Two Lossless Formats, One Question
Both WAV and FLAC preserve every single sample of your audio without discarding any data. Play back either format, and the decoded output is bit-for-bit identical to the original recording. So if both are lossless, why do two formats exist, and which one should you actually use?
The answer comes down to everything except audio fidelity: file size, metadata support, compatibility, streaming capability, and workflow integration. WAV is the older format — born in 1991, co-developed by Microsoft and IBM — and it stores raw PCM audio with minimal overhead. FLAC arrived in 2001, designed from the ground up to compress lossless audio into significantly smaller files while adding modern features like embedded metadata and album art.
This guide walks through every meaningful difference between the two formats so you can make an informed decision based on your specific use case, whether that is music production, archiving a vinyl collection, distributing audio professionally, or building a personal listening library.
Quick Summary
Before diving deep, here is the short version:
- WAV stores uncompressed PCM audio. Maximum compatibility with DAWs and legacy hardware. No compression, no metadata limitations to worry about. Files are large.
- FLAC stores losslessly compressed PCM audio. Files are 50-70% the size of equivalent WAV files. Excellent metadata and album art support. Broadly compatible with modern devices but not universal in professional audio tools.
- Audio quality is identical. Both formats decode to the exact same PCM stream. There is no audible or measurable quality difference.
- Choose WAV for audio production, DAW projects, broadcast workflows, and maximum hardware compatibility.
- Choose FLAC for music archiving, personal libraries, distribution of lossless audio, and any scenario where storage efficiency matters.
Technical Comparison
| Feature | WAV | FLAC |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | None (uncompressed PCM) | Lossless (50-70% of WAV size) |
| Audio Quality | Perfect (bit-for-bit original) | Perfect (bit-for-bit original) |
| File Size (4-min CD song) | ~40 MB | ~25 MB |
| Max Bit Depth | 32-bit (float or integer) | 32-bit integer |
| Max Sample Rate | Unlimited (commonly up to 384 kHz) | 655,350 Hz |
| Multichannel Support | Yes (up to 18 channels) | Yes (up to 8 channels) |
| Metadata Support | Limited (RIFF INFO chunks) | Excellent (Vorbis comments) |
| Album Art Embedding | Not standard | Fully supported |
| Streaming/Seeking | Requires full download | Seekable, frame-based |
| Error Resilience | None (corruption breaks playback) | Frame-level CRC checksums |
| DAW Compatibility | Universal | Limited (not all DAWs support natively) |
| Open Standard | Yes (Microsoft/IBM) | Yes (BSD license, Xiph.Org) |
File Size: The Biggest Practical Difference
Since both formats are lossless, audio quality is identical. The single largest day-to-day difference is file size.
WAV stores raw PCM samples with no compression. The file size is deterministic and calculated directly from the sample rate, bit depth, channel count, and duration:
File size = sample rate x bit depth x channels x duration (seconds) / 8
For a 4-minute stereo CD-quality track (44.1 kHz, 16-bit):
44,100 x 16 x 2 x 240 / 8 = 42,336,000 bytes ≈ 40.4 MB
FLAC compresses that same data using linear prediction, residual coding, and entropy coding. The compression ratio varies by content — complex, dynamic music compresses less than sparse ambient recordings — but typically lands between 50% and 70% of the original WAV size.
| Content Type | WAV Size | FLAC Size | Compression Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orchestral music (4 min) | 40 MB | 28 MB | 70% |
| Rock/pop song (4 min) | 40 MB | 26 MB | 65% |
| Spoken word (4 min) | 40 MB | 18 MB | 45% |
| Ambient/sparse (4 min) | 40 MB | 16 MB | 40% |
| Full album (45 min) | 450 MB | 290 MB | ~64% |
| 500-album library | ~225 GB | ~145 GB | ~64% |
| Hi-res 96/24 album (45 min) | 1.46 GB | ~950 MB | ~65% |
At scale, the difference is enormous. A 500-album library in FLAC saves roughly 80 GB compared to WAV — enough to matter even with modern storage prices. For hi-res collections at 96 kHz/24-bit, the savings are even more significant.
Pro Tip: FLAC offers compression levels from 0 (fastest, least compression) to 8 (slowest, most compression). The difference between level 0 and level 8 is typically only 2-5% in file size, but encoding at level 8 can take 5-10x longer. Level 5 (the default) is the sweet spot for most people. All levels decode to identical audio.
Metadata: Where FLAC Dominates
This is where the two formats diverge sharply beyond just file size.
WAV metadata is stored in RIFF INFO chunks — a simple key-value system defined in the early 1990s. It supports basic fields like title, artist, and genre, but the implementation is inconsistent across software. Many audio editors and players ignore or strip WAV metadata entirely. There is no standardized way to embed album art in a WAV file, and tagging software support is patchy.
FLAC metadata uses Vorbis comments — a flexible, Unicode-capable tagging system that supports arbitrary fields. Every major tagging application (MusicBrainz Picard, Mp3tag, beets, Kid3) fully supports FLAC tags. Album art embedding is a first-class feature with support for multiple images (front cover, back cover, booklet pages) at full resolution.
If you are building a well-organized music library with consistent artist names, album art, genre tags, and custom fields, FLAC is the clear choice. WAV's metadata story is too fragile and inconsistent for serious library management.
Compatibility and Software Support
DAWs and Professional Audio
WAV is the native format of the professional audio world. Every DAW — Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Ableton Live, FL Studio, Reaper, Cubase, Studio One — reads and writes WAV natively with zero configuration. WAV is also the standard interchange format for studios, mastering houses, broadcast facilities, and film post-production. If you are delivering audio to a professional facility, they expect WAV (or occasionally AIFF, WAV's Apple equivalent).
FLAC support in DAWs is improving but remains inconsistent. Reaper supports FLAC natively. Logic Pro added FLAC import in recent versions. Pro Tools does not support FLAC at all — you must convert to WAV before importing. Ableton Live has limited FLAC support. For production work, WAV remains the safest choice.
Consumer Devices and Players
On the consumer side, FLAC has excellent modern support:
- Android: Native support since Android 3.1
- iOS/macOS: Native support since iOS 11 (2017)
- Windows: Native support since Windows 10
- Linux: Native support across all major distributions
- Streaming services: Tidal, Amazon Music HD, and Qobuz use FLAC for lossless streaming
WAV plays on all of the above as well, but its lack of metadata and larger file sizes make it impractical for consumer use. Nobody wants a 40 MB track with no artist name or album art on their phone.
Converting Between Formats
Since both formats are lossless, converting between WAV and FLAC is completely lossless — no quality is lost in either direction. You can convert WAV to FLAC for archiving and back to WAV for production work as many times as you want without any degradation.
# WAV to FLAC (lossless compression)
ffmpeg -i input.wav -c:a flac -compression_level 5 output.flac
# FLAC to WAV (lossless decompression)
ffmpeg -i input.flac -c:a pcm_s16le output.wav
# FLAC to WAV preserving 24-bit depth
ffmpeg -i input_24bit.flac -c:a pcm_s24le output.wav
You can also use our audio converter to convert between WAV and FLAC directly in your browser, or use the dedicated WAV converter and FLAC converter hubs for format-specific options.
Pro Tip: If you work in a DAW that does not support FLAC, use FLAC as your archival format and convert to WAV only when importing into your project. This gives you the storage benefits of FLAC for your master library while maintaining full DAW compatibility. Our batch processing guide explains how to convert entire folders efficiently.
Error Resilience
FLAC has a meaningful advantage in data integrity. Every FLAC frame includes a CRC checksum, allowing playback software to detect (though not correct) corrupted data. If a FLAC file is partially corrupted — due to a bad disk sector, an interrupted file transfer, or bit rot over years of storage — the player can identify which frames are damaged and skip them, playing the rest of the file normally.
WAV has no built-in error detection. A corrupted byte in a WAV file produces a click, pop, or burst of noise at that point in playback, with no way for the player to know that corruption occurred. For long-term archival storage, FLAC's checksumming provides an extra layer of confidence.
You can also verify FLAC file integrity without playing them:
# Verify a single FLAC file
flac --test input.flac
# Verify all FLAC files in a directory
find /path/to/music -name "*.flac" -exec flac --test {} \;
When to Choose WAV
Music Production and Recording
If you are recording, editing, mixing, or mastering audio in a DAW, use WAV. It is the universal standard, every tool supports it perfectly, and the encoding/decoding overhead is zero (since there is no compression to process). During a mixing session where your DAW is reading dozens of tracks simultaneously in real time, WAV's simplicity is a genuine practical advantage.
Broadcast and Post-Production
Television, radio, and film workflows standardize on WAV (specifically, Broadcast Wave Format or BWF, which extends WAV with timestamps and production metadata). If you are delivering audio for broadcast, the specification almost certainly calls for WAV.
Interchange with Other Professionals
When sending stems, masters, or recordings to another studio, mastering engineer, or collaborator, WAV is the expected format. Sending FLAC to a Pro Tools user creates an unnecessary friction point. WAV is the common language of professional audio exchange.
Legacy Hardware
Some older hardware samplers, synthesizers, and audio interfaces only read WAV files from their storage media. If your workflow includes hardware that predates FLAC's widespread adoption, WAV is your only lossless option.
When to Choose FLAC
Music Archiving
For storing your music collection long-term — whether ripped from CDs, downloaded from Bandcamp, or digitized from vinyl — FLAC is the correct choice. You get the same audio quality as WAV at 50-70% of the file size, with robust metadata, embedded album art, and built-in integrity verification. Future format conversions (to MP3 for your phone, to AAC for Apple devices, to Opus for streaming) all start from a perfect lossless source. Our guide on lossless vs. lossy compression explains why starting from a lossless master matters for any downstream conversion.
Personal Listening Libraries
FLAC is the audiophile community's preferred format for a reason: it is lossless, well-tagged, and efficient. Services like Tidal HiFi, Qobuz, and Amazon Music HD deliver their lossless streams in FLAC. If you purchase lossless downloads from Bandcamp, HDtracks, or Qobuz, they come as FLAC files. Your personal library should match.
Distribution of Lossless Audio
If you are an artist or label distributing lossless audio to fans, FLAC is the standard. Bandcamp uses FLAC as its lossless download format. Audiophile communities expect FLAC. The smaller file sizes compared to WAV reduce download times and hosting costs without sacrificing a single bit of audio quality.
Network Storage and Streaming
If you stream music from a NAS (Network Attached Storage) or media server like Plex or Jellyfin, FLAC's smaller file sizes reduce network bandwidth requirements. A FLAC file streams over a home network with roughly 35% less bandwidth than the equivalent WAV, which can matter on congested Wi-Fi networks or when streaming to multiple rooms simultaneously.
What About ALAC (Apple Lossless)?
Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) is Apple's equivalent of FLAC. It provides the same lossless compression at similar ratios. Apple open-sourced ALAC in 2011, and it is used by Apple Music for its lossless streaming tier.
If your ecosystem is entirely Apple — iPhone, Mac, HomePod, Apple TV — ALAC integrates more smoothly with iTunes/Music and avoids any edge-case compatibility issues with older Apple devices. However, FLAC is the more universal choice, and modern Apple devices support FLAC natively. For most people, FLAC is the better long-term bet due to its broader cross-platform support.
You can convert between FLAC and ALAC losslessly using our audio converter, and check out our best audio format for music guide for a broader comparison of formats.
Converting from Lossy Formats
A common question: should you convert your existing MP3 or AAC library to WAV or FLAC?
The short answer is no. Converting a lossy format to a lossless one does not recover the audio data that was discarded during the original lossy encoding. You get a larger file with the same limited audio quality. This is sometimes called "lossy laundering," and it wastes storage without any benefit.
The exception is if a specific device or application requires WAV or FLAC input. In that case, converting an MP3 to WAV is acceptable as a format compatibility step — just understand that the audio quality ceiling was already set by the MP3 encoding. Our FLAC vs. MP3 comparison and AAC vs. MP3 comparison cover the quality implications in detail.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does FLAC sound better than WAV?
No. Both formats decode to identical PCM audio. The audio output is bit-for-bit the same. If someone tells you they can hear a difference between WAV and FLAC, it is a placebo effect or a software/hardware configuration issue, not an inherent format difference.
Can I use FLAC in Pro Tools?
Not directly. Pro Tools does not natively import or export FLAC files. You need to convert FLAC to WAV before importing. Use our audio converter or FFmpeg for quick batch conversion.
Is WAV or FLAC better for Bandcamp uploads?
Bandcamp accepts both, but FLAC uploads are faster due to smaller file sizes. Bandcamp transcodes your upload to all offered formats (MP3, FLAC, AAC, Ogg, etc.) from whatever lossless source you provide. Since both WAV and FLAC are lossless, the transcoding results are identical regardless of which you upload.
What about the 4 GB WAV file size limit?
Standard WAV files use a 32-bit header, limiting file size to 4 GB (approximately 6.8 hours of CD-quality stereo audio, or 1.6 hours of 96/24 stereo). For longer recordings, you need RF64 (an extended WAV format) or a format without this limitation, like FLAC. This is another practical advantage of FLAC for long-form content like audiobook recordings, live concert captures, or ambient field recordings.
Which is better for long-term archival?
FLAC is the better archival format. It combines lossless audio quality with efficient compression, robust metadata, embedded checksums, and broad software support. The Library of Congress lists FLAC among its recommended formats for audio preservation. WAV is acceptable for archiving, but its lack of compression means significantly higher storage costs at scale, and its poor metadata support makes library management difficult over time.
Conclusion
WAV and FLAC are both excellent lossless audio formats with identical audio quality. The choice between them is purely practical:
Use WAV when you are working inside a DAW, delivering audio to professional studios, working with broadcast specifications, or interfacing with hardware that requires it. WAV is the production format.
Use FLAC when you are archiving music, building a listening library, distributing lossless audio, streaming over a network, or storing audio long-term. FLAC is the archival and consumer format.
Many professionals use both: WAV inside the studio for production, FLAC outside the studio for everything else. Convert freely between them — the process is lossless in both directions — using our WAV converter, FLAC converter, or audio converter. There is no wrong choice, only a choice that fits your workflow better.
