AIFC to AIFF Converter

AIFC to AIF Converter

AIFC (.aifc, also written AIFF-C) and AIF (.aif) are two members of the same Apple audio family. AIFC is the compression-capable variant of AIFF; plain AIF is the classic uncompressed form. Converting AIFC to AIF rewraps your audio into the broadest, most widely-readable AIFF flavor — and what happens to file size and quality depends entirely on what your AIFC actually contains, which this page explains in full.

AIFC and AIF at a Glance

.aif and .aiff are the same format with two spellings of the extension — .aif is the older three-letter DOS-style name, technically identical to .aiff. AIFC is a superset: the same container chunks plus a compression type stored in the file's COMM chunk.

What Actually Happens When You Convert AIFC to AIF

The honest answer has two branches, because an AIFC file can hold two very different kinds of audio:

• If your AIFC already holds uncompressed PCM (the common case — most AIFC files just carry NONE or sowt PCM), converting to AIF is effectively a near re-wrap. The audio samples are identical, so there is no quality loss and no quality gain, and the file size stays in the same class — roughly 10 MB per minute for CD-quality stereo. You're trading the AIFF-C identifier for the classic AIFF identifier that older software is happier to open.
• If your AIFC holds a compressed codec (μ-law, A-law, IMA ADPCM, MACE), converting to AIF decompresses it back to PCM. That stops any further degradation and gives you a clean editing master, but it cannot recover detail the original lossy codec already discarded — and the decoded file will be larger than the compressed AIFC it came from.

There is no fixed "compression ratio" for AIF: it is uncompressed PCM, so its size is set purely by duration, sample rate, bit depth, and channel count, not by any compression setting.

How to Convert AIFC to AIF

1. Upload Your AIFC File: Drag and drop your .aifc file or click "+ Add Files" to load one or several at once. Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection and processed on our servers.
2. Set Audio Sample Rate (Optional): Leave Audio Sample Rate on Original to keep the source rate (44.1 kHz for CD-quality), or pick a target rate only if you specifically need to resample.
3. Adjust Audio Channel or Trim (Optional): Use Audio Channel to keep the original layout or downmix stereo to mono, and use Trim to cut a clip down to a start point and duration before conversion.
4. Convert and Download: Click "Convert" to get your .aif file. No sign-up, no watermark; files auto-delete from our servers after a few hours.

Where to Convert Instead

AIF is uncompressed, so it is large and Mac-leaning. If your goal is sharing or storage rather than a Mac-native master, two other targets are usually better:

• For everyday sharing and a far smaller file, use AIFC to MP3 — lossy but a fraction of the size.
• For an uncompressed file that Windows tools treat as the default, use AIFC to WAV — WAV is the little-endian PCM equivalent and the Windows-standard counterpart to AIFF.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is AIFC the same as AIFF?

Not quite. AIFF (.aif / .aiff) stores only uncompressed PCM. AIFC (.aifc, AIFF-C) uses the same IFF container but adds a compression-type field in its COMM chunk, so it can hold either PCM or a compressed codec such as μ-law, A-law, IMA ADPCM, or MACE. AIFC is best thought of as the compression-capable superset of AIFF.

Will I lose any quality converting AIFC to AIF?

It depends on what's inside the AIFC. If the AIFC already holds uncompressed PCM — the typical case — the conversion is a lossless re-wrap and the samples are unchanged. If the AIFC holds a lossy codec, converting to AIF decompresses it to clean PCM, which stops further loss but cannot restore detail the original compression already discarded. In our testing, a CD-quality 44.1 kHz/16-bit PCM AIFC came through as a bit-identical 44.1 kHz/16-bit AIF.

Will the AIF file be bigger than my AIFC?

Only if your AIFC was compressed. A PCM-based AIFC converts to an AIF of essentially the same size (~10 MB per minute for 44.1 kHz/16-bit stereo). An AIFC that used μ-law, A-law, or another codec expands when decoded to PCM, so the resulting AIF can be several times larger.

What's the difference between .aif and .aiff?

None functionally. .aif is the older three-letter extension and .aiff is the longer modern spelling; both name the identical Audio Interchange File Format. Software that reads one reads the other. The .aif form predates long filenames and is sometimes preferred for compatibility with very old audio tools.

What can open an AIF file?

On macOS, QuickTime Player, Music/iTunes, GarageBand, and Logic open AIF natively. On Windows, AIF isn't universally supported by Windows Media Player without codecs, but VLC, foobar2000, and Audacity all open and edit it. Cross-platform DAWs and editors — Audacity, Ableton Live, FL Studio, Adobe Audition — read AIFF PCM directly, which is why classic uncompressed AIF is the safest AIFF flavor to hand to older or non-Apple software.

Why convert AIFC to AIF instead of leaving it as AIFC?

Some older or non-Apple audio software opens classic uncompressed AIFF cleanly but chokes on AIFF-C, especially when the AIFC uses an unusual compression codec it doesn't recognize. Converting to plain AIF guarantees an uncompressed PCM payload that the widest range of editors and players will accept.

Is anything stored on your servers?

Your file is uploaded over an encrypted connection, converted on our servers, and then deleted automatically after a few hours. No account is required, there are no watermarks, and files are never shared or made public.