Maximum-fidelity converter

Convert FLAC to MP3 without losing quality

This page runs the converter in its highest-fidelity setting: your FLAC is decoded losslessly, re-encoded at 320 kbps — the maximum MP3 allows — and handed back with every tag and cover image intact. Play each result against the original before you keep it. Nothing is uploaded, and nothing is capped.

320 kbps by default
Lossless decode
A/B against the original
Tags & art kept
No upload, no limit

320 kbps — best quality, ~2.4 MB per minute

Drop FLAC files here, or click to browseDrop FLAC files here — encoded at 320 kbps on your device, nothing is uploaded

How to convert FLAC to MP3 without losing quality

Three steps, all in your browser — and a way to check the result with your own ears.

Add your FLAC files
Drop up to 20 .flac files onto the zone below. Each one is unpacked by your browser's FLAC decoder back to the exact samples the encoder originally compressed — FLAC is lossless, so this first step costs you nothing at all.
Leave the bitrate at 320 kbps
This page offers only 256 and 320 kbps, the two constant bitrates that are transparent to almost every listener on almost every track. 320 kbps is the maximum MP3 defines and the default here; drop to 256 kbps only if you need roughly 20% smaller files.
Download and compare for yourself
Each finished MP3 has a play button next to it, so you can A/B it against the FLAC before you commit. Tags and cover art are already embedded, and your FLAC originals are untouched on disk — keep them as the archive master.

What “without losing quality” actually means

Worth being straight about this: FLAC is lossless and MP3 is not, so a conversion that discards literally nothing is impossible. The honest goal is transparency — an MP3 you cannot distinguish from the original in a blind comparison. That is a solved problem at high bitrates, and it is entirely about which bitrate you pick, not which converter you use.

MP3 works by throwing away what your ears cannot resolve. The encoder splits the audio into frequency bands and applies a psychoacoustic model: a loud snare masks quieter sounds around it in time and frequency, so the bits that would have described them are spent elsewhere. At 128 kbps the encoder has so little room that the model has to cut into things you can hear — the smeared cymbals and swimmy applause that gave MP3 its reputation. At 320 kbps it has roughly two and a half times as much room and rarely has to make that trade.

The three things that actually cost you quality

Too low a bitrate. The only variable that reliably changes how an MP3 sounds. This page removes the temptation by offering 256 and 320 kbps only.
Converting from a lossy source. Encoding an MP3 into another MP3 stacks one set of artefacts on top of another. Always start from the FLAC — and be aware that a “lossless” file someone made by converting an MP3 to FLAC is still carrying the original MP3's damage.
Losing your metadata. Not an audio problem, but it wrecks a library just as effectively. Plenty of converters drop tags and album art; this one copies them across as a matter of course.

Notice what is not on that list: the choice of converter. fre:ac, dBpoweramp, foobar2000, VLC, ffmpeg and this page all call LAME to do the encoding. Same encoder, same bitrate, same output — a point the software comparison goes through tool by tool.

Check it yourself instead of taking our word for it

Every finished file above has a play button. Convert one track you know intimately, listen to the MP3 on the gear you actually use, then play the FLAC in your normal music player and switch between them. If you cannot tell which is which — and at 320 kbps most people cannot, on most material — the conversion has done its job. If you can, you have learned something useful about your ears and your equipment, and the FLAC original is still sitting on your disk, untouched.

Quality-mode specifications

Bitrates offered	256 and 320 kbps constant — the transparent range, 320 kbps by default
Decode step	Lossless: FLAC is unpacked to its original PCM samples, bit for bit
Encode step	LAME, the same MP3 encoder used by fre:ac, foobar2000, VLC and ffmpeg
Frequency response	Content preserved to roughly 20 kHz at 320 kbps
Typical size	About 2.4 MB per minute at 320 kbps — around a third of the FLAC
Metadata	Tags and full-resolution cover art copied into ID3v2.3
Hi-res sources	88.2 / 96 / 176.4 / 192 kHz resampled to 44.1 or 48 kHz (the MP3 ceiling)
Verification	Built-in player on every finished file, for an A/B against the original
File-size limit	None — nothing is uploaded, so there is no server-side cap
Price	Free — no signup, no watermark, no quality-locked premium tier

FLAC to MP3 quality FAQ

Can you really convert FLAC to MP3 without losing quality?

Not literally — MP3 is a lossy format, so some data is always discarded. What you can do is make the loss inaudible. At 320 kbps the discarded data sits in parts of the signal that psychoacoustic masking hides behind louder sounds, and in listening tests very few people can reliably pick the MP3 out of a blind comparison. That is what audio engineers call transparency, and it is what this page is tuned for.

Which bitrate is closest to lossless?

320 kbps, the highest constant bitrate MP3 supports. A 16-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC averages roughly 800–1,000 kbps, so 320 kbps keeps about a third of the data and still holds frequencies up to around 20 kHz — the practical top of adult hearing. 256 kbps is the next step down and is transparent on most material; below 192 kbps the difference starts to become findable on cymbals, applause, and other dense high-frequency content.

Why does this page only offer 256 and 320 kbps?

Because 128 and 192 kbps trade audible quality for file size, which is the opposite of what you came here for. If you do want smaller files — for a phone with limited storage or an audiobook — the standard converter on the homepage has the full 128–320 kbps range.

Will a different converter give me a better-sounding MP3?

No, and this is the part most comparison articles skip. fre:ac, dBpoweramp, foobar2000, VLC, ffmpeg, and this tool all encode with LAME, the same open-source MP3 encoder. Feed them the same FLAC at the same bitrate and the output is effectively identical. What actually differs between tools is batch handling, tag preservation, and whether your files get uploaded — not sound.

Does the FLAC decoding step lose anything?

No. FLAC is mathematically lossless: decoding returns the exact PCM samples that went in, bit for bit. The only lossy step in the whole chain is the MP3 encode itself, so there is no accumulated damage from decoding, re-tagging, or downloading.

What happens to 24-bit or 96 kHz hi-res FLAC?

MP3 tops out at 48 kHz and does not carry bit depth the way PCM does, so a 96 kHz source is resampled to 48 kHz and a 176.4/88.2 kHz source to 44.1 kHz — staying inside the same rate family to keep the resampling clean. The content above 22 kHz that gets removed is inaudible; what matters for hi-res sources is using 320 kbps, which this page already does.

Will my tags, cover art, and track order survive?

Yes. Title, artist, album, album artist, track and disc number, year, genre, and composer are read from the FLAC's Vorbis comments and written back as ID3v2.3 tags, and embedded artwork is carried across at full resolution. A converted album drops into iTunes, Plex, or a car stereo in the right order with the right covers.

Does converting the same file twice degrade it?

Converting from the FLAC twice does not — each run starts from the same lossless master, so the second MP3 is identical to the first. Generational loss only happens when you encode a lossy file again: MP3 to MP3, or MP3 padded out to FLAC and back. Always convert from the original FLAC, never from an MP3 you made earlier.

Should I delete my FLAC files afterwards?

No. Keep the FLACs as your archive copy and treat the MP3s as playback copies. Storage is cheap, and if a better codec comes along — or you want a different bitrate — you can re-encode from lossless. You can never get lossless back out of an MP3.

Is there a file-size limit or a quality cap on the free version?

There is no limit and no paid tier. Sites that cap file size or watermark output do so because they pay for the upload bandwidth and CPU; here the conversion runs on your own device, so a 600 MB 24-bit album costs us nothing and converts exactly like a three-minute single.

Other ways to run this converter

Need smaller files rather than the best possible ones? The standard FLAC to MP3 converter opens up the full 128–320 kbps range. Converting a whole album or a stack of them? The batch converter takes a folder at a time, up to 40 files per run, and returns one ZIP — still at whichever bitrate you set.

If you would rather do this with desktop software, the guide How to Convert FLAC to MP3 (4 Free Ways) has the exact settings for VLC, fre:ac, and the ffmpeg one-liner — including how to stop VLC from quietly re-encoding at its 128 kbps default.