Wikipedia

Comparison of audio coding formats

The following tables compare general and technical information for a variety of audio coding formats.

For listening tests comparing the perceived audio quality of audio formats and codecs, see the article Codec listening test.

General information

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Audio compression format Creator First public release date Latest stable version Cost Proprietary implementations (codecs) Open-source implementations (codecs) Uses
(other than consumer audio) 		Music reproduction (consumer audio) Telephony app Lossless audio compression Patented DRM
Encoder Player
AAC ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee 1997 ISO/IEC 14496-3 Non-free[1] Nero Digital Audio, Apple CoreAudio (via QuickTime, iTunes or afconvert[2]) FAAC (encoding only), FAAD2 (decoding only), FFmpeg, Audiocogs[3] (decoding only), Fraunhofer FDK AAC Digital TV service, Digital Radio, Internet streaming Yes AAC-LD/AAC-ELD MPEG-4 SLS Yes FairPlay (.m4p only, discontinued)
AC-3 Dolby Laboratories 1992 ATSC A52:2018 Free DVD players, digital television, Camcorder FFmpeg, liba52 (decoding only), Aften (encoding only), libavc (2.0 channels max) Theatrical movie presentation, Digital TV service & home-video (personal recorders, DVD, etc.) No No No No ?
AC-4 Dolby Laboratories 2014 ATSC A342:2022-03 Non-free Digital television, Harmonic Inc., DS Broadcast, Ateme, Synamedia, Dolby Media Encoder & Dolby Encoding Engine ExoPlayer (decoding only for supported mobile devices) Digital TV service No No No Yes ?
ALAC Apple Inc. 2004-04-28 QuickTime 7.6 Free QuickTime, iTunes, RealPlayer MacOSforge, FFmpeg, Audiocogs[4] (decoding only) Music archival Yes No Yes Free Possible, but never implemented
ALS ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee 2005 ISO/IEC 14496-3 Free MPEG-4 ALS FFmpeg (decoding only) - Yes No Yes Yes ?
AMBE Digital Voice Systems ? ? Non-free ? mbelib Low bandwidth HF/VHF digital radio, VoIP trunking No No No Yes ?
AMR 3GPP 1999-06-22 ETSI TS 126 071 V9.0.0 (2009) Non-free[5][6] QuickTime, RealPlayer FFmpeg (decoding only), FFmpeg with OpenCORE libraries,[7] Android[8] voice recording No Yes No Yes No
AMR-WB
(G.722.2) 		3GPP 2001-04-10 ETSI TS 126 190 V8.0.0 (2009-01) Non-free QuickTime, RealPlayer FFmpeg (decoding only),[7] FFmpeg with VisualOn libraries, Android (decoding only),[8] opencore-amr for both encoding and decoding voice recording No Yes No Yes No
AMR-WB+ 3GPP 2004-06-14 ETSI TS 126 290 V8.0.0 (2009-01) Non-free[9][10] ? ? voice recording Yes Yes No Yes No
aptX Qualcomm 1989 2007 Non-free Broadcast audio codecs: 2wcom systems, Systembase, APT, AVT, Harris Corporation, MAYAH, Prodys, Qbit; wireless headphones: iSkin, JayBird Gear, DTS discs for movies FFmpeg Low latency Studio/transmitter link, Bluetooth A2DP stereo, digital wireless microphone Yes No No Yes No
ATRAC Sony Corp. 1991 ATRAC3plus Non-free MiniDisc, Walkman, VAIO, Clie, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita, SDDS, SonicStage, SoundForge, RealPlayer, ConnectPlayer FFmpeg (decoding only, ATRAC Advanced Lossless is only partially supported) voice recording, theatrical movie presentation Yes No Yes Yes Yes
BroadVoice (BV16, BV32) Broadcom 2009-08-19 1.2 Free ? ? Speech, VoIP, Low latency, voice recording No Yes No Free No
CELT Xiph.Org Foundation, Jean-Marc Valin 2007-12-08 0.11.1 (merged into Opus) Free ? libcelt, FFmpeg with libcelt library (decoding only) Speech, VoIP, Low latency, Studio/transmitter link, wireless audio Yes Yes No No No
Codec2 David Rowe 2010-08-25 1.2.0

(2023-07-14)

Free ? c2enc, c2dec Low bandwidth HF/VHF digital radio, VoIP trunking No Yes No No No
Encodec Facebook 2022-10-25 v0.1.1

(2022-10-26)

Free ? Encodec Speech, VoIP, voice recording Yes Yes No ? No
Enhanced AC-3 (E-AC-3) Dolby Laboratories 2004 ATSC A52:2018 Non-free Digital television FFmpeg Theatrical movie presentation, digital TV service & home-video (personal recorders, DVD, etc.) No No No Yes Yes
EVS Fraunhofer, JVC Kenwood, NTT, NTT Docomo, Panasonic, Ericsson 2014 ? Non-free ? ? ? ? Yes Yes No Yes No
FLAC Xiph.Org Foundation, Josh Coalson 2001-07-20 1.4.3

(2023-06-23)

Free FLAC,[11] Flake[12] (encoding only), FFmpeg, FLACCL[13] (encoding only), Audiocogs[14] (decoding only) Music archival[15] Yes No Yes No No
G.711 ITU-T 1972 (ITU-T standard from 1988) G.711 Appendix II (02/00) Free Various proprietary VoIP software FFmpeg, Ekiga, Asterisk (PBX) and almost any VoIP software voice recording No Yes No No No
G.722 ITU-T 1988-11 Free Various proprietary VoIP software Asterisk (PBX), QuteCom, FFmpeg voice recording No Yes No No No
G.722.1 ITU-T 1999-09 G.722.1 (05/05) Free[16][17] Various proprietary VoIP software FreeSWITCH,[18] PJSIP, etc voice recording No Yes No Yes No
G.722.2
(AMR-WB) 		ITU-T (adopted directly from 3GPP) 2002-01 G.722.2 (07/03) Non-free QuickTime, RealPlayer FFmpeg (decoding only),[7] FFmpeg with VisualOn libraries, Android (decoding only)[8] voice recording, audio No No No Yes No
G.723.1 ITU-T 1996-03 G.723.1 (05/06) Non-free Various proprietary VoIP software FFmpeg voice recording No Yes No Yes No
G.726 ITU-T 1990-12 Free Various proprietary VoIP software FFmpeg, Ekiga and other VoIP software voice recording No Yes No No No
G.728 ITU-T 1992-09 Non-free Various proprietary VoIP software voice recording No Yes No Yes No
G.729 ITU-T 1996-03 G.729 (06/12) Free[19] Free Various proprietary VoIP software FFmpeg (decoding only) voice recording No Yes No Expired[19] No
G.729.1 ITU-T 2006-05 G.729.1 Am.8 (03/13) Free[19] Free Various proprietary VoIP software voice recording, DECT telephony No Yes No No No
GSM-FR ETSI Special Mobile Group 1990-1994 (ETS 300 580-2) ETSI EN 300 961 V8.1.1 (2000–11) Free FFmpeg (decoding only), FFmpeg with external library libgsm, Ekiga and other VoIP software voice recording No Yes No ? No
HE-AAC ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee 2003 ISO/IEC 14496-3 ? ? ? Fraunhofer FDK AAC ? Yes No No ? ?
iLBC Global IP Solutions 2002 RFC 3951 Free Cisco IP Communicator,[20] old versions of Skype[21] Ekiga, Asterisk (PBX) and other VoIP software, FFmpeg with libilbc library voice recording No Yes No Free[22] No
iSAC Global IP Solutions ? Free Yahoo! Messenger WebRTC voice recording No Yes No Yes[23] ?
LA Michael Bevin 2002-09-07 0.4b

(2004-02-08)

Free Winamp with old plugin version, foobar2000 with old plugin version ? Music archival Yes No Yes No No
LC3 Bluetooth SIG 2022-04-11 1.03

(2023-05-09)

Free ? liblc3, Android 13, BlueZ Speech Yes Yes No ? No
LDAC Sony Corp. 2015-04 ? Non-free Sony Walkman, Sony Products, mobile phones libldacdec, Android 8 (encoding only), BlueZ (encoding only) Bluetooth audio Yes No No Yes No
LHDC Savitech 2017 5.0.6 (2022-08-03) Non-free Mobile phones, Bluetooth headphones, Home receivers Android 10 Bluetooth audio Yes No Yes Yes No
L2HC Huawei 2020 3.0 (2023-09-19) Non-free Huawei products, EMUI, HarmonyOS Android 10, OpenHarmony, Oniro OS Bluetooth audio

NearLink audio

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Lyra Google 2021-04-06 1.32 / V3

(2022-12-21)

Free Google Duo Lyra Speech, VoIP, voice recording Yes Yes No ? No
Monkey's Audio Matthew T. Ashland 2000 10.52

(2024-02-28)

Free Monkey's Audio, FFmpeg (decoding only) Music Archival Yes No Yes No No
MP1 (MPEG-1/2 Audio Layer I) ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee 1991-12-06 ISO/IEC 11172-3, ISO/IEC 13818-3 Free ? FFmpeg (decoding only) - Yes No No Expired No
MP2 (MPEG-1/2 Audio Layer II) ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee 1993 ISO/IEC 11172-3, ISO/IEC 13818-3 Free[24] various DVD software, video software, audio software TooLAME (encoding only), TwoLAME (encoding only), FFmpeg DAB, DVB, DVD, VCD, SVCD Yes No No Free[25] No
MP3 (MPEG-1/2/2.5 Audio Layer III) ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee 1993 ISO/IEC 11172-3, ISO/IEC 13818-3 Free FhG, l3enc, MP3enc, (old implementations: Xing TOMPG, SCMPX) LAME (encoding only), FFmpeg (decoding only), libmad (decoding only), Audiocogs[26] (decoding only), (old implementations: BladeEnc) - Yes No No Expired[27] Yes (optional, rarely used)
MPEG-H 3D Audio ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee 2013-01 ISO/IEC 23008-3 Non-free FhG, MainConcept (encoding only) libmpegh, mpeghdec (decoding only) Digital TV service, voice recording Yes No No Yes No
Musepack Frank Klemm/MDT 1997 1.30

(2009-04-02)

Free Musepack,[28] FFmpeg (decoding only) - Yes No No No No
Nellymoser Asao Nellymoser Inc. 2002 ? Non-free Adobe Flash, Flash Player FFmpeg voice recording No No No Yes ?
OptimFROG Florin Ghido 2001-12-16 5.100 (2016-09-02) Free OptimFROG and some media players (decoding only). Some media players (decoding only) Music archival Yes No Yes No No
Opus Xiph.Org Foundation, Internet Engineering Task Force 2012-09-11 RFC 6716 (libopus 1.5.1) Free libopus, FFmpeg Speech, VoIP, Low latency, Studio/transmitter link, wireless audio, voice recording, WebRTC Yes Yes No Yes[29] No
OSQ Steinberg 2002 ? Free WaveLab FFmpeg (decoding only) Music archival Yes No Yes No No
QOA Dominic Szablewski 2023-02-02 1.0

(2023-04-24)

Free qoa, FFmpeg (decoding only) - Yes Yes No No No
Sac Sebastian Lehmann 2006-09-01 v0.7.6 (2024-07-04) Free Sac Music archival Yes No Yes No No
Satin Microsoft 2020 ? Non-free Microsoft Teams, Skype ? Speech, VoIP, voice recording Yes Yes No Yes No
SBC Bluetooth SIG 2003 A2DP 1.3 (2012-07-24) Free for Bluetooth A2DP BlueZ, FFmpeg Bluetooth audio Yes No No Yes No
Shorten Tony Robinson 1993-03-30 3.6.1

(2007-03-19, final release)

Free Shorten FFmpeg (decoding only) - Yes No Yes No (with commercial use restriction)[30][31] No
SILK Skype Limited 2009-01-07 Merged into Opus Free Skype SILK Speech Codec voice recording No Yes No Yes ?
Siren 7 PictureTel Corp. (now Polycom Inc.) 1999 ?[16][17] Microsoft Office Communicator FreeSWITCH (libg722_1,[32] aMSN (libsiren - part of libmsn),[33][34] FFmpeg (decoding only) voice recording No Yes No Yes ?
SNAC Hubert Siuzdak 2024-02-20 1.2 (2024-04-04) Free SNAC Speech, VoIP, voice recording Yes Yes No No No
Speex Xiph.Org Foundation, Jean-Marc Valin 2003-03-24 1.2.0 (obsoleted by Opus) Free Adobe Flash Player 10 Speex,[35] FFmpeg with libspeex library voice recording No Yes No No No
SVOPC Skype Limited 2007-03-28 2008-09-23 (Skype 3.8) (replaced by SILK) Non-free Skype voice recording No Yes No Yes No
Tom's lossless Audio Kompressor (TAK) Thomas Becker 2007-01-26 2.3.3

(2022-06-30)

Free Winamp with TAK plugin, foobar2000 with plugin, XMPlay FFmpeg (decoding only) Music archival Yes No Yes No No
TSAC Fabrice Bellard 2024-04-08 2024-04-08 Free No TSAC, Linux: [2], Windows (experimental): [3]. Does encoding and decoding in one app, no sepearte encoder and decoder Speech, VoIP, voice recording Yes Yes No No No
True Audio (TTA) TAU Software 1999 2.3

(2015-02-24)

Free TTA,[36] FFmpeg - Yes No Yes No No
TwinVQ Nippon Telegraph and Telephone 1996 (?) Non-free Winamp with VQF plugin, NTT TwinVQ player/encoder, Yamaha SoundVQ player, Nero Media Player FFmpeg (decoding only)[37] speech Yes No No Yes ?
USAC Fraunhofer IIS 2012 4.4.0

(2023-06-21)

Non-free ? EZ CD Audio Converter, FFmpeg with Mainconcept plugin (encoder only), Sonnox, Apple (decoder only), QuickTime (Mac version & decoder only). Exhale (encoder only), FFmpeg (decoding only with Fraunhofer FDK AAC library enabled for manually command, native decoding only), Android (decoder only) - Yes No No No No
Vorbis (Ogg) Xiph.Org Foundation 2000-05-11 1.3.7

(2020-07-04)

Free libvorbis,[38] aoTuV,[39] FFmpeg - Yes No No No No
WavPack Conifer Software 1998 5.7.0

(2024-02-29)

Free WavPack,[40] FFmpeg Music archival Yes No Yes No No
Windows Media Audio Microsoft 1999 11.0 Free for
consumer
licensees
of the
Windows
operating
system
[citation needed] 		Free for
licensees
of the
Windows
operating
system[41] 		Windows Media Player, Windows Media Encoder FFmpeg (decoding only for Pro, Lossless and Voice) internet streaming Yes No Yes Yes Optional[42]
Audio compression format Creator First public release date Latest stable version Encoder Player Proprietary implementations (codecs) Open-source implementations (codecs) Uses
(other than consumer audio) 		Music reproduction (consumer audio) Telephony app Lossless audio compression Patented DRM
cost

Notes

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  1. The 'Music' category is merely a guideline on commercialized uses of a particular format, not a technical assessment of its capabilities. For example, MP3 and AAC dominate the personal audio market in terms of market share, though many other formats are comparably well suited to fill this role from a purely technical standpoint.
  2. First public release date is first of either specification publishing or source releasing, or in the case of closed-specification, closed-source codecs, is the date of first binary releasing. Many developing codecs have pre-releases consisting of pre-1.0 versions and perhaps 1.0 release candidates (RCs), although 1.0 may not necessarily be the release version.
  3. Latest stable version is that of specification or reference tools.
  4. If there happens to be OSI licensed software available for a particular format, this does not necessarily permit one to use said codec free of charge. Likewise, if there is only proprietary licensed software available for a particular format, one might be able to use the codec free of charge.

Operating system support

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Codec Windows macOS Linux BSD Unix Palm OS Symbian OS Rockbox[43] iOS Android[44][45] Chromium[46] HarmonyOS[47] OpenHarmony Oniro OS
AAC Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
AC-3 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes
ALAC Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No
ALS ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
aptX Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes No No ? ?
CELT Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No
E-AC3 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes No Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes
FLAC Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
LC3 Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes
L2HC Yes No Yes No No No No No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Monkey's Audio Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No No No No No
MP3 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Musepack Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No
Opus Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
RealAudio[48] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No
Speex Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No
True Audio (TTA) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
USAC Yes Yes Yes No No No No No Yes Yes No ? ? ?
Vorbis Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
WavPack Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
WMA[48] Yes Yes[49] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes ? ?

Multimedia frameworks support

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Audio compression format ACM DirectShow QuickTime GStreamer FFmpeg Media Foundation
8SVX Yes (ffdshow) Yes (ffdshow) Yes (Perian) Yes (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes (ffdshow)
AAC Yes Yes (ffdshow, Monogram[50]) Yes Yes (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes
AC3 Yes Yes (ffdshow) Yes (Perian) Yes (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes
AC4 No No No Yes (GStreamer external plugins with Dolby proprietary libraries) No No
ALS ? ? ? ? ? ?
AMR No No Yes

[51] [52]

Yes (GStreamer Ugly Plug-ins) Yes Yes
ALAC Yes Yes (ffdshow) Yes Yes (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes
aptX ? ? ? ? Yes ?
ATRAC3 Yes (ffdshow) Yes (ffdshow) Yes (Perian) Yes (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes (ffdshow)
ATRAC3plus No No No No Yes Yes (ffdshow)
CELT ? ? ? ? ? ?
Cook Codec Yes (ffdshow) Yes (ffdshow) Yes (Perian) Yes (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes (ffdshow)
DCA aka DTS Yes (ffdshow) Yes (ffdshow) Yes (Perian) Yes (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes (ffdshow)
DTS-HD Yes (ffdshow) Yes (ffdshow) Yes (Perian) Yes (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes (ffdshow)
E-AC-3 Yes Yes (ffdshow) Yes (Perian) Yes (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes
FLAC yes Yes (ffdshow) Yes (Perian) Yes (GStreamer Base Plug-ins, GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes
L2HC ? ? ? ? ? ?
HE-AAC ? ? ? ? ? ?
Monkey's Audio Yes (ffdshow) Yes (ffdshow) Yes (Perian) Yes (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes (ffdshow)
WavPack Yes (ffdshow) Yes (ffdshow) Yes (Perian) Yes (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes (ffdshow)
Shorten Yes (ffdshow) Yes (ffdshow) Yes (Perian) Yes (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes (ffdshow)
Sonic Audio Yes (ffdshow) Yes (ffdshow) Yes (Perian) Yes (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes (ffdshow)
MP3 Yes Yes Yes Yes (GStreamer Ugly, GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes
RealAudio Yes (ffdshow) Yes (ffdshow) Yes (Perian) Yes (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in, GStreamer DLL loader plugin + Binary Codec Packages) Yes Yes (ffdshow)
Speex Yes (ffdshow) Yes (ffdshow) Yes (Perian) Yes (GStramer Good Plug-ins, GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes (ffdshow)
Vorbis Yes (ffdshow) Yes (ffdshow) Yes (Perian) Yes (GStreamer Base Plug-ins, GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes (ffdshow)
La ??? No No No No No Yes (ffdshow)
LPAC No No No No No Yes (ffdshow)
Windows Media Audio v1 Yes Yes Yes (Perian) Yes (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes
Windows Media Audio v2 Yes Yes Yes (Perian) Yes (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes
Windows Media Audio Pro Yes Yes Yes (Perian) Yes (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes
Windows Media Audio Lossless Yes Yes Yes (flip4mac) Yes (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes
Windows Media Audio Voice Yes Yes No No Yes Yes
Musepack Yes (ffdshow) Yes (ffdshow, Monogram[50]) Yes (Perian) Yes (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes (ffdshow)
Meridian Lossless Packing Yes (ffdshow) Yes (ffdshow) Yes (Perian) Yes (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes (ffdshow)
Nellymoser Asao Codec in Flash Yes (ffdshow) Yes (ffdshow) Yes (Perian) Yes (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes (ffdshow)
OptimFROG No No No No No Yes (ffdshow)
Truespeech Yes Yes Yes (Perian) Yes (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes (ffdshow)
True Audio (TTA) Yes (ffdshow) Yes (ffdshow) Yes (Perian) Yes (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes (ffdshow)
QCELP Yes (ffdshow) Yes (ffdshow) Yes Yes (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) Yes Yes (ffdshow)
Audio compression format ACM DirectShow QuickTime GStreamer FFmpeg Media Foundation

Technical details

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Lossy formats
Audio compression format Algorithm Sample rate Bit rate Latency CBR VBR Stereo Multichannel
AAC MDCT, Hybrid Subband (AAC-HE) 8–192 kHz,[53] also: 7.35 kHz, but used rarely. 8–529 kbit/s (stereo, 44.1 kHz)

8–576 kbit/s (stereo, 48 kHz)

20–405 ms[54] Yes Yes Yes: Dual, Mid/Side, Intensity, Parametric Yes: Up to 48 channels
AC3 MDCT 32, 44.1, 48 kHz 32–640 kbit/s 32–48 ms Yes Theoretically; no good encoders exist which support VBR Yes Yes: Up to 6 channels
AC4 MDCT 48 kHz 24-1536 kbit/s ? Yes No Yes Yes: Up to 24 channels
AMBE ? 8 kHz 2-9.6 kbit/s ? ? ? ? ?
AMR ACELP 8 kHz 4.75, 5.15, 5.90, 6.70, 7.40, 7.95, 10.20, 12.20 kbit/s 25 ms Yes Yes No No
AMR-WB
(G.722.2) 		ACELP 16 kHz 6.60, 8.85, 12.65, 14.25, 15.85, 18.25, 19.85, 23.05, 23.85 kbit/s 25 ms Yes Yes Yes: only in MPEG-4 Part 12 container No
AMR-WB+ ACELP 8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 32, 44.1, 48 kHz 6–36 kbit/s (mono)
7–48 kbit/s (stereo) 		60–90 ms Yes Yes Yes No
aptX Subband ADPCM 24–48 kHz (stereo) 192–384 kbit/s (stereo) 2 ms Yes (4:1) No Yes Yes: Up to 8 channels
ATRAC1 MDCT-Hybrid Subband 44.1 kHz 292 kbit/s >100 ms Yes No Yes: Dual Only No
ATRAC3 MDCT-Hybrid Subband 44.1 kHz 66, 105, 132, 146, 176, 264, 352 kbit/s >100 ms Yes No Yes: Dual (LP2), Mid/Side (LP4) No
ATRAC3plus MDCT-Hybrid Subband 44.1, 48 kHz 32–768 kbit/s >100 ms Yes No Yes Yes: Up to 8 channels
ATRAC9 MDCT-Hybrid Subband 12, 24, 48 kHz 36-672 kbit/s >100 ms Yes No Yes Yes: Up to 8 channels
BroadVoice (BV16, BV32) Two-Stage Noise Feedback Coding (TSNFC) 8, 16 kHz 16, 32 kbit/s[55] 5 ms Yes No No No
Codec2 Speech 8 kHz 0.7, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.6, 2.4, 3.2 kbit/s 20–40 ms Yes No No No
E-AC3 MDCT 32, 44.1, 48 kHz 32–6144 kbit/s 5.33–48 ms Yes No Yes Yes: Up to 15 channels
E-aptX Subband ADPCM 15–48 kHz 60, 384, 767, 1024 kbit/s, 1.28 Mbit/s ? Yes (4:1) No Yes Yes: Up to 8 channels
Encodec Neural networks 24 kHz (Mono)

48 kHz (Stereo)

1.5 (Mono only), 3, 6, 12, 24 kbit/s ? Yes No Yes No
EVS Speech 8, 16, 32, 48 kHz 5.9, 7.2, 8, 9.6, 13.2, 16.4, 24.4, 32, 48, 64, 96, 128 kbit/s + AMR-WB bitrate modes 20 ms Yes Only 5.9 kbit/s with DTX on Yes No
GSM-HR VSELP 8 kHz 5.6 kbit/s 25 ms Yes No No No
GSM-FR RPE-LTP 8 kHz 13 kbit/s 20–30 ms Yes No No No
GSM-EFR ACELP 8 kHz 12.2 kbit/s 20–30 ms Yes No No No
HE-AAC ? 22 ~ 96 kHz (also 16 kHz, but used somewhat rarely) 16 ~ 80 kbit/s (other bitrates, but used somewhat rarely: 3 ~ 264 kbit/s) ~130 ms[56] Yes Yes Yes: Dual, Mid/Side, Intensity, Parametric Yes: Up to 48 channels
HVXC Speech 8 kHz 2, 4 kbit/s 36 ms Yes Yes No No
iLBC Block Independent LPC 8 kHz 13.33, 15.20 kbit/s 25, 40 ms Yes No No No
iSAC Transform coding 16, 32 kHz 10–52 kbit/s 33, 63 ms Yes Yes No No
LC3 Speech 8, 16, 24, 32, 48 kHz 16-320 kbit/s 7.5-10 ms Yes No Yes No
LDAC Subband ADPCM 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192 kHz 303, 606, 909 kbit/s (44.1/88.2/176.4 kHz)

330, 660, 990 kbit/s (48/96/192 kHz)

? Yes No Yes No
LHDC Subband ADPCM 44.1, 48, 96 kHz 400, 560, 900 kbit/s ? Yes No Yes No
L2HC Subband ADPCM 44.1, 48, 96, 192 kHz 400, 560, 960, 1920 kbit/s ? Yes No Yes ?
Lyra Speech 8, 16, 32, 48 kHz 3.2, 6, 9.2 kbit/s 20 ms Yes No No No
MP3 (MPEG-1, 2, 2.5 Audio Layer III) MDCT, Hybrid Subband 8, 11.025, 12, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48 kHz 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48, 56, 64, 80, 96, 112, 128, 144, 160, 192, 224, 256, 288, 320 kbit/s >100 ms Yes Yes Yes: Dual, Mid/Side, Intensity No
MPEG-1 Audio Layer II (MP2) Subband 32, 44.1, 48 kHz 32, 48, 56, 64, 80, 96, 112, 128, 160, 192, 224, 256, 320, 384 kbit/s Yes Yes: but decoders are not required to support it Yes: Dual, Intensity No
MPEG-2 Audio Layer II (MP2) Subband 16, 22.05, 24 kHz[57][58] 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48, 56, 64, 80, 96, 112, 128, 144, 160 kbit/s[57] Yes Yes: but decoders are not required to support it Yes Yes: up to 5 full range audio channels and an LFE-channel with MPEG Multichannel
Musepack Subband 32, 37.8, 44.1, 48 kHz 20–350 kbit/s ? No Yes Yes Yes: Up to 8 channels
Opus MDCT, LPC, LTP 8–48 kHz 6–510 kbit/s 5–66.5 ms Yes Yes Yes Yes: Up to 255 channels[59]
RealAudio MDCT Varies (see article) Varies (see article) Varies Yes Yes Yes Yes: Up to 6 channels
Satin Speech 8, 16, 32, 48 kHz 6-36 kbit/s ? Yes No Yes No
SILK LPC, LTP 8, 12, 16, 24 kHz 6–40 kbit/s 25 ms Yes ? ? ?
Siren 7 Derived from PT716plus, MLT 16 kHz 16, 24, 32 kbit/s 40 ms Yes No No No
Siren 14 MLT 32 kHz 24, 32, 48 kbit/s (mono)
48, 64, 96 kbit/s (stereo) 		40 ms Yes No Yes No
Siren 22 MLT 48 kHz 32, 48, 64 kbit/s (mono)
64, 96, 128 kbit/s (stereo) 		40 ms Yes No Yes No
SNAC Neural networks 24, 32, 44.1 kHz 0.98 (24 kHz), 1.9 (32 kHz), 2.6 (44.1 kHz) kbit/s ? Yes No No No
Speex CELP 8, 16, 32, (48) kHz 2.15–24.6 kbit/s (NB)
4–44.2 kbit/s (WB) 		30 ms (NB)
34 ms (WB) 		Yes Yes Yes: Intensity Yes
TSAC Neural networks, modified version of Descript Audio Codec, extended for stereo with a transformer model to shrink even more while keeping the quality high. 44.1 kHz (Mono and Stereo). Other sample rates: Uncertain. ~0.45-5.5 kbps (mono)

~0.6-7.5 kbps (stereo)

? Yes No Yes No
USAC ? 7.35, 8, 11.025, 12, 16, 19.2, 22.05, 24, 32, 38.4, 44.1, 48, 57.6, 64, 88.2, 96 kHz 6-128 kbit/s (mono)

12-320 kbit/s (stereo)

? Yes Yes Yes No
VMR-WB ACELP 16 kHz 8.55, 4.0, 0.8, 13.3, 6.2, 2.7, 1.0 kbit/s 33.75 ms Yes Yes ? ?
Vorbis (Ogg) MDCT 8–192 kHz 45-500 kbit/s (32-500 kbit/s for aoTuV tunings) >100 ms Yes/ABR Yes Yes: Dual, Lossless, Phase, Point (Intensity) Yes: Up to 255 channels
WavPack Lossy Prediction, Quantization 1 Hz to 16.777216 MHz 196 kbit/s and up in lossy mode (for CD audio) 3523.8 ms Yes Yes Yes Yes: Up to 256 channels
Windows Media Audio Standard MDCT 8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 32, 44.1, 48 kHz 8–768 kbit/s >100 ms Yes Yes Yes Unofficial, requires modification
Windows Media Audio Pro MDCT 8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96 kHz (8-22.05kHz not supported by all encoders) 4–768 kbit/s >100 ms Yes Yes Yes Yes: At least 8 channels, expandable
Windows Media Audio Voice ACELP? 8, 11.025, 16, 22.05 kHz officially (can be hacked to support higher sample rates) 4-20 kbit/s officially (can be hacked to support higher bitrates) ? Yes No Unofficial, requires modification Unofficial, requires modification
Lossless formats
Audio compression format Algorithm Sample rate Bits per sample Latency Stereo Multichannel
ALAC Lossless 1–384 kHz 16, 20, 24, 32[60] ? Yes Yes: Up to 8 channels
ALS Lossless 0–4 GHz 8, 16, 24, 32 (int or float) ? Yes Yes: Up to 65536 channels
ATRAC Advanced Lossless Lossless 44.1 kHz 16 ? Yes No
Dolby TrueHD Lossless 48, 96, 192 kHz 16, 20, 24 ? Yes Yes: 5.1, 7.1, and Dolby Atmos object-based audio[61]
DTS-HD Master Audio Lossless 48, 96, 192 kHz 16, 24 ? Yes Yes: Up to 7.1[62]
FLAC Lossless 1–1.048575 MHz (>655.350 kHz need not be streamable)[63] 4–32 4.3–92 ms (46.4 ms typical) Yes Yes: Up to 8 channels
HD-AAC ? ? ? ? ? ?
LA Lossless 0–4 GiHz 16 ? Yes No
L2HC Lossless 44.1kHz 16 ? Yes No
Monkey's Audio Lossless 1–655.350 kHz[citation needed] 8, 16, 24, 32 and 32-bit float 1670 to 26,749 ms (varies with compression) Yes Yes: Up to 32 channels since version 5.50[64]
OptimFROG Lossless 0–4 GiHz[65] 8, 16, 24, 32 (int or float) ? Yes No
OSQ Lossless 6, 8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 32, 44.1, 48, 64, 88.2, 96 kHz 8, 16, 20, 24 ? Yes No
RealAudio Lossless Lossless 8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 32, 44.1 kHz 16 Varies Yes No
Sac Lossless 1–48 kHz 1-16 ? Yes No
TAK Lossless 8–192 kHz 8, 16, 24 ? Yes Yes: Up to 6 channels
True Audio (TTA) Lossless 0–4 GiHz 8, 16, 24 approx. 1045 ms[66] Yes Yes: Up to 16 (with ffmpeg), but no channel allocation
WavPack Lossless Lossless, Hybrid 1 Hz to 1 GiHz Up to 32 (and 32-bit float), and 1-bit DSD. ? Yes Yes: Up to 256 channels
Windows Media Audio Lossless Lossless 8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96 kHz 16, 24 >100 ms Yes Yes: Up to 6 channels
ITU-T formats
Audio compression format Algorithm Sample rate Bit rate Bits per sample Latency CBR VBR Stereo Multichannel
G.711 companding A-law or μ-law, PCM 8 kHz 64 kbit/s 8 bit (log) 125 μs (typical) Yes No No No
G.711.0 Lossless compression of G.711 8 kHz 0.2–65.6 kbit/s 8 bit (log) 5–40 ms No Yes No No
G.711.1 MDCT, A-law, μ-law 8, 16 kHz 64, 80, 96 kbit/s 16 bit 11.875 ms Yes Yes No No
G.718 CELP, MDCT, Lossy 8, 16 kHz 8, 12, 12.65, 16, 24, 32 kbit/s 16 bit 42.875–43.875 ms Yes Yes No No
G.718B CELP, MDCT, Lossy, Sinusoidal Coding 32 kHz 36, 40, 48 kbit/s 16 bit 49.625 ms Yes Yes No No
G.719 MDCT,[67] Lossy (incorporates elements of Siren Codec and Ericsson technology) 48 kHz 32–88 kbit/s in 4 kbit/s steps, 88–128 kbit/s in 8 kbit/s steps 16 bit 40 ms Yes No Yes: only in MPEG-4 Part 12 container Yes: only in MPEG-4 Part 12 container
G.721 ADPCM, Lossy 8 kHz 32 kbit/s 13 bit Yes No No No
G.722 sub-band ADPCM, Lossy 16 kHz 64 kbit/s
(comprises 48, 56 or 64 kbit/s audio and 16, 8 or 0 kbit/s auxiliary data) 		14 bit 4 ms Yes No No No
G.722.1 Modulated Lapped Transform (MDCT), Lossy (based on Siren Codec) 16 kHz 24, 32 kbit/s 16 bit 40 ms Yes No No No
G.722.1C Modulated Lapped Transform (MDCT), Lossy (based on Siren Codec) 32 kHz 24, 32, 48 kbit/s 16 bit 40 ms Yes No No No
G.722.2 (AMR-WB) multi-rate wideband ACELP, Lossy 16 kHz 6.60, 8.85, 12.65, 14.25, 15.85, 18.25, 19.85, 23.05, 23.85 kbit/s 14 bit 25 ms Yes Yes Yes: only in MPEG-4 Part 12 container No
G.723 ADPCM, Lossy 8 kHz 24, 40 kbit/s 13 bit Yes No No No
G.723.1 MP-MLQ, ACELP, Lossy 8 kHz 5.3, 6.3 kbit/s 13 bit 37.5 ms Yes No No No
G.726 ADPCM, Lossy 8 kHz 16, 24, 32, 40 kbit/s 13 bit 125 μs Yes No No No
G.727 ADPCM, Lossy 8 kHz 16, 24, 32, 40 kbit/s 13 bit Yes Yes No No
G.728 low-delay CELP, Lossy 8 kHz 16 kbit/s 13 bit 0.625 ms Yes No No No
G.729 CS-ACELP, Lossy 8 kHz 8 kbit/s 13 bit 15 ms Yes No No No
G.729D CS-ACELP, Lossy 8 kHz 6.4 kbit/s 13 bit Yes No No No
G.729E CS-ACELP, Lossy 8 kHz 11.8 kbit/s 13 bit 15 ms Yes No No No
G.729.1 CELP, TDBWE, TDAC (MDCT), Lossy 8, 16 kHz 8 kbit/s, 12–32 kbit/s in 2 kbit/s steps 16 bit 48.9375 ms Yes Yes No No

Notes

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  • The latency listed here is the total delay (frame size, plus all lookahead) at the normal operating sample rate (typically 44.1 kHz).
  • Lossless compression will have a variable bit rate.

See also

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References

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  33. ^ "Libmsn - is a reusable, open-source, fully documented library for connecting to Microsoft's MSN Messenger service". Libmsn project at Sourceforge.net. 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
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  38. ^ Vorbis website Archived 2008-11-21 at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved 2009-09-01
  39. ^ aoTuV website Archived 2010-05-22 at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved 2009-09-01
  40. ^ WavPack website, Retrieved 2009-09-01
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  48. ^ a b The ffmpeg project has reverse engineered some codecs of the RealAudio and Windows Media Audio (DivX Audio v1 and DivX Audio v2) formats. This enables their use on any POSIX compatible system.
  49. ^ Microsoft has outsourced their WMA support on Mac OS X to Telestream, Inc. who created and maintain Windows Media Components for QuickTime, replacing Windows Media Player for Mac OS.
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  53. ^ MPEG 2 AAC was limited to a 96 kHz sampling rate, however, with MPEG 4 AAC, a later version part of the MPEG 4 specification, the maximum sampling rate has been increased to 192 kHz.
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  62. ^ "DTS-HD and DTS-HD Master Audio: Enabling HD Audio Across an Evolving Media Delivery Landscape", DTS, Inc., October 2012
  63. ^ sample rates from 1 up to 1048575 hertz and bit depths from 4 up to 32 bits [1]
  64. ^ "Monkey's Audio - a fast and powerful lossless audio compressor".
  65. ^ 4 bytes - sample rate
  66. ^ "Tau Projects". en.true-audio.com. Archived from the original on 27 October 2015. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  67. ^ Britanak, Vladimir; Rao, K. R. (2017). Cosine-/Sine-Modulated Filter Banks: General Properties, Fast Algorithms and Integer Approximations. Springer. pp. 31, 478. ISBN 9783319610801.
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