Advanced audio coding stream file
File type: Mobile ringtone file, Audio and sound file
An aac file extension is associated with the Advanced audio coding file format (AAC) that provides audio encoding with better sound quality and compression ratio than older formats, such as mp3 or ogg.
File type category:
Mobile ringtone file
Audio and sound file
Date updated: July 13, 2025
Files with aac extension are mostly sound files encoded by Advanced Audio Codec. AAC is a lossy digital audio compression format. Because of its exceptional performance and quality, AAC is at the core of the MPEG-4, 3GPP and 3GPP2 specifications and is the audio codec of choice for Internet, wireless and digital broadcast arenas.
AAC was designed as an improved-performance codec relative to MP3 (which was specified in MPEG-1 and MPEG-2) by the ISO/IEC in 11172-3 and 13818-3.
AAC provides audio encoding that compresses much more efficiently than older formats, such as MP3 or OGG, yet delivers quality rivaling that of uncompressed CD audio.
Features of AAC format
AAC was promoted as the successor to MP3 for audio coding at medium to high bitrates. When compared side-by-side, AAC proves itself worthy of replacing MP3 as the new Internet audio standard the advantages over MP3 are:
Advanced Audio Coding was developed with the cooperation and contributions of companies mainly including Dolby, Fraunhofer (FhG), AT&T, Sony and Nokia, and was officially declared an international standard by the Moving Pictures Experts Group in April of 1997.
AAC was written into specification as Part 7 of the MPEG-2 standard, and again into Part 3 of the MPEG-4 standard. As such, AAC can be referred to as MPEG-2 Part 7 and MPEG-4 Part 3 depending on its implementation, but is most often referred to as MPEG-4 AAC, or AAC for short.
However, MP4 usually refers to the format described in MPEG-4 Part 14, which is a container format for carriage of video and audio data.
Use any compatible audio player, such as iTunes, Windows Media Player, Winamp, VLC Media Player to playback .aac audio files.
Use any audio conversion tool or transcoder listed in associated applications.
Adobe Soundbooth (Microsoft Windows)
Audacity (Microsoft Windows)
MediaMonkey (Microsoft Windows)
Helium (Microsoft Windows)
WavePad (Microsoft Windows)
Roxio Toast Titanium (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Audacity for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Audacity for Linux (Linux/Unix)
Adobe Soundbooth (Microsoft Windows)
Audacity (Microsoft Windows)
WavePad (Microsoft Windows)
Audacity for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Audacity for Linux (Linux/Unix)
Adobe Soundbooth (Microsoft Windows)
Audacity (Microsoft Windows)
Audacity for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Audacity for Linux (Linux/Unix)
Media Player (Microsoft Windows)
VLC media player (Microsoft Windows)
RealPlayer (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Soundbooth (Microsoft Windows)
Audacity (Microsoft Windows)
Foobar2000 (Microsoft Windows)
Apple iTunes for Windows (Microsoft Windows)
WMAConvert Platinum (Microsoft Windows)
ALLPlayer (Microsoft Windows)
MPlayer (Microsoft Windows)
MediaMonkey (Microsoft Windows)
Helium (Microsoft Windows)
Helium Music Manager (Microsoft Windows)
Microsoft Windows Media Player (Microsoft Windows)
Winamp (Microsoft Windows)
Apple iTunes for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Play (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Roxio Toast Titanium (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
MPlayer for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
VLC media player for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Elmedia Player (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Audacity for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Xine (Linux/Unix)
MPlayer for Linux (Linux/Unix)
VLC media player for Linux (Linux/Unix)
Audacity for Linux (Linux/Unix)
UltraMixer (Multiplatform)
KORG AudioGate (Multiplatform)
VLC media player for Android (Google Android)
Music Player & MP3 Player (Google Android)
Adobe Soundbooth (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Soundbooth (Microsoft Windows)
Freemake Audio Converter (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Soundbooth (Microsoft Windows)
Switch Audio File Converter Software (Microsoft Windows)
SUPER (Microsoft Windows)
fre:ac (Microsoft Windows)
Aimersoft DRM Media Converter for Windows (Microsoft Windows)
MediaCoder (Microsoft Windows)
Freemake Video Converter (Microsoft Windows)
Any Audio Converter (Microsoft Windows)
BonkEnc Audio Encoder (Microsoft Windows)
ImTOO DPG Converter (Microsoft Windows)
Xilisoft iPod Rip (Microsoft Windows)
WMAConvert Platinum (Microsoft Windows)
Ultimate DVD Converter (Microsoft Windows)
Apple iTunes for Windows (Microsoft Windows)
Ultimate Video Converter (Microsoft Windows)
DVD Ripper+Video Converter Ultimate (Microsoft Windows)
MediaMonkey (Microsoft Windows)
Helium (Microsoft Windows)
Icecream Media Converter (Microsoft Windows)
Helium Music Manager (Microsoft Windows)
TAudioConverter Audio Converter (Microsoft Windows)
xrecode (Microsoft Windows)
Apple iTunes for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Aimersoft Video Converter for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
FLAC2Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Audacity for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Audacity for Linux (Linux/Unix)
Adobe Soundbooth (Microsoft Windows)
Audacity (Microsoft Windows)
AVS Audio Converter (Microsoft Windows)
iPad Video Converter Factory Pro (Microsoft Windows)
VirtualDJ (Microsoft Windows)
Nero Video (Nero Vision Express) (Microsoft Windows)
Audacity for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Tiny Audio Converter (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Audacity for Linux (Linux/Unix)
KORG AudioGate (Multiplatform)
DaVinci Resolve (Multiplatform)
Adobe Soundbooth (Microsoft Windows)
Audacity (Microsoft Windows)
WinX Video Converter (Microsoft Windows)
Nero Recode (Microsoft Windows)
Movavi Audio Converter (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Audacity for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
DM1 - The Drum Machine (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Tiny Audio Converter (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Audacity for Linux (Linux/Unix)
KORG AudioGate (Multiplatform)
Apple iTunes for Windows (Microsoft Windows)
MediaMonkey (Microsoft Windows)
Helium Music Manager (Microsoft Windows)
Apple iTunes for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Roxio Toast Titanium (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Apple iTunes for Windows (Microsoft Windows)
MediaMonkey (Microsoft Windows)