MP3 to OGG converter
Convert MP3 to OGG in your browser, with nothing uploaded.
Processed in your browser. This file is converted on your device and is never uploaded.
Converter
.mp3 up to 250 MB. You can also drag a file here.
No file selected.
About this tool
This page converts MP3 to OGG in your browser. The file is read from your own device, decoded and re-encoded by code running on it, and handed back as a download. It is never uploaded, because there is no conversion server here to upload it to.
MP3 is the format most people mean when they say audio file. It arrived in 1993, it was what made music small enough to move around before broadband existed, and thirty years later there is still no player, phone, car stereo, or cheap MP3 stick that refuses one.
Almost nobody converts away from MP3 for quality, because there is none to gain. The reasons are size and openness: a more efficient codec stores the same three minutes in less room, and a format free of MP3's history is easier to build on.
At the same file size OGG generally sounds better than MP3, and it carries tags properly. Every current browser plays it.
Audio conversion needs a real codec, so the first conversion in a session downloads FFmpeg compiled to WebAssembly — a few megabytes, fetched once and then reused. It is the same file for every visitor and it arrives before you have chosen anything, so it says nothing about your recording. Everything after that happens on your device.
Supported formats and limits
- Input
- .mp3
- Output
- .ogg (audio/ogg)
- Output name
- The original name with the new extension, for example track.mp3 becomes track.ogg.
- File size limit
- 250 MB
- Processing
- In your browser. The file is not uploaded.
MP3 against OGG
| Feature | MP3 | OGG |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | Lossy — detail is discarded permanently | Lossy — detail is discarded permanently |
| Three minutes, stereo | About 3–7 MB | About 3–6 MB |
| Artist and album tags | Yes | Yes |
| Plays in browsers | Yes | Yes |
| Introduced | 1993 | 2000 |
| Quality setting | You choose it | You choose it |
When you would want this
Fitting more onto a device
The output stores the same recording in less room than the input needs. Whether that costs anything depends on the format — a lossless one gives back an identical file, a lossy one trades detail most people cannot hear on ordinary equipment. If a phone or a memory card is full, this is where the space is.
How to use it
- Choose a MP3 file, or drag one onto the box.
- Pick a quality. Higher sounds better and produces a larger file; the middle setting is what most people want.
- Select convert and wait. The first run also loads the audio engine, so it takes longer than the ones after it.
- Download the result. Nothing is kept: leaving or resetting the page releases it.
Limitations
- Both MP3 and OGG are lossy, so this conversion compresses an already-compressed recording. The result is slightly worse than the input no matter which quality you pick, and converting back and forth repeatedly makes it audibly worse.
- MP3 is lossy, so the detail its encoder discarded is not in the file and no conversion can put it back.
- MP3 stores no true gapless marker, so tracks meant to run together may have a short silence between them.
- The audio engine is a few megabytes and is downloaded the first time you convert something in a session. On a slow connection that wait is real, and it happens before the conversion starts rather than during it.
- One file at a time. Audio conversion is heavy enough that running several at once is a good way to exhaust a phone's memory.
- A long recording takes a long time. Converting an hour of audio runs for minutes rather than seconds, and the tab has to stay open while it does.
Common problems
The result sounds duller or thinner than the original.
A lossy encoder was run over audio a lossy encoder had already been run over, and each pass removes something.
Convert from the least-processed copy you have rather than from an export of an export, and choose the highest quality setting.
My player says the file is invalid.
Some hardware players read only a narrow set of formats, and a valid file in a format they do not know looks broken to them.
Convert to MP3 instead. Nothing in use refuses one, which is the whole reason the format is still here.
The MP3 plays but its length is wrong, or it will not seek.
Variable-bitrate MP3s written without a proper header make players guess the duration, and the guess is often badly wrong.
Convert it anyway. The output is written with a correct duration, which is one of the quieter reasons re-encoding an old MP3 is worth doing.
It is taking far longer than expected.
The first conversion of a session downloads the audio engine, and long recordings take proportionally long to process.
Leave the tab open and in the foreground. A background tab is throttled by the browser and will crawl.
Other ways to do this
Re-tagging instead of re-encoding
If what you actually want is to fix the artist, album, or track number, a tag editor changes those without touching the audio at all. Converting to fix metadata re-encodes the whole file and loses a little sound for no reason.
A desktop audio application
Audacity, foobar2000, and similar programs convert audio and do a great deal else besides. They are the better choice for batches of hundreds of files or for work that needs editing as well as conversion. They are a download and an installation, which is the trade.
FFmpeg on your own machine
This page runs FFmpeg compiled to WebAssembly. The native command-line version does the same conversion faster, handles thousands of files in a loop, and exposes every option there is. If you already have it installed, use it.
Not converting at all
Check first whether the thing you are trying to play actually refuses the format. Modern phones, browsers, and media software read far more than they did a decade ago, and a conversion you do not need costs quality for nothing.
Frequently asked questions
- Does converting to OGG lose quality?
- It depends on the format you are converting to, and this page says which case it is in the limitations above. A lossless output stores what it is given exactly; a lossy one discards detail to be smaller. Neither can recover anything the source had already lost.
- Which quality setting should I choose?
- The middle one, unless you have a reason. It is indistinguishable from the original for most listeners on most equipment. Choose the highest if the file is going into a library you intend to keep, and the lowest for speech, which survives compression far better than music.
- Are the artist and album kept?
- Where the output format has somewhere to put them, yes. WAV does not, so those pages say so plainly. Cover art is more fragile than text tags and is the first thing to be dropped.
- Is there a limit on how long the recording can be?
- The limit is on file size rather than duration, and it is stated above. In practice a long recording is limited by patience and by memory: everything happens on your device, so an hour-long file will take minutes and will use real memory while it does.
- Can I convert back the other way?
- The file will convert back, but quality does not return with it. Anything a lossy encoder discarded is not in the file to be recovered, so a round trip leaves you with something worse than where you started rather than back where you began.
- Is there any point converting an MP3 at all?
- For quality, no — nothing is recovered and a little is lost. For size, yes: a modern codec reaches the same perceived quality in fewer bytes. For compatibility, only if the destination refuses MP3, which is rare enough to be worth checking first.
- Is the result the same as what a desktop program would produce?
- Yes. This is FFmpeg, the same software most desktop converters use underneath, compiled to run in the browser. The encoders are identical, so the output is too. What differs is speed, because a browser sandbox is slower than native code.
- Do I need to install anything or create an account to use MP3 to OGG converter?
- No, to all of it. MP3 to OGG converter runs inside the browser you already have, with no sign-up, no download, no watermark on the result, and no cap on how many files you convert. There is nothing to uninstall afterwards either, because nothing was installed.
- Does MP3 to OGG converter work offline?
- After the first conversion, yes. Audio work needs the FFmpeg engine, which is a separate download of a few tens of megabytes fetched the first time you convert something. Once your browser has cached it the work is entirely local and a connection is no longer needed.
- How large a file can MP3 to OGG converter handle?
- The limit is 250 MB. It is a deliberate one rather than a technical ceiling: the real constraint is memory, and a file that decodes to more than the device can hold fails in a way that is hard to explain. Phones run out well before laptops do, which is why the limit is set where it is.
- Can I convert several files at once with MP3 to OGG converter?
- Not here: this tool takes one file at a time, because what it does depends on choices you make about that particular file. Convert them one after another, or look at the batch converters in the same category, which are built for a folder at a time.