.ogg files
.ogg file
Ogg Vorbis Audio
The open, patent-free audio format used by Spotify, Wikipedia and countless games.
What opens a .ogg file
- Windows
- VLC, Media Player (built in), foobar2000
- macOS
- VLC, IINA, Audacity
- Linux
- Rhythmbox / Music (built in), VLC, Audacious
- In a browser
- Any web browser
What a .ogg file is
Ogg is Xiph.Org's free container; a .ogg file almost always holds Vorbis audio, the royalty-free rival to MP3. It is standard in open-source software, browser audio and game engines, and Spotify streams Vorbis internally. Support is universal on Linux and Android and good in browsers, but Apple's built-in apps ignore it, so on a Mac you want VLC.
Converting it
A .ogg file is commonly converted to .mp3, .wav, .flac, .m4a or .opus. It is a binary format, so a text editor will show unreadable characters rather than its contents.
Details
- Extension
- .ogg
- Full name
- Ogg Vorbis Audio
- Category
- Audio
- MIME type
- audio/ogg
- Created by
- Xiph.Org Foundation
- Format
- Binary
Common questions
- How do I open a .ogg file?
- On Windows use VLC; on macOS use VLC; on Linux use Rhythmbox / Music (built in). The open, patent-free audio format used by Spotify, Wikipedia and countless games.
- What is a .ogg file?
- Ogg Vorbis Audio. Ogg is Xiph.Org's free container; a .ogg file almost always holds Vorbis audio, the royalty-free rival to MP3. It is standard in open-source software, browser audio and game engines, and Spotify streams Vorbis internally.
- Can I convert a .ogg file?
- Yes. It is usually converted to .mp3, .wav, .flac, .m4a or .opus, 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
- .flac — Free Lossless Audio Codec Compressed audio that throws nothing away — about half the size of WAV, bit-for-
- .aac — Advanced Audio Coding The successor to MP3 — better sound per byte, used by YouTube, Apple and broadca
- .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