FLAC vs OGG
How do FLAC and OGGcompare? Here's everything you need to know to choose the right format — and how to convert between them.
.flac
Full guide →Free Lossless Audio Codec
FLAC is the leading open-source lossless audio format. It compresses audio files to about 50-60% of their original size without any quality loss — perfect for audiophiles and music archival.
.ogg
Full guide →Ogg Vorbis
OGG (Vorbis) is a free, open-source lossy audio format that offers better quality than MP3 at comparable bitrates. It's widely used in gaming, open-source software, and web audio.
| Specification | FLAC | OGG |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Free Lossless Audio Codec | Ogg Vorbis |
| Extension | .flac | .ogg |
| MIME type | audio/flac | audio/ogg |
| Category | Audio | Audio |
| Developer | Xiph.Org Foundation | Xiph.Org Foundation |
| Year introduced | 2001 | 2000 |
| Compression | Lossless | Lossy |
FLAC advantages
- Lossless — identical to original audio
- 50-60% smaller than WAV
- Open source and royalty-free
- Excellent metadata and tagging support
FLAC limitations
- Larger than lossy formats like MP3
- Not supported by all portable devices
- Slower to encode than lossy formats
- iTunes/Apple Music prefer ALAC
OGG advantages
- Better quality than MP3 at same bitrate
- Completely free and open source
- No patents or licensing fees
- Good streaming support
OGG limitations
- Less universal than MP3
- Not supported by Apple devices natively
- Smaller ecosystem of tools
- Less mainstream recognition
Which should you use?
FLAC preserves full audio quality with no compression artifacts. OGG offers much smaller files at the cost of some quality. For casual listening, OGG is fine. For production or archival, use FLAC.
Best uses for FLAC
Best uses for OGG
Convert between FLAC and OGG
Need to switch formats? Convert for free with SquishConvert.