety second one has nearly 190. The first is speech territory, the second is comfortable for music.
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3
Start from the best copy you have
Re-encoding a file that is already lossy stacks the losses. If the original recording still exists, compress that rather than a copy a chat app has already been through.
The target that buys a second voice
Two megabytes holds about two minutes and twenty seconds at 128 kbps. What it really buys, compared with 1 MB, is the room to keep stereo on a short piece of music, or to carry a conversation between two people without folding them into the same channel. A three-minute track reaches 2 MB at roughly 93 kbps, which is the band where music stops sounding damaged and starts merely sounding compressed.
Why 2 MB sits where it does
This target rarely comes from a form. It comes from wanting a file that is unambiguously small while still being worth listening to, which is a different problem from satisfying a cap. A demo sent to someone who will judge the music, a sample attached to a message, a clip that has to load quickly on a slow connection.
Because the motive is judgement rather than compliance, the interesting question is not whether it fits but what it sounds like when it does.
The line between this and 1 MB
For speech of any length the two targets are barely different: both land far above what a voice needs. For music the gap is real. At 2 MB a three-minute track keeps its stereo image and most of its top end. At 1 MB it keeps neither.
Frequently asked questions
Is 2 MB enough for a full song?
For a three-minute track it works out at about 93 kbps, which is listenable and clearly not the original. Cymbals and reverb tails are where you will hear it first. If the song is being judged on its sound rather than its size, 5 MB is the better target.
What does 2 MB give me that 1 MB does not?
Twice the bitrate at the same length, which for music is the difference between keeping stereo and losing it. For a single speaking voice the two are close enough that you would struggle to tell them apart.
Can I fit a podcast episode into 2 MB?
A short one. Thirty minutes of speech needs about 9 kbps to reach 2 MB, which is below what any encoder will make intelligible. Ten minutes needs 28 kbps, which is rough but usable for one voice. Full episodes belong at 10 MB.