Convert WAV to FLAC
Shrink a WAV file without losing any audio. The FLAC keeps your original bit depth, sample rate and channels.
Shrink a WAV file without losing any audio. The FLAC keeps your original bit depth, sample rate and channels.
WAV is the simplest way to store digital audio, and also one of the most wasteful. A minute of CD-quality stereo occupies about 10.1 MB, and a folder of session exports or field recordings can fill a drive fast. FLAC solves that without compromise: it compresses the audio the way an archive program compresses a document, and decoding it gives back precisely the samples you started with.
When you convert here, the FLAC keeps the bit depth of your WAV, so 16-bit stays 16-bit and 24-bit stays 24-bit. Sample rate and channel count are also untouched. You don't choose a compression level or anything else; the tool handles it.
| WAV format | Approx. MB per minute | Longest upload |
|---|---|---|
| 16-bit / 44.1 kHz stereo | 10.1 | about 5 minutes |
| 16-bit / 44.1 kHz mono | 5.0 | about 10 minutes |
| 24-bit / 48 kHz stereo | 16.5 | about 3 minutes |
| 24-bit / 96 kHz stereo | 33.0 | about 1.5 minutes |
This is a lossless-to-lossless conversion, so quality does not change at all. Every sample in the FLAC matches the WAV, bit for bit, at the original bit depth. There is no "quality setting" involved because there is nothing to trade away.
How much space you save depends on the material. Quiet, sparse recordings such as solo instruments, spoken word or tracks with long silences usually compress well toward the smaller end of the range. Dense, loud, heavily limited mixes compress less. A five-minute CD-quality stereo WAV of about 50 MB will typically come back somewhere between 20 and 35 MB.
Our FLAC output preserves 24-bit audio, but our WAV output is 16-bit. If you later need a 24-bit WAV from a 24-bit FLAC, decode it in a DAW or a dedicated FLAC tool instead of using FLAC to WAV here.
Some recorders and DAWs write 32-bit floating-point WAV. FLAC stores integer samples only, so a float file cannot be preserved exactly in FLAC. Keep those originals as WAV.
Field recorders often embed Broadcast WAV information such as timecode and scene notes. That data may not survive the move to FLAC, which matters for film and TV post-production. Keep the source files if your editor relies on it.
The Apple Music app on a Mac doesn't import FLAC into its library. For that workflow, the AIFF converter or simply keeping the WAV works better.
FLAC preserves whatever is in the WAV, including damage from earlier lossy encoding. If the WAV was exported from an MP3, the FLAC has MP3 quality in a bigger file, and WAV to MP3 may be the more sensible choice.
| WAV | FLAC | |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Waveform Audio File Format | Free Lossless Audio Codec |
| Compression | Uncompressed (PCM) | Lossless |
| Developed by | Microsoft and IBM | Xiph.Org Foundation |
| Introduced | 1991 | 2001 |
| File extension | .wav | .flac |
| Typically used for | Recording, editing, mastering, broadcast | Archiving CDs, hi-res music collections |
| Plays on | All desktop systems and audio editors; most phones and browsers | Android, Windows 10+, macOS, iOS Files app, VLC; not many older players |
| Our output | 16-bit PCM, original sample rate and channels | Lossless FLAC, source bit depth and sample rate kept |
Yes. FLAC compresses audio the way an archive compresses a document: when the file is decoded, every sample matches the original WAV exactly. Our FLAC output keeps the source bit depth, so 16-bit stays 16-bit and 24-bit stays 24-bit, and the sample rate and channel count are unchanged too.
Usually 40 to 70% of the WAV's size. Sparse material like speech, solo instruments or recordings with silence tends to compress more, while loud, dense mixes compress less. A five-minute CD-quality stereo WAV of about 50 MB will typically end up somewhere between 20 and 35 MB as FLAC.
It depends on the WAV format. At 16-bit, 44.1 kHz stereo, 50 MB is about 5 minutes; mono at the same settings allows about 10 minutes. A 24-bit, 48 kHz stereo file fits roughly 3 minutes, and 24-bit, 96 kHz stereo only about 1.5 minutes. Longer recordings need to be split before uploading.
No. The converter has no settings to pick, including compression level, bitrate or metadata. That doesn't affect quality, because every FLAC compression level decodes to the same audio; levels only change file size slightly and encoding speed. Just upload your WAV, select FLAC, convert and download.
Not exactly. FLAC stores integer samples only, so floating-point audio from some recorders and DAWs cannot be preserved bit for bit in FLAC. If your WAV files are 32-bit float, keep the originals. Standard 16-bit and 24-bit integer WAV files convert losslessly.
Need detailed information or want to set a different default format? Visit our specific converter pages: