Free Windows Media Converter
Convert video, audio, images, and documents between almost any format. No subscription, no watermark, no license key — just download and go.
One app, six real categories of conversion
Format Factory is a single Windows application that replaces a drawer full of single-purpose converters. It has shipped since 2008, currently as version 5.22.0.0, with a changelog running past eighty numbered releases. We installed the current build and tested every category by hand before writing this page.
Video
Convert between MP4, MKV, AVI, WebM, GIF, FLV, MOV, 3GP and more. Join or split clips, crop frames, remove a logo or watermark (Delogo), add your own watermark, burn in subtitles, and mux separate video, audio, and subtitle tracks into one file.
Audio
Convert MP3, WAV, WMA, FLAC, M4A, AAC, AC3, and DTS. Join or split audio files, mix multiple tracks, and — a genuinely surprising extra — turn typed text into a spoken .wav file (Text→Wav).
Image
Convert JPG, PNG, WebP, BMP, GIF, TIFF, TGA, and ICO. HEIC photos from an iPhone are readable as a source format even though there's no direct HEIC output button.
Document
PDF Joiner, PDF to Word / Excel / plain text, Word to PDF, PDF compression and encryption, and — new in the current release — PDF to Markdown and CAJ to PDF. Optional modules add EPUB, Mobi, and Kindle's AZW3.
Disc & ISO
Rip a Blu-ray disc to MKV, rip a music CD to audio files, and convert between DVD/CD ISO and CSO images. Ripping a standard DVD to a video file requires the free "DVDRipper" add-on module the first time you use it.
Utilities
A batch file renamer, a media-info inspector, and a hardware-acceleration test tool that checks your CPU/GPU (Intel, AMD, NVIDIA) for supported encoders before you convert anything.
Built for occasional conversions
Format Factory is built for people who convert files occasionally rather than professionally — someone who needs to shrink a phone video before emailing it, turn a stack of vacation HEIC photos into JPGs a Windows photo frame can read, pull the audio out of a lecture recording as an MP3, or merge three scanned PDF receipts into one file for an expense report.
Video editors and audio engineers who need frame-accurate control, a full effects chain, or a real timeline are better served by dedicated editing or audio software — Format Factory is a converter with a few editing conveniences attached, not a replacement for a professional NLE or DAW.
Get Format Factory 5.22.0.0
~163 MB, 64-bit Windows only, published by Free Time Software Technology Co., Ltd. The developer's own download server can be slow — this link goes straight to the official installer, verified byte-for-byte against the developer's published file size.
Only 64-bit Windows 7 / 8 / 10 / 11 are supported. Need the old 32-bit line? See compatibility notes below.
Windows only — 64-bit only since 2020
Format Factory 5.22.0.0 runs on Windows only, and since version 5.0.0 (February 2020) it has been 64-bit exclusively — Windows 7, 8, 10, and 11 are all supported, but only in their 64-bit editions. If you're specifically on 32-bit Windows, the last release that supported it was the older v4.10.5.0, distributed separately by the developer.
Format Factory doesn't run natively on macOS, Linux, Android, or iOS — there is no official version for any of them, and no legitimate way to get one, no matter what an “APK” download claims. Windows 11 compatibility wasn't flawless at first: the developer shipped an explicit fix in version 5.8.1 back in 2021, and every release since has been tested against it.
We tested it ourselves, instead of repeating someone else's opinion
Search “is Format Factory safe” and you'll find years of mixed answers. So we installed the current build, converted real files with it, and read the developer's own EULA line by line rather than take a side without checking.
Two things are worth knowing plainly. First, the app's privacy policy discloses that, in exchange for some premium features, you can opt to become a peer on Bright Data's residential proxy network — it's worth reading that section yourself before you decide. Second, there is no separate paid “Pro” version of the app itself, but the built-in Modules manager does offer one specific add-on — an AI voice/music separator called SplitMusic — at a “Platinum” tier. Treat any site selling a Format Factory “license key” or “premium unlock” as suspicious, since that isn't how the real premium feature works.
We also ran the installer through Windows Defender before running it, and — in this one test, on this one machine — Defender flagged it as potentially unwanted software during a file-hash check, though no specific threat name was ever logged. We're reporting that plainly rather than hiding it: it's consistent with how some antivirus heuristics react to freeware that bundles a third-party SDK like Bright Data's, and it did not stop the app from installing or converting files correctly. Our own conversion test — a real PNG screenshot converted to JPG — finished in about a second, with no unexpected pop-ups.
When to reach for something else
Format Factory isn't the right tool for everyone. HandBrake is a stronger, open-source pick if you specifically care about video quality and encoding control. VLC does casual format conversion too, on top of being a media player, and it actually runs on Mac and Linux — useful if that's the compatibility gap you hit above. FFmpeg is the command-line engine that powers Format Factory (and most of the other converters on this list) directly, if you're comfortable with a terminal and want the most control with zero GUI overhead. Our alternatives guide compares all three against Format Factory in detail — but if its Windows-only, GUI-first approach doesn't fit, one of those three almost certainly will.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. The core application — every video, audio, image, and document conversion tool described on this page — is free for personal and commercial use, with no license key. The one exception is the optional SplitMusic add-on module, which has a paid "Platinum" tier; everything else in the Modules manager, including the DVD ripper and ebook converter, is free to download.
Format Factory dropped 32-bit support starting with version 5.0.0 in February 2020. If you're still on a 32-bit install of Windows, the last compatible release is the older v4.10.5.0, which the developer distributes as a separate download from the current 64-bit-only build.
No. Format Factory is Windows-only. There is no official mobile app for Android or iOS and no native build for macOS or Linux — any "Format Factory APK" you find online is not from the developer and shouldn't be trusted.
70, according to the app's own language selector — more than either the developer's website (which says 62) or Wikipedia (66) currently claim. The interface also auto-detects your Windows display language on first launch.
The current release (March 2026) updated the bundled Python runtime to 3.12, added a CAJ-to-PDF module, added Markdown as a document export format, and added video export to the m3u8 streaming format. The previous release, 5.21.0, replaced the built-in video-downloader engine with yt-dlp.
No — conversion itself runs entirely offline on your PC. Format Factory is a desktop application, not a web-based converter; you only need a connection to download the installer, check for updates, or download an optional module like the DVD ripper the first time you use it.