FLAC to MP3 converter, free and no upload

Other conversions for a music file

M4A to MP3 Voice memos and iTunes files, for players that only know MP3.
WAV to MP3 Studio and recorder files down to something you can send.
MP3 to WAV For editors, CD burners and anything that asks for WAV.

Or open the audio converter for any other format, and the audio compressor when the problem is size rather than format.

FLAC is the format a music collection should be kept in and not one every player reads. Drop a track above and it comes back as an MP3 for the car, the old player or the phone, converted on this device.

What makes it across from FLAC

Title, artist, album, track number and year come across into the MP3. Embedded album art does not, so a player will show the track without a cover.
A CD-quality track comes out at about a fifth of the size: a 30 MB FLAC becomes about 6 MB.
The sound is very close to the FLAC but no longer identical, which is why the FLAC is the one to keep.

Making an MP3 from a FLAC

MP3 is already selected above.
Drop your FLAC file in, or click to browse.
Download the result. It never left your device.

One track at a time today. An album means dropping each track in turn — every one still converted on your own device.

A lossless library meets a car stereo

People who keep music in FLAC chose it on purpose: it is a perfect copy of the CD or the studio master at about half the size of a WAV. The trouble starts when it leaves the computer. Many car stereos, older iPods, the Apple Music app and a lot of cheaper Bluetooth speakers will not play it, and a whole album in FLAC can fill a phone that would hold five as MP3.

Keeping the FLAC and making an MP3 copy for the places that need one is the usual answer. This page makes the copy.

Hi-res files and what MP3 has room for

A FLAC is lossless in the strict sense: unpack it and you get the exact samples it was made from, bit for bit, the way a zip file gives back the exact document. That makes it the best possible source for an MP3 — there is no earlier round of compression for this one to stack on top of, unlike an M4A or another MP3. The 192 kbps written here is about as good as the format gets in practice.

Hi-res FLAC is where the two formats stop lining up. A 24-bit, 96 kHz download carries detail MP3 has no room for: MP3 stops at 48 kHz, so the track is resampled to 48 kHz first, and MP3 has no bit depth, so the extra eight bits simply do not carry over. That is not this page cutting corners — it is the ceiling of MP3 itself. If the hi-res detail is the point, the file is better left as FLAC.

Surround FLACs, which some concert and remaster releases come as, are folded down to stereo, since MP3 holds two channels.

FLAC to MP3, answered

Will I hear the difference between the FLAC and the MP3?

On a car stereo or ordinary earbuds, almost certainly not. On good headphones in a quiet room, some trained listeners can on some tracks. That is why the FLAC is worth keeping as the original.

Does the album art come with it?

No. Text tags are copied across, but the embedded cover image is left out. Most music apps can fetch or add artwork afterwards.

Why not convert to M4A instead?

If everything you play it on is Apple, M4A is a fine choice and is offered in the converter. MP3 is the pick when the player is unknown — a hire car, a friend’s speaker, an old player in a drawer.

Can it convert a whole album at once?

Not yet: one file at a time. Each track takes a few seconds on a recent computer.

FLAC to MP3 converter