HexaConverter
flacmp3

Convert FLAC to MP3

Free online converter for FLAC files. The most widely compatible lossy audio format. Nothing to install, no watermark, and every file is deleted automatically.

Drag and drop your files

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Upload a FLAC file to convert it to MP3. Up to 3 files at once, 100 MB each.

Free · up to 3 files · 100 MB each · files deleted automatically after 1 hour.

About FLAC and MP3

FLAC .flac

Lossless compression for audio. Roughly half the size of WAV, and it decodes back to the original samples exactly — nothing is approximated.

Good for

  • Perfect reconstruction — identical to the source
  • Around 50–60% of the size of WAV
  • Full tagging, and an open royalty-free format

Trade-offs

  • Still far larger than MP3 or AAC
  • Not supported by every portable player or car stereo

audio/flac

MP3 .mp3

The format that made digital music portable. Lossy, thirty years old, and still the safest choice when you have no idea what will play the file.

Good for

  • Plays on essentially every device ever made
  • Small files at listenable quality
  • Patents long expired, so support is everywhere

Trade-offs

  • Lossy — detail is gone permanently
  • Beaten by AAC and Opus at the same bitrate
  • No transparency about what was discarded

audio/mpeg

FLAC and MP3 side by side

FLAC compared with MP3
FLACMP3
CompressionLosslessLossy
Typically used forArchiving, high-fidelity librariesMusic, podcasts, anything that must simply play

What changes when you convert FLAC to MP3

This is a re-encode, not a repackage

Some tools can move a stream into a different container untouched when the codecs happen to line up. We do not — every job here is decoded and encoded again, so the conversion takes time in proportion to the length of the file and costs a small amount of quality even where a repackage would have been possible. In exchange the output is predictable: it plays everywhere, rather than inheriting whatever the source happened to contain.

What your MP3 will contain

The output is MP3 — written by LAME, the reference MP3 encoder, at 192 kbps by default. That sits comfortably above the point most people stop hearing a difference on ordinary equipment, and the bitrate is adjustable from 32 up to 320 if you want the file smaller or the quality nearer the source.

This step is irreversible

FLAC holds every sample; MP3 keeps a close approximation. The file gets dramatically smaller, and converting back later will not undo it. Keep the FLAC original if it is a master you will work from again.

Tags may not survive intact

FLAC stores its metadata as Vorbis comments, and MP3 uses ID3. Standard fields such as title, artist and album normally map across. Anything without an equivalent on the other side — unusual custom fields, some ratings and play counts, occasionally embedded artwork — has nowhere to go. Check the tags before deleting the original if your library depends on them.

FLAC to MP3 questions