Free online 3GA to WAV converter

A phone or voice-recorder application may produce a 3GA file that an audio editor, transcription program, or older media player cannot open. Converting it to WAV makes the recording easier to edit, share, and process, but does not restore detail lost during compression.

What the 3GA format is

3GA is an audio-only use of the 3GPP container, commonly created by mobile phones and voice-recording applications, including devices from Samsung and other Android manufacturers. The .3ga extension identifies the container, not a single codec; files may contain AMR-NB, AMR-WB, or AAC audio with different sample rates, channels, and compression settings.

What the WAV format is

WAV is a RIFF-based audio container commonly used for linear PCM audio. A PCM WAV file stores uncompressed samples, which gives it broad compatibility with digital audio workstations, editors, transcription software, speech-processing tools, and archival workflows. The trade-off is file size: 16-bit, 44.1 kHz stereo PCM requires approximately 10 MB per minute. WAV can contain other audio codecs, so select PCM when compatibility is the goal.

How to convert 3GA to WAV

Using FFmpeg

FFmpeg handles the AMR and AAC codecs commonly found in 3GA files and is suitable for individual or batch conversions.

1. Install FFmpeg and open a terminal or command prompt in the folder containing the recording.
2. Inspect the source if necessary with ffprobe input.3ga to check its codec, sample rate, channel count, and duration.
3. Run ffmpeg -i input.3ga -c:a pcm_s16le output.wav.
4. Replace input.3ga and output.wav with the required filenames.

The pcm_s16le option creates a widely supported 16-bit PCM WAV. Because no sample-rate or channel options are supplied, FFmpeg normally preserves the source sample rate and channel layout while decoding it to PCM.

To convert every 3GA file in a Windows Command Prompt, use for %f in (*.3ga) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -c:a pcm_s16le "%~nf.wav". In a Windows batch file, double each percent sign: %%f and %%~nf.

Using the built-in converter

On 101convert.com, upload the 3GA file, choose WAV as the output format, start the conversion, and download the resulting file. This requires no software installation. Do not upload confidential recordings unless the service's storage, processing, and retention terms are acceptable.

Quality and compatibility considerations

Decoding AMR or AAC into PCM WAV does not recover information removed when the original recording was compressed. The WAV may be substantially larger without sounding better, so retain the original 3GA file as the source.

16-bit PCM WAV is appropriate for most editors and playback applications. If the source is mono, keep the output mono; changing it to stereo increases storage without adding audio information. If a target application requires a specific format, set it explicitly, for example ffmpeg -i input.3ga -ar 16000 -ac 1 -c:a pcm_s16le output.wav for 16 kHz mono speech. Resampling or changing the channel count alters the decoded audio and should be done only when required.