500 KB WAV sample file

A WAV file of exactly 512,000 bytes. It is a valid Waveform Audio File Format file, generated for this site and checked with an independent parser.

sample-wav-500kb.wav

500 KB512,000 bytes

Download 500 KB WAV

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Type: audio/wav
SHA-256: 961debb522a6b4ec1a85dc77a7344a5d0c69edf7fe1980bb5330c207bc2e6af4
Direct URL: https://sampletestfiles.com/downloads/wav/sample-wav-500kb.wav

What is in this file

2.9 s of a synthesised eight-second musical phrase that repeats, as uncompressed 16-bit stereo PCM behind a 44-byte RIFF header. No padding is needed: the sample count sets the size.

Duration	2.9 s
Sample rate	44,100 Hz
Channels	2 (stereo)
Bit depth	16-bit PCM
Bit rate	1,411 kbit/s

First bytes of the file

The first 64 bytes of sample-wav-500kb.wav as a hex dump: offset, bytes, then the same bytes as text. The WAV signature is 52 49 46 46 ?? ?? ?? ?? 57 41 56 45.

00000000  52 49 46 46 f8 cf 07 00 57 41 56 45 66 6d 74 20  |RIFF....WAVEfmt |
00000010  10 00 00 00 01 00 02 00 44 ac 00 00 10 b1 02 00  |........D.......|
00000020  04 00 10 00 64 61 74 61 d4 cf 07 00 00 00 00 00  |....data........|
00000030  02 00 03 00 07 00 0d 00 10 00 1d 00 1c 00 33 00  |..............3.|

Preview

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Where 500 KB matters

A 512,000-byte file: larger than most API body limits, smaller than most upload limits. These are the default limits a file of this size is useful for testing:

System	Limit	Note
Amazon DynamoDB items	400 KB per item	500 KB cannot be stored as a single item.
Express body parsers	100 KB by default	Rejected unless the limit is raised.
nginx request body	1 MB by default (client_max_body_size)	Accepted with room to spare.

All 500 KB sample files

Use this file for

Testing that APIs return 413 for oversized bodies
Testing large audio uploads
Checking transcoding to MP3, AAC or Opus

Testing notes for WAV

Three MIME types are in common use: audio/wav, audio/x-wav and audio/vnd.wave. Allow-lists should accept all of them.
Not every WAV file has a 44-byte header; extra chunks may appear before the audio data, so parsers must walk the chunk list.

WAV format reference

Technical details

File name	sample-wav-500kb.wav
Format	WAV (Waveform Audio File Format)
Extension	.wav
MIME type	audio/wav
Size	512,000 bytes (500 KB)
Kind	Binary
Signature	52 49 46 46 ?? ?? ?? ?? 57 41 56 45
SHA-256	961debb522a6b4ec1a85dc77a7344a5d0c69edf7fe1980bb5330c207bc2e6af4
Created	2026-10-10
Validation	Exact size, signature bytes and structure checked when the file was generated
Preview	Available on this page
Source	Generated for this site; not copied from elsewhere
Licence	Free to use, modify and redistribute (terms)
Category	Audio

Validated for expected format and integrity. As with any download, scan the file with your own security tools before opening it. How files are made and checked

Download from the command line and verify

Fetch the file with curl, then compare its checksum with the SHA-256 value above.

curl -o sample-wav-500kb.wav 'https://sampletestfiles.com/downloads/wav/sample-wav-500kb.wav'
sha256sum sample-wav-500kb.wav     # Linux
shasum -a 256 sample-wav-500kb.wav # macOS

On Windows, run Get-FileHash sample-wav-500kb.wav -Algorithm SHA256 in PowerShell. A matching value proves that the download is complete and unaltered.

Related files

Questions about this file

Is this file exactly 500 KB?: Yes. It is 512,000 bytes, which is 500 KB in the binary units that operating systems and server limits use (1 KB = 1,024 bytes).
What is inside the 500 KB WAV file?: 2.9 s of a synthesised eight-second musical phrase that repeats, as uncompressed 16-bit stereo PCM behind a 44-byte RIFF header. No padding is needed: the sample count sets the size.
What format are the WAV samples?: 16-bit stereo PCM at 44,100 Hz with the canonical 44-byte header.

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