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 Audio compression format Creator First public release date Latest stable version Cost Proprietary implementations (codecs) Open-source implementations (codecs) Uses Music reproduction (consumer audio) Telephony app Lossless audio compression Patented DRM Encoder Player AAC ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee 1997 ISO/IEC 14496-3 colspan="2" Nero Digital Audio, Apple CoreAudio (via QuickTime, iTunes or afconvertafconvert(1) Manual Page - Apple Developer, retrieved 2015-05-17) , Fraunhofer FDK AAC Digital TV service, Digital Radio, Internet streaming AC-3 Dolby Laboratories 1992 ATSC A52:2018 colspan="2" DVD players, digital television, Camcorder Theatrical movie presentation, Digital TV service & home-video (personal recorders, DVD, etc.) AC-4Dolby Laboratories2014ATSC A342:2022-03colspan="2" Digital television, Harmonic Inc., DS Broadcast, Ateme, Synamedia, Dolby Media Encoder & Dolby Encoding Engine Digital TV service ALAC Apple Inc. 2004-04-28 QuickTime 7.6 colspan="2" QuickTime, iTunes, RealPlayer Music archival Possible, but never implemented ALS ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee 2005 ISO/IEC 14496-3 colspan="2" MPEG-4 ALS - AMBE Digital Voice Systems colspan="2" Low bandwidth HF/VHF digital radio, VoIP trunking AMR 3GPP 1999-06-22 ETSI TS 126 071 V9.0.0 (2009) colspan="2" QuickTime, RealPlayer voice recording AMR-WB(G.722.2) 3GPP 2001-04-10 ETSI TS 126 190 V8.0.0 (2009-01) colspan="2" QuickTime, RealPlayer voice recording AMR-WB+ 3GPP 2004-06-14 ETSI TS 126 290 V8.0.0 (2009-01) colspan="2" voice recording aptX Qualcomm 1989 2007 colspan="2" Broadcast audio codecs: 2wcom systems, Systembase, APT, AVT, Harris Corporation, MAYAH, Prodys, Qbit; wireless headphones: iSkin, JayBird Gear, DTS discs for movies Low latency Studio/transmitter link, Bluetooth A2DP stereo, digital wireless microphone ATRAC Sony Corp. 1991 ATRAC3plus colspan="2" MiniDisc, Walkman, VAIO, Clie, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita, SDDS, SonicStage, SoundForge, RealPlayer, ConnectPlayer voice recording, theatrical movie presentation balroggKamila Szewczyk (iczelia)20261.4 (2026) colspan="2" Music archival BroadVoice (BV16, BV32) Broadcom 2009-08-19 1.2 colspan="2" Speech, VoIP, Low latency, voice recording CELT Xiph.Org Foundation, Jean-Marc Valin 2007-12-08 0.11.1 (merged into Opus) colspan="2" Speech, VoIP, Low latency, Studio/transmitter link, wireless audio Codec2 David Rowe 2010-08-251.2.0 (2023-07-14) colspan="2" Low bandwidth HF/VHF digital radio, VoIP trunking Eclipsa AudioSamsung Electronics and Google (under AOMedia)January 2025 (Commercial brand); October 2023 (IAMF standard)2.0 Eclipsa Audio Internet Streaming, Digital Television Services, Home-video etc. EncodecFacebook2022-10-25v0.1.1 (2022-10-26) colspan="2" Speech, VoIP, voice recording Enhanced AC-3 (E-AC-3) Dolby Laboratories 2004 ATSC A52:2018 colspan="2" Digital television Theatrical movie presentation, digital TV service & home-video (personal recorders, DVD, etc.) EVS Fraunhofer, JVC Kenwood, NTT, NTT Docomo, Panasonic, Ericsson 2014 FLAC Xiph.Org Foundation, Josh Coalson 2001-07-20 1.5.0 (2025-02-11) colspan="2" Music archival G.711 ITU-T 1972 (ITU-T standard from 1988) G.711 Appendix II (02/00) colspan="2" Various proprietary VoIP software voice recording G.722 ITU-T 1988-11 colspan="2" Various proprietary VoIP software voice recording G.722.1 ITU-T 1999-09 G.722.1 (05/05) colspan="2" Various proprietary VoIP software voice recording G.722.2(AMR-WB) ITU-T (adopted directly from 3GPP) 2002-01 G.722.2 (07/03) colspan="2" QuickTime, RealPlayer voice recording, audio G.723.1 ITU-T 1996-03 G.723.1 (05/06) colspan="2" Various proprietary VoIP software voice recording G.726 ITU-T 1990-12 colspan="2" Various proprietary VoIP software voice recording G.728 ITU-T 1992-09 colspan="2" Various proprietary VoIP software voice recording G.729 ITU-T 1996-03 G.729 (06/12) Various proprietary VoIP software voice recording G.729.1 ITU-T 2006-05 G.729.1 Am.8 (03/13) Various proprietary VoIP software voice recording, DECT telephony GSM-FR ETSI Special Mobile Group 1990-1994 (ETS 300 580-2) ETSI EN 300 961 V8.1.1 (2000–11) colspan="2" voice recording HE-AAC ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee 2003 ISO/IEC 14496-3 iLBC Global IP Solutions 2002 RFC 3951 colspan="2" Cisco IP Communicator,Cisco IP Communicator 7.0 Data sheet - support for iLBC Retrieved on 2009-07-08 old versions of SkypeSkype Community, Current Codec Uses , Retrieved on 2009-07-08 voice recording iSAC Global IP Solutions colspan="2" Yahoo! Messenger voice recording LAMichael Bevin2002-09-070.4b (2004-02-08) colspan="2" Winamp with old plugin version, foobar2000 with old plugin version Music archival LC3Bluetooth SIG 2022-04-11 1.03 (2023-05-09) colspan="2" ?Speech LDACSony Corp.2015-04? colspan="2" Sony Walkman, Sony Products, mobile phonesBluetooth audioLHDCSavitech20175.0.6 (2022-08-03) colspan="2" Mobile phones, Bluetooth headphones, Home receiversBluetooth audioL2HCHuawei20203.0 (2023-09-19) colspan="2" Huawei products, EMUI, HarmonyOSAndroid 10, OpenHarmony, Oniro OSBluetooth audio NearLink audioLyraGoogle2021-04-061.32 / V3 (2022-12-21) colspan="2" Google DuoSpeech, VoIP, voice recording Monkey's Audio Matthew T. Ashland 2000 13.18 (2026-07-01) colspan="2" Music Archival MP1 (MPEG-1/2 Audio Layer I)ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee1991-12-06ISO/IEC 11172-3, ISO/IEC 13818-3 colspan="2" - MP2 (MPEG-1/2 Audio Layer II) ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee 1993 ISO/IEC 11172-3, ISO/IEC 13818-3 colspan="2" FFmpeg/Libavcodec, numerous others, see Open Source implementations FFMPEG formats various DVD software, video software, audio software DAB, DVB, DVD, VCD, SVCD Kuro5hin.org (2008-07-20) Patent Status of MPEG-1, H.261 and MPEG-2, Retrieved 2009-09-05 MP3 (MPEG-1/2/2.5 Audio Layer III) ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee 1993 ISO/IEC 11172-3, ISO/IEC 13818-3 colspan="2" FhG, l3enc, MP3enc, (old implementations: Xing TOMPG, SCMPX) - See the main MP3 article for full details. (optional, rarely used) MPEG-H 3D Audio ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee 2013-01 ISO/IEC 23008-3 colspan="2" FhG, MainConcept (encoding only) Digital TV service, voice recording Musepack Frank Klemm/MDT 1997 1.30 (2009-04-02) colspan="2" - Nellymoser Asao Nellymoser Inc. 2002 colspan="2" Adobe Flash, Flash Player voice recording OptimFROGFlorin Ghido2001-12-165.100 (2016-09-02)colspan="2" OptimFROG and some media players (decoding only).Music archival Opus Xiph.Org Foundation, Internet Engineering Task Force 2012-09-11 RFC 6716 (libopus 1.6.1, 2026-01-14) colspan="2" Speech, VoIP, Low latency, Studio/transmitter link, wireless audio, voice recording, WebRTC OSQSteinberg2002? colspan="2" WaveLab Music archivalQOADominic Szablewski2023-02-021.0 (2023-04-24) colspan="2" -SacSebastian Lehmann2006-09-01v0.7.26 (2026-06-10)colspan="2" Music archivalSatinMicrosoft2020 colspan="2" Microsoft Teams, Skype Speech, VoIP, voice recording SBC Bluetooth SIG 2003 A2DP 1.3 (2012-07-24) colspan="2" A2DP Bluetooth audio Shorten Tony Robinson 1993-03-30 3.6.1 (2007-03-19, final release) colspan="2" Shorten - SILK Skype Limited 2009-01-07 Merged into Opus colspan="2" Skype voice recording Siren 7 PictureTel Corp. (now Polycom Inc.) 1999 colspan="2" Microsoft Office Communicator voice recording SNAC Hubert Siuzdak2024-02-201.2.1 (2024-09-11) colspan="2" Speech, VoIP, voice recording Speex Xiph.Org Foundation, Jean-Marc Valin 2003-03-24 1.2.1 (obsoleted by Opus) colspan="2" Adobe Flash Player 10 voice recording SVOPC Skype Limited 2007-03-28 2008-09-23 (Skype 3.8) (replaced by SILK) colspan="2" Skype voice recording Tom's lossless Audio Kompressor Thomas Becker2007-01-262.3.3 (2022-06-30) colspan="2" Winamp with TAK plugin, foobar2000 with plugin, XMPlayMusic archival TSAC Fabrice Bellard 2024-04-08 2024-04-08 colspan="2" Speech, VoIP, voice recording True Audio (TTA) TAU Software 1999 2.3 (2015-02-24) colspan="2" - TwinVQ Nippon Telegraph and Telephone 1996 (?) colspan="2" Winamp with VQF plugin, NTT TwinVQ player/encoder, Yamaha SoundVQ player, Nero Media Player speech USAC Fraunhofer IIS 2012 4.4.0 (2023-06-21) EZ CD Audio Converter, FFmpeg with Mainconcept plugin (encoder only), Sonnox, Apple (decoder only), QuickTime (Mac version & decoder only). - Vorbis (Ogg) Xiph.Org Foundation 2000-05-11 1.3.7 (2020-07-04) colspan="2" - WAV IBM, Microsoft 1991-08 2007-03-07 colspan="2" Music archival WavPack Conifer Software 1998 5.9.0 (2026-01-16) colspan="2" Music archival Windows Media Audio Microsoft 1999 11.0 Windows Media Player, Windows Media Encoder internet streaming Audio compression format Creator First public release date Latest stable version Encoder Player Proprietary implementations (codecs) Open-source implementations (codecs) Uses Music reproduction (consumer audio) Telephony app Lossless audio compression Patented DRM cost
Notes 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. 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. Latest stable version is that of specification or reference tools. 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 Codec Windows macOS Linux BSD Unix Palm OS Symbian OS Rockbox iOS Android Chromium HarmonyOS OpenHarmony Oniro OS AAC AC-3 ALAC ALS aptX CELT E-AC3 Eclipsa FLAC LC3 L2HC Monkey's Audio MP3 Musepack Opus RealAudioThe 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. Speex True Audio (TTA) USAC Vorbis WavPack WMA 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.
Multimedia frameworks support Audio compression format ACM DirectShow QuickTime GStreamer FFmpeg Media Foundation 8SVX (ffdshow) (ffdshow) (Perian) (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) (ffdshow) AAC (ffdshow, Monogram) (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) AC3 (ffdshow) (Perian) (GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in) AC4 (GStreamer external plugins with Dolby proprietary libraries) ALS AMR About QuickTime 6.3 (Apple Knowledge Base), In QuickTime 6.3 the AMR codec is natively supported and the .AMR file format supported with the free-to-download 3GPP Component, Retrieved 2012-12-11