FLAC to MP3
Converts FLAC to MP3 in your browser, free, with no upload. FLAC is lossless and large; MP3 is lossy and roughly eight times smaller, and plays on everything. Output is 128 to 320 kbps, and a whole folder can be converted in one pass.
drop your FLAC here
or click to pick a file.
At a glance
| Input formats | .flac, plus most other audio files |
|---|---|
| Output format | MP3 (MPEG-1 Layer III) |
| Bitrates | 128, 192, 256 or 320 kbps, constant |
| Typical size change | About 8× smaller at 320 kbps |
| Sample rate | Preserved from the source |
| Batch | Yes — drop a folder's worth, get a zip back |
| Practical size limit | ~500 MB per file (browser memory) |
| Uploads your file | No — conversion runs entirely in the page |
What actually changes
FLAC is lossless: it compresses audio the way a zip file compresses a document, and decoding gives you back the original samples bit for bit. MP3 is lossy: it decides which parts of the signal you are least likely to notice and discards them permanently.
So this conversion is the point at which your audio stops being an archive and becomes a listening copy. A typical CD-quality FLAC runs around 700–900 kbps depending on how dense the music is; a 320 kbps MP3 of the same track is roughly an eighth of the size. That is a large saving, and for most listening on most equipment it is close to inaudible.
The important consequence is directional: keep the FLAC. You can make a new MP3 from a FLAC at any time, at any bitrate you like. You cannot go back the other way — decompressing to WAV gives you a big file, but a FLAC rebuilt from an MP3 only preserves what the MP3 kept.
When you'd want this
- Getting a ripped collection onto a phone. A 60 GB FLAC library becomes about 8 GB at 320 kbps, which is the difference between fitting and not fitting.
- Car stereos and USB sticks. FLAC support in head units is much better than it was, but still far from universal; MP3 works in essentially all of them.
- Bandcamp and HDtracks purchases, which usually arrive as FLAC and often need converting before they will sync to a phone or an older player.
- Sending music to someone else, where a 40 MB file per track is impractical and you have no idea what software they use.
- DJ software with large libraries, where MP3 keeps analysis times and disk use manageable.
Settings that matter here
Use 320 kbps if disk space allows. You are encoding from a lossless master, which is the best possible starting point, and 320 is where MP3 stops being the limiting factor for almost all listeners.
256 kbps is a defensible choice for a large library — the files are 20% smaller and the difference from 320 is genuinely marginal on portable equipment. Below that, on music with a lot of cymbals, strings or reverb tails, artefacts start to become findable if you go looking.
Drop a whole album in at once rather than converting track by track; the files come back as a zip with names preserved. If the album was ripped at inconsistent levels, run it through the normalizer first, since fixing levels after a lossy encode means encoding twice.
What you lose
The ability to go back. That is really the only meaningful loss, and it only matters if you delete the FLAC files afterwards — which is the one thing worth not doing. Storage is cheap; a re-rip is not always possible.
You also lose embedded tags and cover art, which live in the FLAC's Vorbis comment block and are not carried into the MP3. Expect to re-tag the output if you care about how it looks in a music app.
What you do not lose is anything audible for most practical purposes at 320 kbps from a lossless source. This is the best-case scenario for lossy encoding: a clean, uncompressed original and a high bitrate.
FAQ
How much smaller will the MP3 be?
Roughly eight times smaller at 320 kbps. A typical CD-quality FLAC track sits around 25–40 MB; the MP3 will be around 7–10 MB. At 192 kbps it is smaller again, around a twelfth of the original.
Will I be able to hear the difference?
At 320 kbps, from a lossless source, most people cannot on most equipment. Dense material with a lot of cymbals, applause or reverb is where any difference tends to show up first, and it takes careful listening on good headphones.
Should I delete the FLAC files afterwards?
No. The FLAC is your archive — you can generate a new MP3 from it at any bitrate, any time. Going the other way is impossible, because the discarded data is gone permanently.
Can I convert a whole album at once?
Yes. Drop all the tracks together and you get a zip back with the filenames preserved. Nothing is uploaded, so the size of the batch is limited only by your machine's memory.
Do the tags and album art transfer?
No. FLAC stores metadata in a Vorbis comment block that is not carried into the MP3, so you get audio plus the filename. Re-tag afterwards with something like Mp3tag or MusicBrainz Picard.