VLC media player
Free, open-source cross-platform media player from the VideoLAN non-profit.
- Pricing
- Open source
- Platforms
- Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android
- Categories
- Games & entertainment, Video
About VLC media player
VLC is a free and open-source multimedia player and framework from VideoLAN, a non-profit organisation. It plays most media files, DVDs, audio CDs, VCDs, webcams, devices and network streams, with built-in support for most codecs (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, MKV, WebM, WMV, MP3 and more) so no codec packs are needed. It can be customised with skins (including a skin editor) and extensions. VideoLAN publishes builds for Windows (including ARM64 and the Windows Store), macOS, many Linux distributions, Android, iOS, Apple TV, Chrome OS and the BSDs, and the underlying libVLC library is used in other software.
Good for
Anyone who needs one player that opens almost any video or audio file, disc or stream without installing extra codecs, on nearly any operating system.
Watch out for
Download only from videolan.org or official app stores; the interface is functional rather than polished, and advanced options are spread across many preference panels.
Pricing notes
As of October 2026 VLC is free with no paid tier; VideoLAN accepts donations. The site says it has no spyware, ads or user tracking.
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