Convert WAV to AAC Online
Convert uncompressed WAV to high-quality AAC. Free, in your browser, no file uploads.
.wav · up to 100 MB
What you can do
WAV to AAC: the Apple standard from a lossless source
iTunes Plus standard
256 kbps AAC-LC: the same format as Apple Music and iTunes Store since 2009.
100% private
FFmpeg WebAssembly processes audio in your browser. Never uploaded to any server.
Apple ecosystem
Compatible with iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, AirPods, and any iOS/macOS app.
Instant
No queues, no waiting. Direct conversion on your device.
How it works
Three steps, no hassle
Upload your WAV file
Drag or select your .wav file. Accepts 16-bit and 24-bit PCM WAV, mono or stereo.
Choose the bitrate
Select between 64, 128, 192, or 256 kbps. For high-quality music compatible with Apple, 256 kbps AAC is the iTunes Plus standard since 2009.
Download the AAC
Get an .m4a file ready for iTunes, Apple Music, iPhone, iPad, and any MPEG-4 Audio-compatible player.
FAQ
Got questions?
When converting from WAV (lossless source), the AAC encoder works with pure audio without prior artifacts, meaning it can extract maximum performance from each quality level. Practical recommendations: 128 kbps AAC-LC for general use and distribution where size matters (roughly equivalent in subjective quality to 192 kbps MP3); 192 kbps AAC-LC for high subjective quality under most listening conditions; 256 kbps AAC-LC for the iTunes Plus standard, maximum compatibility with Apple Music and Apple TV, and indistinguishable from the original for the vast majority of listeners; 320 kbps AAC-LC for archival or when storage is unlimited (diminishing returns vs. 256 kbps are very small in controlled ABX tests). For podcasts and voice content, 64–96 kbps is completely sufficient.
It depends on the use case. The general rule in audio production is to keep master files in lossless format (WAV, FLAC, AIFF, Apple Lossless ALAC) and generate lossy distribution versions (AAC, MP3, OGG) from those masters. Converting WAV to AAC is completely appropriate for: distribution on streaming platforms like Apple Music, Spotify, or YouTube; publication in digital stores (Bandcamp, Beatport, Junodownload) that accept or prefer AAC; use in iOS/macOS applications where AAC is the native format; size reduction for secondary storage when the original WAV is preserved. Converting from WAV is always preferable to converting from a prior MP3 or AAC, as it avoids the accumulated degradation of multiple lossy compression stages.
For most high-quality music distribution uses, 256 kbps AAC-LC is the recommended setting. This is exactly the setting Apple adopted in 2009 for iTunes Plus, when it migrated the entire iTunes Store from 128 kbps to 256 kbps and removed DRM. In MUSHRA tests (ITU-R BS.1534 methodology for subjective audio evaluation) with 256 kbps AAC-LC encoded from WAV, the mean score exceeds 90/100 (the criterion for 'excellent' quality). For cases where file size is the priority (mobile streaming, applications with limited bandwidth), 128 kbps AAC-LC offers subjectively equivalent quality to 192–224 kbps MP3 and is sufficient for the vast majority of listening conditions on mobile devices.
AAC is technically superior to MP3 on all relevant parameters when converting from WAV. AAC reaches the subjective transparency threshold at 128–160 kbps; MP3 does so at 192–256 kbps. This means a 128 kbps AAC from WAV sounds comparably to a 192 kbps MP3, taking up the same or less space. AAC has native support on all Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, AirPods), Android, Windows 10+, all modern streaming services, and any current media player. The only reason to prefer MP3 over AAC from WAV would be needing compatibility with very old hardware players (pre-2005) that do not support AAC. For any modern use, AAC is the correct choice.
Yes, with nuances. Apple Music distributes its catalog in AAC at 256 kbps AAC-LC with Dolby Atmos/Spatial Audio for Lossless and Spatial Audio content. Standard Apple Music content is AAC-LC at 256 kbps. iTunes Store sells music in AAC at 256 kbps (iTunes Plus format since 2009). Spotify uses different codecs depending on the platform: Vorbis OGG on desktop (Windows, macOS, Linux) and Android; AAC on iOS (due to Apple restrictions favoring AAC on iOS); and in some contexts, Vorbis also on Android. YouTube stores and distributes its video audio in AAC at 128–192 kbps (in MP4 containers) in addition to Opus at various bitrates (in WebM containers). Dolby Digital Plus (E-AC-3) is an extension of the AAC standard used on Apple TV+, Disney+, Netflix, and Amazon Prime for 5.1 and 7.1 surround audio.
It is a direct historical and technical relationship. Dolby Laboratories was one of the five original developers of AAC (alongside Fraunhofer IIS, AT&T Bell Labs, Sony, and Nokia) in the consortium that created MPEG-2 AAC in 1997. Dolby subsequently developed extensions of the AAC standard: AC-3 (Dolby Digital) is a separate audio codec standardized in ATSC A/52 and used in DVD, Blu-ray, and digital television broadcasts; E-AC-3 (Dolby Digital Plus, DD+) is an AC-3 extension adopted in HDMI 1.3 (2006) and used by streaming services (Netflix requires E-AC-3 for its 5.1 audio on Apple devices); Dolby Atmos uses E-AC-3 as transport for spatial audio with object metadata. For conventional stereo audio for distribution on platforms like Apple Music, AAC-LC at 256 kbps remains the reference standard.
Convert WAV to AAC: the best source for the best result
Converting WAV to AAC is technically the best practice for obtaining maximum-quality AAC audio. WAV (Waveform Audio File Format), developed jointly by Microsoft and IBM in 1991, stores audio in uncompressed PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) format. A 44.1 kHz, 16-bit, stereo WAV file occupies approximately 10 MB per minute. A 48 kHz, 24-bit WAV (the standard in professional audio production and studio mixing) occupies approximately 17 MB per minute. This uncompressed representation is the ideal source for any lossy encoding process like AAC, because the encoder works with the original audio signal without prior compression artifacts. AAC (Advanced Audio Coding), standardized in 1997 by the MPEG consortium with contributions from Dolby, Fraunhofer, AT&T, Sony, and Nokia, is designed to maximize perceptual quality within the psychoacoustic limitations of the human ear. The AAC encoder uses a psychoacoustic model that simultaneously analyzes the frequency spectrum and temporal properties of the audio to determine what information can be discarded without being perceived by the listener. The dynamic range perceived by the human ear is approximately 120 dB (from the threshold of hearing to the threshold of pain), but sensitivity varies enormously by frequency (Fletcher-Munson equal-loudness contours, 1933, updated as ISO 226:2003). AAC exploits these contours to assign more bits to frequencies where the ear is most sensitive (1–4 kHz) and fewer bits to frequencies where it is less sensitive (above 12 kHz and below 50 Hz).
The adoption of AAC as the music distribution standard was led by Apple. In April 2003, Apple launched the iTunes Music Store with a catalog of 200,000 songs at $0.99 each, all in AAC format at 128 kbps protected with FairPlay DRM. In the first 6 days, 1 million songs were sold. In May 2007, Apple announced iTunes Plus: DRM-free songs at 256 kbps AAC. In January 2009, the entire iTunes Store migrated to iTunes Plus, removing DRM from all songs. This Apple decision established 256 kbps AAC-LC as the reference quality standard for digital music distribution. Modern streaming services adopted AAC extensively. Spotify uses AAC on iOS (the operating system's native format) and Vorbis on other platforms. YouTube stores its audio in AAC for MP4 streams (the dominant format for browser playback) in addition to Opus for WebM. Apple Music, since its launch in June 2015, uses AAC at 256 kbps as the base format and has added higher layers: AAC Lossless (ALAC, Apple Lossless Audio Codec), Hi-Res Lossless (ALAC up to 192 kHz/24-bit), and Dolby Atmos for spatial content. For distribution on these platforms, a WAV at 44.1 kHz/24-bit converted to 256 kbps AAC-LC meets all technical requirements.
For professional music production, the standard workflow with AAC is: (1) record and mix in WAV or AIFF format at 48 kHz or 96 kHz, 24-bit (the sample rate and bit depth of professional studio equipment); (2) master the resulting audio, also in 24-bit WAV; (3) dither to 16-bit for the CD master (if applicable) with noise shaping (TPDF dithering or similar); (4) export to AAC at 256 kbps for digital distribution from the 24-bit WAV (not from the 16-bit dithered WAV, to preserve the maximum source resolution). This sequence ensures the final AAC is generated from the best possible source. In terms of compatibility of the resulting .m4a file: M4A is simply an MPEG-4 container (ISO/IEC 14496-12) with a specific file extension for audio. An .m4a file with AAC-LC audio is playable by: iTunes/Music on macOS and Windows; all iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch); all Android devices (native support since Android 1.5, 2009); Windows Media Player on Windows 10+ (through Media Foundation); VLC Media Player on all platforms; FFmpeg (native decoding); and any streaming service that accepts uploads in AAC format.