Bitrate is how many bits of compressed audio the recorder spends on each second of sound: Standard uses 64 kbps, High 128 kbps, and Best 192 kbps. For a voice, High (the default) already sounds clean; Best mostly helps music and mixed tab audio, and Standard halves the file size when length matters more than polish.
You pick the level in Settings → Quality before pressing Record. Like the other settings, it is locked while a recording is running, so a take never switches quality halfway through.
The three levels side by side
Sizes below are straight arithmetic: kilobits per second ÷ 8 = kilobytes per second, times the duration. Real Opus files land close to these numbers, sometimes a little under during quiet passages.
| Quality | Bitrate | Per second | Per minute | Per hour | Good fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | 64 kbps | 8 kB | 0.48 MB | 28.8 MB | Long lectures, memos, meeting notes |
| High (default) | 128 kbps | 16 kB | 0.96 MB | 57.6 MB | Most voice work, interviews, narration drafts |
| Best | 192 kbps | 24 kB | 1.44 MB | 86.4 MB | Music, instruments, tab audio with a soundtrack |
Why 64 kbps can still sound good
The recording itself is encoded with Opus, a codec designed with speech in mind. Opus at 64 kbps keeps a spoken voice clear and natural; most listeners won't pick it out from a higher setting on laptop speakers or earbuds. Where Standard starts to show is in the details around the voice: room reverb, breaths, a guitar in the background, cymbals in a tab's soundtrack.
MP3 is a different story. The MP3 format is older and less efficient, so at 64 kbps it tends to sound duller and slightly "swirly" on high frequencies. If you plan to export MP3, High is the safer starting point.
Where the bitrate is used
The Quality setting shows up in two places:
- While recording. The take saved in your library is Opus audio at the chosen bitrate. This sets the ceiling for everything you export later.
- When exporting. MP3, OGG, and trimmed WebM files are encoded at the Quality selected at the moment you press Download or Share. Untrimmed WebM is copied without re-encoding, and WAV is uncompressed PCM, so neither depends on bitrate at export time.
This creates a small trap. Record at Standard, switch to Best, export MP3 — and you get a 192 kbps file carrying 64 kbps worth of detail. It is three times bigger and not audibly better. Raising the bitrate later never restores what the first encode dropped.
The reverse is fine: a Best take exported with Standard selected gives a compact MP3 or OGG for sharing while the 192 kbps original stays in the library.
Bitrate is shared between channels
The number is the total for the file, not per channel. A Stereo take at 128 kbps splits that budget across left and right; a Mono take gives the whole 128 kbps to one channel. For a single voice, mono at High tends to sound at least as good as stereo at High, and the file is the same size. More on that in mono or stereo for voice recordings.
Bitrate is not the same as sample rate
Every take is captured at 48 kHz regardless of Quality. Sample rate decides the highest frequency the recording can contain; bitrate decides how much of that detail survives compression. Changing Quality does not change the sample rate. The 48 kHz explainer covers that half.
What bitrate cannot fix
A higher bitrate faithfully preserves whatever reaches the encoder, including problems. If the room echoes, the microphone is a metre away, or the input is clipping, Best just records those problems in more detail. In my experience a closer microphone and a sensible mic volume improve a voice recording far more than moving from High to Best.
- Too quiet or too loud: adjust the mic volume slider (0–200 %, default 100 %).
- Fan hum or keyboard noise: keep Noise suppression on (it is on by default).
- Speakers leaking into the mic on a call: keep Echo cancellation on.
A short decision guide
- Several hours of lecture or meeting audio you will mostly skim: Standard.
- Anything with a voice you might share, quote, or edit: High.
- Music, a song idea, or tab audio where the soundtrack matters: Best.
Storage is rarely the deciding factor, because recordings sit in local browser storage limited only by available disk space. Still, if you keep dozens of long takes, the hour-by-hour numbers in the file size table add up quickly.