How to open a .flac file?

FLAC files can be opened by most music players and audio editors. You can also convert FLAC to other formats online using SquishConvert.

How to convert a .flac file?

Upload your .flac file to SquishConvert, select an output format, and click Convert. Your converted file will be ready to download in seconds.

Audio format

.flac

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.

MIME type

audio/flac

Developer

Xiph.Org Foundation

Introduced

2001

Advantages

Lossless — identical to original audio
50-60% smaller than WAV
Open source and royalty-free
Excellent metadata and tagging support

Limitations

Larger than lossy formats like MP3
Not supported by all portable devices
Slower to encode than lossy formats
iTunes/Apple Music prefer ALAC

When to use FLAC

Hi-fi music collections

Audio archival and preservation

CD ripping at full quality

Audiophile music streaming

Technical details

FLAC uses linear prediction and entropy coding for lossless compression. It supports up to 32 bits per sample, 655,350 Hz sample rate, and up to 8 channels. Average compression is 50-70% of PCM.