How to use it· 4 steps
- Drop your FLAC file into the box above, or click it to choose one.
- Leave “Convert to” on MP3 and pick a bitrate — 256 or 320 kbps for music, since the source is lossless; choose Mono for speech.
- Press Convert audio. The first conversion downloads a 32 MB engine; after that it starts at once.
- Listen to the result on the page, then press Download to save the MP3.
Step by step
How to use the flac to mp3 converter
- 1Drop your FLAC file into the box above, or click it to choose one.
- 2Leave “Convert to” on MP3 and pick a bitrate — 256 or 320 kbps for music, since the source is lossless; choose Mono for speech.
- 3Press Convert audio. The first conversion downloads a 32 MB engine; after that it starts at once.
- 4Listen to the result on the page, then press Download to save the MP3.
What is inside a FLAC file
FLAC, released by Josh Coalson in 2001 and now maintained by Xiph.Org, compresses audio the way a ZIP compresses a document: perfectly. Decode a FLAC and you get back the exact samples that went in. It typically shrinks CD audio to 50–70% of WAV size, which is why it became the standard for music archives and lossless downloads.
Many FLACs are 'hi-res': 24-bit at 96 or even 192 kHz. Those files are three to six times larger than a CD-quality FLAC, and that is usually what prompts a conversion — a 2 GB album does not fit on a phone the way a 120 MB one does.
Why convert FLAC to MP3?
FLAC files usually arrive as one of three things: a lossless purchase from Bandcamp, Qobuz, HDtracks or a similar store; a CD ripped with a tool such as Exact Audio Copy, XLD or dBpoweramp; or a recording exported from a DAW for archiving.
Apple's Music app, many car stereos and older portable players do not play FLAC at all.
CD-quality FLAC averages roughly 700–1,000 kbps, so the same phone holds three to four times as much music as 256 kbps MP3.
Burning a mixed playlist or building a USB stick for the car, where MP3 is the safe common denominator.
What happens to the sound
Converting from a lossless source is the best case for MP3. The encoder starts from the exact studio or CD samples, so at 256 or 320 kbps the result is about as good as MP3 gets. What you give up — mostly very high-frequency detail and some stereo precision — is hard to hear outside a quiet room and good headphones.
Keep the FLACs as your archive. A lossless file can be converted again to whatever the next device needs; an MP3 converted back to FLAC is a large file that still sounds like an MP3.
On size: FLAC is about 5–7 MB per minute at CD quality, much more for hi-res. The MP3's size depends only on the bitrate you pick — roughly 1 MB a minute at 128 kbps, 1.4 MB at 192 and 2.4 MB at 320 — so it is easy to predict before you convert.
Settings that suit a FLAC source
Use 256 or 320 kbps stereo for music; the point of having FLAC was quality, and the MP3 should not squander it.
For 88.2, 96 or 192 kHz files, set the sample rate to 44.1 kHz. MP3 cannot store more than 48 kHz, and 44.1 kHz is the rate CDs, phones and car systems expect. Bit depth is not a setting here: MP3 has no fixed bit depth, so 24-bit sources lose nothing extra.
Common Vorbis comment tags — title, artist, album, track number, date, genre — are written into the MP3's ID3 tag. Embedded cover art is not copied.
Problems you may run into with FLAC
Tags such as album artist or disc number are missing — FLAC's Vorbis comments map cleanly for the common fields — title, artist, album, track, date — but unusual custom fields may have no ID3 equivalent and are skipped.
Gapless albums now have tiny gaps — MP3 adds a few milliseconds of padding to each file. Players that read the LAME gapless header hide it; some car stereos do not.
The browser shows no duration for the FLAC — a few browsers' preview players are fussy about FLAC; the conversion still runs, because ffmpeg reads it independently.
Your FLAC stays on your device
Most audio converters on the web work by upload: the FLAC goes to a server, is converted there, and waits on that server for you to collect it.
This converter brings the conversion to the file instead. ffmpeg, compiled to WebAssembly, runs in the tab; the FLAC is read locally and the MP3 is produced on your device.
You can check it: the only large request in the network panel is the 32 MB engine, fetched once, and none carries your file.
Answers
Frequently asked questions
Is FLAC to MP3 a big quality loss?
At 256–320 kbps, not one most people can hear in normal listening. It is a real, measurable loss of information, though, so keep the FLAC as your master copy.
What about 24-bit 96 kHz FLAC?
It converts fine. Set the sample rate to 44.1 kHz for music; MP3 tops out at 48 kHz, and the extra resolution of a hi-res file cannot survive the conversion either way.
Can I convert a whole album at once?
This page converts one file at a time, entirely in your browser. For a large library, a desktop batch tool is quicker — the trade-off is installing software.
Is this FLAC to MP3 converter private?
Yes — nothing is sent anywhere. ffmpeg runs inside the page, so the audio never leaves your computer or phone.
Why is there a pause before converting begins?
On first use the browser fetches the 32 MB conversion engine. It stays loaded while the tab is open, so the next file starts straight away.