How do FLAC and OGGcompare? Here's everything you need to know to choose the right format — and how to convert between them.
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 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 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.
Need to switch formats? Convert for free with SquishConvert.