.flac files
.flac file
Free Lossless Audio Codec
Compressed audio that throws nothing away — about half the size of WAV, bit-for-bit identical.
What opens a .flac file
- Windows
- Media Player (built in), VLC, foobar2000
- macOS
- VLC, IINA, Audacity
- Linux
- Rhythmbox / Music (built in), VLC, Audacious
What a .flac file is
FLAC is an open, royalty-free lossless codec from the Xiph.Org Foundation, used for CD rips, high-resolution downloads and archiving. Decoding returns exactly the original samples, and the format carries proper tags and cover art, which WAV handles badly. Windows, Android and most modern players support it natively; Apple's Music app is the notable holdout, preferring its own ALAC.
Converting it
A .flac file is commonly converted to .mp3, .wav, .alac, .m4a or .ogg. It is a binary format, so a text editor will show unreadable characters rather than its contents.
Details
- Extension
- .flac
- Full name
- Free Lossless Audio Codec
- Category
- Audio
- MIME type
- audio/flac
- Created by
- Xiph.Org Foundation
- Format
- Binary
Common questions
- How do I open a .flac file?
- On Windows use Media Player (built in); on macOS use VLC; on Linux use Rhythmbox / Music (built in). Compressed audio that throws nothing away — about half the size of WAV, bit-for-bit identical.
- What is a .flac file?
- Free Lossless Audio Codec. FLAC is an open, royalty-free lossless codec from the Xiph.Org Foundation, used for CD rips, high-resolution downloads and archiving. Decoding returns exactly the original samples, and the format carries proper tags and cover art, which WAV handles badly.
- Can I convert a .flac file?
- Yes. It is usually converted to .mp3, .wav, .alac, .m4a or .ogg, either by exporting from one of the programs listed above or with a format converter.
Related pages
- .mp3 — MPEG-1 Audio Layer III The lossy audio format that made digital music portable, and still plays on ever
- .wav — Waveform Audio File Uncompressed audio — perfect quality, very large files, universal support.
- .m4a — MPEG-4 Audio Audio in an MP4 container — what iTunes, Voice Memos and most modern recorders p
- .aac — Advanced Audio Coding The successor to MP3 — better sound per byte, used by YouTube, Apple and broadca
- .ogg — Ogg Vorbis Audio The open, patent-free audio format used by Spotify, Wikipedia and countless game
- .opus — Opus Audio The modern low-latency codec behind WhatsApp voice notes, Discord and web calls.
- .mid — MIDI Sequence Not audio at all — a list of notes and instructions for a synthesiser to perform
- .m3u — Media Playlist A plain-text list of tracks or stream URLs — it holds no audio itself.
- .wma — Windows Media Audio Microsoft's music format from the Windows XP years, now legacy.
- .aiff — Audio Interchange File Format Apple's uncompressed audio format — the Mac equivalent of WAV.
- .m4b — MPEG-4 Audiobook An audiobook file that remembers your place and supports chapters.
- .amr — Adaptive Multi-Rate Audio The narrow-band speech codec behind old phone voice recordings and MMS messages.
Sources
- Media Types Registry — IANA
- Official vendor product documentation — At One Place