FLAC → WAV
FLAC to WAV converter
FLAC is decompressed to the exact PCM samples it was made from. This conversion is genuinely lossless: the WAV is bit-identical to the audio that was encoded, only larger.
…or drag files and folders here. Add as many as you like — everything is processed on this device.
.aif .aifc .aiff .flac .wav .wave
In one paragraph
This is one of the few conversions on this site with no quality cost whatsoever. FLAC is lossless compression, like ZIP for audio: decoding returns precisely the samples that went in, verified against an MD5 checksum stored in the file. The WAV you get out is the original PCM.
You do it because software insists. Hardware samplers, older Pro Tools, CD-burning tools, broadcast playout systems, and most scientific and forensic audio tools want RIFF PCM and nothing else. Sonic Batch decodes FLAC locally and writes WAV at your chosen depth.
Does this change the audio quality?
Bit-exact when the output bit depth matches the source. A 24-bit FLAC written to a 16-bit WAV is dithered down and is no longer bit-identical — the page reports that per file.
- Keep the bit depth the same as the source to stay bit-exact. Reducing 24-bit to 16-bit is a real, if small, quality change.
- The WAV will be roughly 1.6–2× the size of the FLAC.
- WAV cannot exceed 4 GB. Very long 24-bit/96 kHz recordings hit that ceiling and are rejected before conversion.
A worked example
Burning an audio CD from a FLAC rip
- Drop the album’s FLAC files in, in track order — the queue preserves the order you added them.
- Set Bit depth 16 and Sample rate 44100, which is the Red Book CD standard.
- Confirm the per-file notes: hi-res tracks will report the downconversion.
- Download the ZIP and point your burning software at the extracted WAVs.
Match the source exactly unless the destination forces otherwise
Read the source bit depth and sample rate in the file panel and mirror them. A 16-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC written to a 16-bit/44.1 kHz WAV is a perfect copy. Only convert down when the destination requires it — CD burning needs 16-bit/44.1 kHz, and some samplers need 16-bit — and expect the page to flag it as no longer bit-exact.
Supported formats, limits and browser notes
Sonic Batch decodes with the browser when it can (faster, no engine download) and falls back to the self-hosted WebAssembly engine when it cannot. Every combination below works in every listed browser; the column only tells you which decoder does the work.
| Input | What it is | Chrome | Firefox | Safari | iOS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FLAC | Lossless compression, typically 50–60% of WAV size, bit-identical when decoded. | Native | Native | Native | Native |
| AIFF | Apple’s uncompressed PCM format — the WAV equivalent for Logic and Pro Tools. | Partial | Partial | Native | Native |
| WAV | Raw PCM samples with a small header. Perfect fidelity, roughly 10 MB per stereo minute. | Native | Native | Native | Native |
| Output | Encoder | Bitrates / depth | Sample rates | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WAV | pcm_s16le | 16, 24, 32-bit | 8–96 kHz | Yes |
- Max per file
- 400.0 MB
- Max per queue
- 4.00 GB
- Max duration
- 4:00:00
- Max archive
- 1.50 GB
These are enforced ceilings, checked before any decoding starts, not measured maximums — a file over the limit is rejected rather than allowed to exhaust the tab’s memory. Real-world capacity is lower on older phones, which is why the scheduler runs one file at a time on iOS and Safari.
Where your audio goes
Nowhere. Your file is read from disk into this browser tab with the File API, decoded and encoded by code running in that same tab, and handed back to you as a download. It is never transmitted.
That is a structural property of the application, not a policy promise: there are no API routes, no server actions and no third-party processing services in this project, so there is nothing capable of receiving a file. The page’s Content-Security-Policy also restricts connections to this origin, and the automated test suite includes a browser test that fails if any network request during import, preview, conversion or download carries media bytes.
The trade-off, stated plainly:results live in your tab’s memory until you download them. Closing or reloading the page discards them. There is nothing on a server to recover, because nothing was ever put there.
Troubleshooting
A file failed with a checksum or decode error.
FLAC verifies its own contents, so a truncated or corrupted download fails loudly instead of producing quiet garbage. Re-download that track and use Retry failed.
The WAV is bigger than I expected.
FLAC typically compresses to 50–60% of PCM, so decompressing roughly doubles the size. That is the format working as intended.
My 24-bit FLAC produced a 16-bit WAV.
The bit depth control was set to 16. Change it to 24 to keep the conversion bit-exact.
Frequently asked questions
Is FLAC to WAV lossless?
Yes, completely — provided the output bit depth and sample rate match the source. FLAC decoding is mathematically exact.
Why is FLAC smaller if it is lossless?
It uses linear prediction and entropy coding to describe the same samples more compactly, exactly as a ZIP file does for documents. Nothing is discarded.
Should I keep the FLAC files?
Yes. They hold the same audio in half the space. Convert to WAV when a tool needs it, then delete the WAV.
Can I verify the conversion was exact?
The FLAC decoder checks the stream’s MD5 as it decodes, and Sonic Batch validates the output container, duration, sample rate and channel count before marking the job complete.