WAV to FLAC converter
Convert WAV to FLAC in your browser, with nothing uploaded.
Processed in your browser. This file is converted on your device and is never uploaded.
Converter
.wav up to 250 MB. You can also drag a file here.
No file selected.
About this tool
This page converts WAV to FLAC 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.
WAV is what a recording is before anything is done to it: samples written out one after another, exactly as captured. Microsoft and IBM defined it in 1991 and every recorder, editor, and interface since has read and written it.
A WAV is faithful and enormous, and outside an editor that combination has no advantage. Converting is how a session's output becomes something you can put on a phone, attach to a message, or hand to somebody who is not going to open it in a workstation.
FLAC is roughly half the size of WAV and gives back the identical recording, which is what makes it the sensible thing to archive to. Anything else can be made from it later without a second loss.
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
- .wav
- Output
- .flac (audio/flac)
- Output name
- The original name with the new extension, for example track.wav becomes track.flac.
- File size limit
- 250 MB
- Processing
- In your browser. The file is not uploaded.
WAV against FLAC
| Feature | WAV | FLAC |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | None — samples stored as recorded | Lossless — smaller, and identical when decoded |
| Three minutes, stereo | About 30 MB | About 12–20 MB |
| Artist and album tags | No | Yes |
| Plays in browsers | Yes | Yes |
| Introduced | 1991 | 2001 |
| Quality setting | Fixed by the recording | Fixed by the recording |
When you would want this
Keeping a recording without keeping the size
A lossless format gives back exactly what went in, so an archive made from it can produce any other format later without a second round of loss. It is the right place to convert to once, if the plan is to keep something.
How to use it
- Choose a WAV file, or drag one onto the box.
- There is no quality setting, because the output format does not throw anything away — its size is decided by the recording, not by a choice.
- 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
- WAV has no standard place for an artist or an album name, so tagging is inconsistent and often simply absent.
- WAV files are large, and many services and mail systems refuse them at the size a full track reaches.
- 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
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 WAV will not upload, or the service rejects it as too large.
An uncompressed stereo track runs to about ten megabytes a minute, which passes most size limits within a few minutes of audio.
That is the conversion you are on. A lossless output cuts it roughly in half; a lossy one cuts it by ten or more.
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
Exporting again from your editor
If the WAV came out of a recording session you still have, exporting from the project directly to the format you want skips a step and one decode. It also lets you fix the level or the fade you noticed while listening, which converting the export cannot.
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 FLAC 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.
- 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.
- Will converting my WAV change how it sounds?
- Only if the output format is lossy, and this page says which it is above. Converting WAV to FLAC is a size change and nothing else — decode the FLAC and you get the identical samples back, bit for bit.
- 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 WAV to FLAC converter?
- No, to all of it. WAV to FLAC 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 WAV to FLAC 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 WAV to FLAC 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 WAV to FLAC 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.