Convert FLAC to WAV in your browser

FLAC is lossless, so the PCM that comes out is the audio that went in. Expect roughly twice the size, and read the note below if your FLAC is 24-bit.

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FLAC to WAV options

Sample rate (Hz) 48000

Leave this alone. We never upsample, so a 44.1 kHz FLAC stays at 44.1 and a 48 kHz one stays at 48; the setting only ever takes a rate down. Lowering it is the one control here that genuinely discards audio, which defeats the point of starting from a lossless file.

Downmix to mono Off

One channel instead of two, which halves the file and cannot be undone. Almost never right for music, and reasonable for a single-microphone spoken recording that happens to have been archived in stereo.

Strip tags and cover art Off

Off by default. WAV can hold the title and artist in a LIST INFO chunk, and there is no size argument for dropping them: a few hundred bytes of text against tens of megabytes of PCM. Embedded cover art is the one part worth removing.

Convert to a target size Off

PCM size is rate times channels times 2 bytes times duration, so we pick the highest sample rate that fits your figure given the mono setting. If even 16 kHz mono cannot reach it, we say so rather than quietly missing.

How to convert FLAC to WAV

01

Drop the FLAC files

A track, an album or a folder of stems. Nothing is uploaded, which matters here because PCM output is large and an upload would be the slow part.

02

Leave the sample rate where it is

The rate follows your source, since we never upsample and only apply the setting when it is lower. Changing it is the only control on this page that removes audio.

03

Save the WAV

A plain 16-bit PCM WAV with a standard RIFF header, which Audacity, Reaper, Pro Tools, Logic, Premiere, hardware samplers and CD burning software all read directly.

Is FLAC to WAV really lossless?

For a 16-bit FLAC, yes, completely. FLAC compresses the way ZIP does: it finds a shorter way to write the same numbers and the decoder reproduces them exactly. Converting one to WAV unpacks those numbers into raw PCM, which is why the file roughly doubles in size and why not one sample is different. If you convert a 16-bit FLAC to WAV and back again, you get the FLAC you started with.

For a 24-bit FLAC, this page writes 16-bit PCM, and that is a real reduction in bit depth. It affects the noise floor rather than anything you would describe as detail, and the great majority of listening is done from 16-bit files, but it is not lossless and we would rather say so on the page than have you find out from a spectrum analyser. If you are handing stems to a mastering engineer or archiving a session, keep the FLAC as the master.

The reason to do this at all is that WAV needs no decoder. Hardware samplers, older CD burning software, some broadcast and voiceover submission specifications, and a surprising amount of embedded and game audio tooling all want plain PCM in a RIFF header and nothing else. FLAC is the better format to store music in and WAV is the one that always opens, which is the same trade the rest of the conversion pages here make, minus the quality loss.

FLAC to WAV FAQ

Does converting FLAC to WAV lose quality?

Not from a 16-bit FLAC: the samples are reproduced exactly and the only change is that they are stored uncompressed. From a 24-bit FLAC there is one change, because this tool writes 16-bit PCM, so the bit depth comes down. The sample rate never goes up and only comes down if you ask it to.

Why is the WAV about twice the size?

Because FLAC was doing its job. Lossless compression typically takes 40 to 60% off PCM depending on the music, and unpacking it puts that back. Nothing has been added to the audio; the bytes are simply no longer compressed.

Will my 24-bit FLAC stay 24-bit?

No. The output is 16-bit PCM, which is CD depth and what nearly all playback and editing runs at. If the extra depth matters for the work you are doing, keep the FLAC as your master and convert a copy for whatever needs the WAV.

Can I burn the result to a CD?

Yes, if the source is 44.1 kHz, which most music FLACs are. Red Book audio is 16-bit PCM at 44.1 kHz stereo, which is exactly what this writes from such a file. A 48 kHz source stays at 48 kHz here, and your burning software will resample it.

Can I convert an album or a folder of stems at once?

Yes. Drop the folder and every file queues with the same settings. Since nothing is uploaded, the practical limit is your own disk, which is the thing to watch: PCM is around 10MB a minute in stereo.

Are my FLAC files uploaded to convert them?

No. The FLAC is decoded and the WAV is written by your own browser, in this tab. There is no upload endpoint in the site for a file to go to, which you can check in your network tools: convert something and watch that no request carries it. Disconnect from the network after the page loads and it still works.