Convert M4A to FLAC
Free online converter for M4A files. Lossless compression with roughly half the size of WAV. Nothing to install, no watermark, and every file is deleted automatically.
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Upload a M4A file to convert it to FLAC. Up to 3 files at once, 100 MB each.
Free · up to 3 files · 100 MB each · files deleted automatically after 1 hour.
About M4A and FLAC
M4A .m4a
An MPEG-4 container holding audio only — usually AAC, sometimes lossless ALAC. The extension tells you the wrapper, not the contents.
Good for
- Rich tagging, including chapters and artwork
- Holds either lossy AAC or lossless ALAC
- The standard for iTunes and Apple Music files
Trade-offs
- The extension alone does not tell you the quality inside
- Support outside Apple platforms is inconsistent
audio/mp4
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
M4A and FLAC side by side
| M4A | FLAC | |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | Container — usually lossy AAC | Lossless |
| Typically used for | Apple audio, audiobooks, podcasts | Archiving, high-fidelity libraries |
What changes when you convert M4A to FLAC
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 FLAC will contain
The output is FLAC — which is lossless, so there is no bitrate to set — the size is decided entirely by how compressible your audio turns out to be, usually landing near half of the equivalent WAV while preserving every sample exactly.
Quality cannot come back
M4A already discarded detail permanently, and FLAC stores exactly what it is given. The result will be considerably larger while sounding identical to the M4A you started from — lossless preserves, it does not restore. That is still the right move if you are about to edit, because further saves will not degrade it again.
Tags may not survive intact
M4A stores its metadata as MP4 atoms, and FLAC uses Vorbis comments. 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.