FLAC to WAV Converter
Decode FLAC to uncompressed PCM, with a 24-bit source staying 24-bit.
Up to 50 MB per file. Sign up free to convert files up to 100 MB.
| File name | Size | Convert to |
|---|
Checking files and selected output formats.
What to expect when converting FLAC to WAV
WAV is uncompressed, so its size is arithmetic rather than a guess: 44.1 kHz 16-bit stereo is 10.09 MB per minute, 48 kHz 16-bit stereo is 10.99 MB, and 48 kHz 24-bit stereo is 16.48 MB. Measured here, dense material grew 2.1x and a sparse recording grew 5.4x, the FLAC size varies, the WAV size does not.
Quality: None. FLAC is lossless, so decoding returns the original PCM samples exactly, and the bit depth is carried over, a 24-bit FLAC is written as 24-bit WAV, not truncated to 16.
Best for: DAWs and editors that will not import FLAC, burning an audio CD, and processing tools that expect raw PCM.
Avoid when: you are only storing or moving the files, FLAC holds the identical audio in roughly half the space.
Tip: Because the conversion is lossless in both directions, you can work on the WAV and re-encode to FLAC afterwards with nothing lost. Verify it yourself with ffmpeg -i file -f md5 - on the FLAC and the WAV: the hashes match.
FLAC to WAV: decompressing lossless audio
FLAC compresses PCM audio losslessly, the decompressed output is bit-for-bit identical to the original recording. The conversion reverses FLAC's prediction filters and entropy coding to reconstruct the exact PCM sample values, then writes them as uncompressed WAV. The result is 2-3× larger than the FLAC with exactly the same audio content. This is a perfectly reversible conversion, the WAV can be re-encoded to FLAC with identical results.
Convert FLAC to WAV for DAWs and audio editors that don't natively import FLAC, for burning audio CDs (Red Book standard requires PCM), or for audio processing tools that expect uncompressed PCM input.
FLAC vs WAV: Side-by-side
Technical comparison of the two formats, useful for deciding which to use, or for confirming what changes during conversion.
| Property | FLAC | WAV |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Free Lossless Audio Codec | Waveform Audio File Format |
| Year introduced | 2001 | 1991 |
| Developer / standard body | Xiph.Org | IBM / Microsoft |
| MIME type | audio/flac | audio/wav |
| File extension | .flac | .wav |
| Compression | Lossless | Uncompressed PCM (typically) |
| Color / data depth | N/A (audio) | N/A (audio) |
| Max dimensions / size | 8 channels × 32-bit × 192 kHz | 4 GB file size limit (RIFF) |
| Transparency | No | No |
| Animation | No | No |
| Standard / specification | Xiph.Org FLAC | Microsoft RIFF |
| Best for | Audiophile listening, lossless music archives | Studio recording, raw audio, professional editing |
Use FLAC when
- You're storing a music library and want lossless quality with half the disk
- You're archiving master recordings for the long term
- You want metadata (artist, album, artwork) travelling with the file
- You're distributing hi-fi audio through modern channels
Use WAV when
- You're actively editing in a DAW that prefers WAV
- You're handing files to another professional who expects WAV
- Every fraction of a second of decode CPU matters (unusual)
For working files during editing, WAV keeps you in the fast path. For anything you're storing longer than a session, FLAC gives you identical audio at half the storage. You can always convert FLAC back to a bit-identical WAV whenever a tool asks for it.