# Why does MP3 support covers above 16MB and FLAC does not?
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/why-does-mp3-support-covers-above-16mb-and-flac-does-not/64817
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [May 26, 2024, 10:12pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/why-does-mp3-support-covers-above-16mb-and-flac-does-not/64817 "2024-05-26T22:12:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@samiromic](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/samiromic)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2024, 10:12pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/why-does-mp3-support-covers-above-16mb-and-flac-does-not/64817/1 "2024-05-26T22:12:11Z")
I like for my songs to have high quality covers but I don't know why it doesn't work with lossless codecs like FLAC.
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### Author:  [@DPease](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DPease)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2024, 5:19am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/why-does-mp3-support-covers-above-16mb-and-flac-does-not/64817/2 "2024-05-27T05:19:35Z")
I have not experienced what you are referring to. I have had no problems adding higher quality art to large file size FLAC files.
Edit:
So it appears that there is a limit to the file size for artwork because of the 24-bit metadata block length that the field uses.
For MP3 files, I found the following: "size limit on MP3s depends on what version of ID3 tag you use. ID3v2.2 also has a limit of around 16 megabytes per picture. ID3v2.3 and ID3v2.4 aren't really limited on a per-picture basis, but the total size of all pictures can't go above a 268 megabyte limit for any tag version."
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### Author:  [@LyricsLover](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/LyricsLover)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2024, 6:15am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/why-does-mp3-support-covers-above-16mb-and-flac-does-not/64817/3 "2024-05-27T06:15:10Z")
> [@Cannot embed large size cover image(s) for FLAC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/cannot-embed-large-size-cover-image-s-for-flac/42923/5):
>
> FLAC has a limitation of ~16MB because the length field of the metadata block can only hold numbers up to 24bit. I'm moving this to #bug-reports:no-bugs
and since Mp3tag v3.18a there should be an extended error message about this fact:
> [@Missing error message if cover file ist too big](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/missing-error-message-if-cover-file-ist-too-big/58598/5):
>
> I've extended the error message with [Mp3tag v3.18a](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/455). Thanks for pointing!
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### Author:  [@j7n](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/j7n)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2024, 9:54am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/why-does-mp3-support-covers-above-16mb-and-flac-does-not/64817/4 "2024-05-27T09:54:51Z")
Putting a 16 MB cover image inside a music file is unreasonable. They get displayed when clicking through the library and would cause a lag, and defeat the purpose of compression. Usually you would put high resolution images in a subdirectory and have a smaller cleaned up cover to display.
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### Author:  [@samiromic](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/samiromic)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2024, 12:55pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/why-does-mp3-support-covers-above-16mb-and-flac-does-not/64817/5 "2024-05-27T12:55:17Z")
Most of my songs are in 24-bit FLAC or WAV and each is over 300MB so I don't really have a reason for songs or covers to be compressed.
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2024, 1:00pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/why-does-mp3-support-covers-above-16mb-and-flac-does-not/64817/6 "2024-05-27T13:00:20Z")
Isn't it a little vain to discuss the standards?
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2025, 7:21am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/why-does-mp3-support-covers-above-16mb-and-flac-does-not/64817/7 "2025-01-16T07:21:30Z")
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