How to send audio files?
Written by Cameron James·October 28, 2026Quick answer
To send audio files, attach them to an email if they are under 25MB, and upload them to cloud storage and share a link if they are bigger. Gmail and Outlook.com both cap attachments at 25MB, and a CD-quality WAV runs past that in about two and a half minutes. Gmail will swap an oversized attachment for a Google Drive link automatically, so the link route is usually the easy one.
Key facts
- Gmail caps attachments at 25MB on personal accounts. Anything larger is removed and added to the email as a Google Drive link instead.
- Outlook.com also caps regular attachments at 25MB, but you can share a file from OneDrive instead, with a limit of 2GB.
- Work and school accounts can have lower limits set by an administrator, so a file that sends from a personal address may bounce from a work one.
- Uncompressed CD-quality audio (44.1kHz, 16-bit, stereo) is about 10.6MB per minute, so a WAV or AIFF passes 25MB at roughly two and a half minutes.
- A 128kbps MP3 is about 1MB per minute, so a typical song fits in an email, but it is a lossy copy and not the master.
- Zipping barely helps with MP3, AAC and other compressed formats, because they are already compressed. Lossless formats like FLAC are also already compressed, so they will not shrink much either.
- Use WAV or FLAC when the recipient needs to edit or master the audio, and MP3 or AAC when they only need to listen.
Pick the format before the method
Most of the pain in sending audio is really a format problem. A finished voice note or a demo for a friend is fine as an MP3, which is small enough that email just works. If you are sending something for a producer, editor or podcast host to work on, send the WAV or FLAC, because an MP3 has already thrown information away and you cannot get it back.
The size gap is big. The sums are simple: CD-quality stereo is about 10.6MB a minute uncompressed, against roughly 1MB a minute for a 128kbps MP3. Check the file size before you pick a route, not after the send fails.
Under 25MB, attach it. Over, send a link
If the file is under 25MB, attach it and go. If it is over, upload it to Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox or WeTransfer, set the sharing permission, and paste the link in the email. Gmail will do the Drive step for you if you attach the big file and let it. Open the link in a private window before you send, because a link that asks the recipient to request access is the most common way this goes wrong.
For a stack of stems, put them in one shared folder named by song and date. Zipping keeps the structure, but the recipient cannot preview anything until they download the lot. If you are sending whole folders, I have written about sending music files properly.
When it is not the audio that needs explaining
I spent years sending decks, proposals and reports, and the same thing kept happening: the file arrived, nobody knew what to do with it. Audio is the same. A track with no context gets a "thanks, will listen" and nothing more.
If what you are sending is a document that needs your voice on it, that is what LiveDocument is for. It attaches a recorded video walkthrough to a PDF or image and shares it as a single link. It does not host audio files, though, so for the track itself use the cloud storage route above.
The Bottom Line
Decide whether the recipient is listening or working with the file. Send an MP3 as an attachment if they are listening, and upload the full-quality WAV and send a link if they are working with it.
Written by Cameron James