LAME VBR Quality: V0 to V9 Bitrate, File Size and Frequency Range

VBR · quality target

LAME VBR `-V0` to `-V9`: what bitrate and file size do they produce?

The V scale controls quality, not a fixed bitrate. These measured results show what each setting produced across three different stereo sources.

What bitrate is LAME V0, V1, V2, V3 and the other V settings?

-V is a quality target rather than a fixed bitrate. Lower V numbers request higher quality and normally produce larger files.

Frequency context: the conventional human audible range is about 20 Hz–20 kHz, and CD audio is normally considered to cover that full audible range. A result close to 20 kHz therefore reaches the top of the usual audible-band reference. Frequency reach is only one part of MP3 quality; extra bitrate can also improve how accurately the retained audio is represented.

VBR setting	Average bitrate	Approx. file size	High-frequency reach	Legacy reference
`-V0`	247.7 kbps	1.77 MiB/min	No default low-pass	`--alt-preset extreme`
`-V1`	213.9 kbps	1.53 MiB/min	about 19.9 kHz
`-V2`	184.6 kbps	1.32 MiB/min	about 19.2 kHz
`-V3`	166.2 kbps	1.19 MiB/min	about 18.5 kHz	`--r3mix` modern alias
`-V4`	145.1 kbps	1.04 MiB/min	about 17.8 kHz
`-V5`	121.2 kbps	0.87 MiB/min	about 17.1 kHz
`-V6`	103.7 kbps	0.74 MiB/min	about 17.1 kHz
`-V7`	92.6 kbps	0.67 MiB/min	up to about 16.0 kHz (sample-rate limited)
`-V8`	87.5 kbps	0.63 MiB/min	up to about 12.0 kHz (sample-rate limited)
`-V9`	69.7 kbps	0.50 MiB/min	up to about 11.0 kHz (sample-rate limited)

V3 and --r3mix: current LAME retains --r3mix as an alias for -V3. In this test set, V3 averaged about 166.2 kbps, used about 1.19 MiB/min and reached roughly 18.5 kHz.

Why does the VBR bitrate change between songs?

VBR spends more bits where the audio is difficult to encode and fewer where it can. The average figures above are therefore reference values from three deliberately different stereo sources, not promises that every song will produce the same bitrate.

At V7 to V9, LAME also lowers the output sample rate in these tests, which places a practical ceiling on the available high-frequency range.

How these figures were measured

Each setting was encoded with the current LAME 4.0 build against the same three stereo WAV sources. Average bitrate is the mean of the three encoder results. File size is normalized to MiB per minute so clips of different lengths can be compared fairly. The high-frequency figure is the approximate point where the default encoder response has effectively tailed off.

Erokia synthBroad-range electronic material with strong low-frequency content.

Usilaya orchestral stringsSustained tonal material used for weight and steady-state comparison.

astro_denticle breakbeatTransient and high-frequency material useful for top-end behaviour.

The three source WAV files are CC0 material from Freesound: Erokia 524947, Usilaya 546205, and astro_denticle 846944.

Listen to these settings

Hear the same source at different VBR settings and switch between them without restarting playback.

The listening test opens with this mode already selected.

Open the VBR listening test

Common questions

What bitrate is LAME V2?

Across these three test sources, -V2 averaged about 184.6 kbps and about 1.32 MiB per minute.

What bitrate is LAME V3?

Across these tests, -V3 averaged about 166.2 kbps. Current LAME also retains --r3mix as a modern alias for V3.

What is the modern equivalent of --alt-preset extreme?

Current LAME maps the legacy extreme preset level to -V0. The measured V0 output here averaged about 247.7 kbps across the three test sources.

Is V0 always 320 kbps?

No. V0 is variable bitrate. These test files averaged about 237.5 to 263.4 kbps depending on the source.

LAME VBR -V0 to -V9: what bitrate and file size do they produce?