MP3, WAV and FLAC: which format should you convert to?
WAV stores uncompressed PCM: 16-bit/44.1 kHz stereo takes 10.58 MB per minute, 24-bit/48 kHz takes 17.28 MB. FLAC stores exactly the same samples, typically in 50–70% of the WAV size, and carries tags and cover art. MP3 is lossy: at 128 kbps a minute is 0.96 MB, at 320 kbps 2.4 MB, and it plays on practically every device.
Rule of thumb: keep masters and archives in FLAC, use WAV when an editor, CD burner or hardware sampler asks for it, and make MP3 copies for phones, cars and sharing. Converting lossy MP3 or M4A to WAV or FLAC never restores quality; it only makes a larger file.
Recommended settings by use
- Music archive: FLAC, original sample rate and bit depth, level 5.
- Portable music: MP3 256 or 320 kbps stereo.
- Podcast or speech: MP3 mono 64–96 kbps.
- Audiobook: MP3 mono 64 kbps.
- Game loops and background music: WAV, or MP3 (the gapless header keeps loops seamless).
- Editing in a DAW: WAV 24-bit at the original rate.
- Audio CD: WAV 16-bit, 44.1 kHz, stereo.
"Original" sample rate is the default because resampling is the one step that always changes every sample. Choose 44.1 or 48 kHz only when a device or platform requires it.
How tags and cover art are carried over
Titles, artists, albums, track and disc numbers, year, genre, comments and front covers are read from ID3v2 (MP3), Vorbis comments (FLAC), iTunes atoms (M4A) and RIFF INFO (WAV), then written in the target's native format: ID3v2.3 with UTF-16 text for MP3, so Korean, Japanese and accented titles display correctly in Windows and older car stereos, and Vorbis comments plus a PICTURE block for FLAC.
WAV has no standard place for cover art or album artist, so those are left out and the result says so. Ogg and Opus tags are not read yet. Turn "Keep tags" off to produce clean files without any metadata.
Proof that a lossless conversion is bit-exact
FLAC files contain an MD5 checksum of the decoded audio. When you convert FLAC to WAV or WAV to FLAC without changing rate, channels or bit depth, the converter computes the same checksum for the output and compares it with the source. A match earns the "Bit-exact lossless" badge: every sample is identical, not merely "sounds the same".
Browsers decode 16-bit audio to floating point with slightly different scaling (some divide negative and positive samples differently), and a naive conversion back is off by one in about 0.4% of samples. The converter detects which scaling the browser used for each file and reverses it exactly, which is why the checksum can match.
Privacy, file size limits and browser support
Files are decoded and encoded inside this browser tab. The only downloads are the MP3 and FLAC encoders themselves, fetched once from this site; your audio is never uploaded, so there is no daily quota and no file-size cap other than your device's memory.
A decoded file needs about 21 MB of memory per minute (44.1 kHz stereo). The converter warns above roughly 47 minutes and stops above about 85 minutes on desktop; on phones the limits are about 14 and 33 minutes. Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari decode WAV, FLAC, MP3 and M4A; AIFF is read by the converter itself; Apple Lossless (ALAC) decodes only in Safari; WMA is not supported.