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APE converter

Convert Monkey's Audio (APE) to MP3 or FLAC.

Free & unlimited
All processing happens in your browser — files never leave your device. The audio engine loads once from a CDN.

Monkey's Audio, extension .ape, is a lossless codec that compresses slightly harder than FLAC at the cost of being far slower and supported by far less software. It was popular in the 2000s for CD archiving, particularly for whole-disc rips paired with a CUE sheet, and collections in it are now awkward to play — most phones, car stereos, streaming servers and music apps do not read APE at all. This converter decodes APE in your browser and writes FLAC or MP3. FLAC is the default and the right answer: it is equally lossless, so nothing is lost in the move, and it is supported nearly everywhere APE is not.

Key facts about APE converter

Key facts about APE converter
What APE isMonkey's Audio, a lossless codec that typically compresses a few percent smaller than FLAC
Why it is a problemSupport is thin. Most phones, car head units, streaming servers and music apps have no APE decoder
APE to FLAC is lossless to losslessBoth formats store the complete original signal, so this conversion loses nothing at all
APE to MP3 is notThat discards audio permanently. Only do it for a listening copy, keeping the lossless original
Default outputFLAC, because it preserves everything and solves the compatibility problem in one step
Size after conversion to FLACUsually a few percent larger than the APE, since FLAC trades a little compression for much faster decoding
MP3 bitrates192, 256 and 320 kbps, default 320 because the source is lossless
CUE sheetsA whole-disc .ape with a .cue file converts as one long track; track splitting needs desktop software that reads the CUE
BatchConvert several .ape files at once and download them as a ZIP built in the browser
Size cap200 MB per file, which a full-disc APE image can approach

What happens to your file

The decode and re-encode run on ffmpeg compiled to WebAssembly in a Web Worker inside this tab — the Monkey's Audio decoder is part of that engine. Your .ape files go into the worker's in-memory filesystem and the results come back as blobs; the batch ZIP is built in the browser. Nothing is uploaded and no copy is kept. The one network request is the first-time download of the ffmpeg core, about 32 MB of fixed public code from the jsDelivr CDN, cached afterwards and shared with every audio tool here.

About this tool

  1. 1

    Add your APE files

    Drop one or several .ape files, up to 200 MB each. A full-disc image from a CD rip can approach that.

  2. 2

    Choose FLAC

    It is the default for a reason: equally lossless, so the audio is unchanged, and readable by essentially every player, phone and streaming server.

  3. 3

    Or choose MP3 for a listening copy

    320 kbps from a lossless source is close to transparent. Keep the original or the FLAC as your master — MP3 is a one-way door.

  4. 4

    Convert

    Files process in sequence with per-file progress. APE decoding is heavy, so allow more time than a FLAC or WAV input would need.

  5. 5

    Check one file

    Play the result in the page before you commit to deleting a whole collection of originals.

  6. 6

    Download

    Individually or as a ZIP, ready to drop into a music library that refused to read the APE.

Specs & compatibility
InputMonkey's Audio (.ape), up to 200 MB per file
Output formatsFLAC (lossless, default) and MP3 (lossy)
MP3 bitrates192, 256 or 320 kbps
Preserved in FLACSample rate, bit depth and channel count, exactly — the audio is bit-identical
Batch outputIndividual downloads or one client-side ZIP
EngineSingle-threaded ffmpeg.wasm 0.12.10 with the native APE decoder
Decode speedAPE decoding is computationally heavy by design, especially at high compression settings — expect this to be slower than FLAC or WAV input
BrowsersChrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari 15+
  • Pick FLAC unless you specifically want a small listening file. APE to FLAC is lossless to lossless — nothing is lost and nearly everything can play the result.
  • The FLAC will usually be a few percent larger than the APE. That is the trade Monkey's Audio makes: slightly tighter compression, much slower decoding.
  • Whole-disc APE images with a CUE sheet convert as one continuous track here. Splitting into individual tracks needs desktop software that parses the CUE.
  • If you want both, convert to FLAC for the archive and then use the FLAC to MP3 tool to make listening copies from it.
  • Do not delete the originals until you have played a converted file end to end. Decoding a very long disc image is where problems surface.
  • APE decoding is slow on purpose — its high compression modes are computationally expensive — so a large batch takes real time in single-threaded WebAssembly.
  • For a library migration, FLAC is the format everything supports: Plex, Jellyfin, Roon, phones, modern car stereos and every desktop player.
  • Decodes Monkey's Audio in the browser
  • Lossless FLAC output by default
  • MP3 output at 192, 256 or 320 kbps
  • Sample rate, bit depth and channels preserved in FLAC
  • Batch conversion with per-file progress
  • ZIP download for whole collections
  • In-page playback of the result
  • Migrating an old Monkey's Audio CD archive to FLAC so a music server can read it
  • Getting APE files onto a phone, which will not play them natively
  • Converting a whole-disc APE rip into something a modern player will open
  • Making MP3 listening copies from a lossless APE collection
  • Standardising a mixed lossless library on FLAC
  • Recovering access to a 2000s-era archive after changing music software
APE is Monkey's Audio, a lossless codec from the early 2000s that compresses a few percent smaller than FLAC. Its weakness is not quality but ecosystem: the decoder is computationally heavy and the format never gained broad adoption, so phones, car stereos, streaming servers such as Plex and Jellyfin, and most desktop music apps have no APE support. FLAC won that competition by being fast to decode, openly specified and adopted early, which is why APE collections eventually need converting.
No. Both are lossless codecs, meaning both store the complete original waveform and both decode back to exactly the same samples. Converting between them is a pure repackaging: the APE is decoded to PCM and the PCM is re-compressed losslessly as FLAC, and the audio in the resulting file is bit-identical to what was in the APE. This is the one migration you can perform on a music archive with no quality consequence whatsoever.
Because that is the trade Monkey's Audio makes. Its higher compression modes use more complex prediction, which squeezes out a few extra percent at the cost of substantially slower decoding — high-compression APE can be demanding enough to strain low-powered players. FLAC deliberately settles for slightly less compression in exchange for fast, cheap decoding on any hardware. A few percent more disk space is a small price for a format everything can actually play.
Only as a second step, for listening copies. Converting APE to MP3 discards audio permanently, and once you have deleted the APE there is no route back to lossless. The sensible pattern is to convert the archive to FLAC first, which costs nothing, and then generate MP3s from the FLAC whenever you need them for a phone or a car. If you convert straight to MP3 and delete the originals, the lossless collection is gone.
They convert, but as a single continuous track. A lot of APE archives are one file per CD with an accompanying .cue file listing the track boundaries, and this tool converts the audio without parsing the CUE — so you get one long FLAC or MP3 rather than twelve separate tracks. Splitting requires software that reads the CUE sheet and cuts at the listed offsets. If you need individual tracks, do the split on the desktop before or after converting here.
No. The Monkey's Audio decode and the FLAC or MP3 encode are performed by ffmpeg compiled to WebAssembly, running in a Web Worker on your own device. Your .ape files go into that worker's in-memory filesystem and the results come back as blobs in your tab; the batch ZIP is assembled in the browser. The only network request is the one-time fetch of the ffmpeg core, about 32 MB of fixed public code from the jsDelivr CDN.

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