Audio File Format Guide

Compare audio formats side-by-side. Find the right format for streaming, archiving, editing, or sharing.

Format Comparison Table

Format	Type	Quality	Size (1 min stereo)	Best For
WAV	Uncompressed	Lossless	~10 MB	Editing, mastering
FLAC	Compressed	Lossless	~5 MB	Archiving, audiophile
ALAC	Compressed	Lossless	~5 MB	Apple ecosystem
MP3	Compressed	Lossy	~1.5 MB @128k	Sharing, compatibility
AAC	Compressed	Lossy	~1.2 MB @128k	Streaming, mobile
OGG	Compressed	Lossy	~1.3 MB @128k	Web, games, open source
OPUS	Compressed	Lossy	~0.8 MB @96k	VoIP, streaming, low bitrate
AIFF	Uncompressed	Lossless	~10 MB	Mac editing
WMA	Compressed	Lossy	~1.5 MB @128k	Windows legacy

Format Finder

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FFmpeg Quick Commands

Common conversion commands using FFmpeg:

# WAV to FLAC (lossless)
ffmpeg -i input.wav -c:a flac output.flac

# WAV to MP3 320kbps
ffmpeg -i input.wav -c:a libmp3lame -b:a 320k output.mp3

# Any to AAC 256kbps
ffmpeg -i input.wav -c:a aac -b:a 256k output.m4a

# FLAC to OGG Vorbis
ffmpeg -i input.flac -c:a libvorbis -q:a 6 output.ogg

# MP3 to Opus (speech)
ffmpeg -i input.mp3 -c:a libopus -b:a 64k output.opus

Lossy vs Lossless

Lossless formats (WAV, FLAC, ALAC) preserve every sample of the original recording. Lossy formats (MP3, AAC, OGG) remove inaudible data to achieve smaller files. Converting lossy to lossless does NOT restore lost data. Always keep a lossless master copy and generate lossy versions from it.