Step-by-step instructions
- 1
Open the FormatDrop audio converter
Go to formatdrop.com/audio-converter in any browser. The converter uses FFmpeg compiled to WebAssembly and runs entirely in your browser — your audio files stay on your device. No account required.
Go to converter - 2
Upload your WAV file
Drop your WAV file onto the upload zone, or click to browse. WAV files can be large — a 1-hour audio session at 24-bit/96 kHz can be 2+ GB. Since processing is local, there's no file size limit. Processing speed depends on your CPU and file size.
- 3
Select FLAC as the output format
Choose FLAC from the format selector. FLAC is lossless — the converter uses FLAC's DEFLATE-based compression to reduce file size without removing any audio data. The audio in the output FLAC file is bit-for-bit identical to the WAV source.
- 4
Set FLAC compression level (optional)
FLAC has compression levels 0–8. Level 0 is fastest to encode but largest file; level 8 is slowest but smallest file. The audio quality is identical at all levels — the difference is only file size and encoding time. Level 5 (default) is the best balance: good compression with fast encoding.
- 5
Download your FLAC file
When conversion completes, download the FLAC file. Verify it plays correctly in your preferred audio player (VLC, foobar2000, Apple Music, Windows Media Player). The FLAC file will be 40–60% smaller than the WAV while sounding identical.
Why convert WAV to FLAC?
WAV is the standard lossless format that comes out of digital audio workstations, recording equipment, and many professional tools. It's simple, universal, and uncompressed — which is why it's large. FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) achieves the same bit-perfect audio quality through efficient lossless compression, similar to how a ZIP file compresses data without losing any of it. The typical FLAC compression is 40–60%: a 100 MB WAV file becomes 40–60 MB as FLAC. For large music archives, this is significant — a 1 TB WAV archive becomes 400–600 GB in FLAC with no quality trade-off. FLAC is supported by virtually every serious music player: foobar2000, VLC, Winamp, Apple Music (via ALAC), Spotify (supports FLAC upload), Tidal, Qobuz, and most hi-fi streaming services. Car audio systems have increasingly added FLAC support. Android and iOS support FLAC natively. FLAC is the de facto standard for lossless music archiving.
Your files never leave your device
FormatDrop runs the conversion engine entirely inside your browser using WebAssembly. No file upload. No server. Nothing stored. You can verify this by opening DevTools → Network tab and watching: zero upload requests.
Frequently asked questions
Does WAV to FLAC conversion lose quality?
What's the difference between WAV and FLAC?
Should I store my music as WAV or FLAC?
No account. No upload. Works in any browser.