Exporting a WAV out of Premiere uses the same Export Settings dialog you use for video — you change the Format, and everything downstream of that changes with it. This walkthrough covers the controls Adobe documents for audio output, in the order you meet them, and ends with the one setting most people get wrong.
You need a sequence with audio in it, and Premiere installed alongside Adobe Media Encoder. Nothing else.
Before you start: where WAV actually lives
Adobe's page on files supported for export with Media Encoder lists four audio formats, verbatim:
Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), Version 1, and Version 2
Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF)
mp3 format
Waveform Audio (WAV)WAV appears on that Media Encoder list rather than on Premiere's list of formats you can export directly within the application. That matters because of one more line on the same page: "Adobe Media Encoder is used both as a stand-alone application and as a component of Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Audition, and Animate. The formats that Adobe Media Encoder can export depend on which of these applications are installed."
So the encoder doing the work is Media Encoder, whether you see its interface or not.
Step 1: Open the export settings
Adobe gives the entry point word for word: "Select File > Export > Media or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + M (Windows) or command + M (macOS)."
There is a second route for longer jobs — "To send a clip or sequence directly to Media Encoder choose File > Export > Send to Adobe Media Encoder." Watch what that route hands you, though. Adobe states: "The H.264 Match Source - Adaptive High Bitrate export preset is applied by default when sending jobs to the Media Encoder queue. However, if the sequence or clip has been previously opened in Export mode or Quick Export, the last-used export setting is applied instead."
In other words, you will usually land on a video preset and have to change the Format yourself. That is the most common reason someone ends up with an MP4 when they wanted audio.
Step 2: Change the Format
Adobe's description of the Format menu is the whole mechanism in two sentences: "To export a file using Adobe Media Encoder, select a format in the Export Settings dialog box for the output. The selected format determines the preset options that are available."
The Format choice is upstream of everything: change it first, then look at presets.
Step 3: Check what the Audio Codec menu offers
This is the control that decides whether you get uncompressed audio, and Adobe is explicit that it varies by format: "Audio Codec | Specifies the audio compression codec. Some audio formats support only uncompressed audio, which has the highest quality but uses more disk space. Some formats provide only one codec while others allow you to choose from a list of multiple codecs."
Two practical consequences. First, if the Audio Codec menu has exactly one entry and will not open, that is documented behaviour for formats that provide only one codec, not a bug. Second, "highest quality but uses more disk space" is Adobe's own framing of the trade: an uncompressed master is a storage decision.
Step 4: Leave the sample rate where the recording put it
Here is the setting that gets sabotaged constantly. Adobe's export settings reference says, verbatim:
"Sample Rate | The frequency at which audio is converted into discrete digital values, is measured in Hertz (Hz). Audio recorded at higher sample rates produces better quality but requires larger file sizes. For best results, you should export audio at the same sample rate it was recorded with. Exporting at a higher sample rate does not improve quality and requires resampling which can increase export times."
Read the two halves separately, because they are about different moments:
- Recording at a higher sample rate produces better quality. That is a capture-time statement.
- Exporting at a higher sample rate does not improve quality. That is an export-time statement, and it is a flat contradiction of the advice you will see everywhere — bump 44.1 kHz to 96 kHz on the way out to get a cleaner master.
Adobe's reference says that does nothing good and two things bad: it triggers resampling, and that resampling "can increase export times." If your source was recorded at 48 kHz, export at 48 kHz.
For delivery targets, Adobe's export guide phrases it as a checklist step rather than a fixed rule: "Under Audio, confirm channel layout, sample rate, and bit rate, adjust as needed for delivery requirements (stereo or multichannel, 48 kHz, appropriate kbps)." Note the qualifier — that is what to confirm against a spec sheet, not a value to apply blindly.
Step 5: Confirm the channel layout
"Channels | Specifies the number of audio channels included in the exported file. If you choose fewer channels than are in the Mix track of your sequence or media file, Premiere down-mixes the audio."
There is a hard limit on that convenience, stated in a note on the same page: "Down mixing only works for specific channelization combinations, such as 5.1 to stereo, or stereo to mono. It does not work for N-Channel to stereo or mono." If your sequence uses an N-Channel mix, do not expect the export dialog to fold it down for you.
Step 6: Set a destination that exists
Media Encoder's documentation is blunt about this one: "When specifying a destination folder, ensure that the specified destination folder exists. If you specify a folder that does not exist, an error message informs you that the file cannot be encoded because the folder cannot be found."
One optional switch worth knowing before you hit export: "Import into Project | Enable this option to automatically import your exported files back into your Premiere project. Note: This setting is global and affects all destinations."
If you just need the audio off a finished video
If the video is already exported and you only want its audio track, opening a 40 GB project to re-render is the slow path. This pulls the audio out in your browser instead — the file is read from disk locally and never uploaded:
Try it right here
Runs in your browser. Your file is not uploaded anywhere.
Use it when the source is a finished file, not a live timeline. When you need the audio smaller for sharing rather than archival, WAV to MP3 handles the second hop, and the full set lives at all Clapr tools.
Common mistakes
- Trusting the size estimate on an audio-only export. Adobe names this case directly: "Neither the Estimated File Size nor the Maximum File Size values work particularly well with very small target file sizes, variable bit rates, or audio-only media." It also warns that "Including metadata may increase the file size beyond the Estimated File Size shown."
- Exporting video and expecting a separate audio file by accident. There is a documented way that happens: "Formats like H.264, HEVC (H.265), and MPEG include a Multiplexer section that controls how video and audio data are merged into a single stream (aka “muxing”). When Multiplexing is set to None, video and audio streams are exported as separate files." If you got two files from one export, that is why.
- Queuing five different sequences and expecting them to run at once. Media Encoder "encodes all sources in sequence, but encodes all outputs of a source in parallel." Multiple outputs from one sequence run together; multiple sequences do not.
- Raising the sample rate because the project is "important." See Step 4. It costs export time and buys nothing.
FAQ
Can Premiere export audio only, with no video? Adobe's Media Encoder export page lists an Audio section containing AAC, AIFF, mp3, and Waveform Audio (WAV). Select the format you want in the Export Settings dialog — the format you pick determines which presets are then available.
What sample rate should I export at? The one your audio was recorded at. Adobe's reference is unambiguous: "For best results, you should export audio at the same sample rate it was recorded with. Exporting at a higher sample rate does not improve quality and requires resampling which can increase export times."
Why is my exported WAV bigger than the estimate Premiere showed? Because the estimate is not built for this case. Adobe describes Estimated File Size as "a rough estimate based on a constant bit rate video without audio or metadata," and says the estimate does not work particularly well with audio-only media.
Does Premiere ever write a WAV without being asked? Yes, in one documented place. For Render and Replace: "For audio-only clips, or if you select the audio portion of an AV clip, Premiere renders the audio clip into audio files in .wav format."
Can I bring the WAV back into the project?
Premiere's supported import formats table lists WAV | Windows Waveform and BWF | Broadcast WAVE format, so a round trip is on the official list. If the export fails instead, Media Encoder keeps a log — "AMEEncodingErrorLog.txt: for jobs that failed, or were stopped by the user."
Need the rest of the Premiere export troubleshooting path? Start with why an export fails to compile, or browse every step-by-step guide in how-to.
Settings quoted from Adobe's Premiere export settings reference and Adobe Media Encoder documentation on helpx.adobe.com, checked 16 September 2026. Adobe revises these pages — verify against the official documentation before relying on them.
