AAC

aac icon

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.

What is aac file?

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:

  • Improved compression provides higher-quality results with smaller file sizes.
  • Support for multichannel audio, providing up to 48 full frequency channels.
  • Higher resolution audio, yielding sampling rates up to 96 kHz.
  • Improved decoding efficiency, requiring less processing power for decode.

History of AAC

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.

How to open aac file?

Use any compatible audio player, such as iTunes, Windows Media Player, Winamp, VLC Media Player to playback .aac audio files.

How to convert aac file?

Use any audio conversion tool or transcoder listed in associated applications.

Suggested software to open aac file:

Associated software actions with the aac file

Software applications that can open aac files:

Adobe Soundbooth icon Adobe Soundbooth (Microsoft Windows)

Audacity icon Audacity (Microsoft Windows)

MediaMonkey icon MediaMonkey (Microsoft Windows)

Helium icon Helium (Microsoft Windows)

WavePad icon WavePad (Microsoft Windows)

Roxio Toast Titanium icon Roxio Toast Titanium (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

Audacity for Mac icon Audacity for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

Audacity for Linux icon Audacity for Linux (Linux/Unix)

Software applications that can edit aac files:

Adobe Soundbooth icon Adobe Soundbooth (Microsoft Windows)

Audacity icon Audacity (Microsoft Windows)

WavePad icon WavePad (Microsoft Windows)

Audacity for Mac icon Audacity for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

Audacity for Linux icon Audacity for Linux (Linux/Unix)

Software capable of saving aac files:

Adobe Soundbooth icon Adobe Soundbooth (Microsoft Windows)

Audacity icon Audacity (Microsoft Windows)

Audacity for Mac icon Audacity for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

Audacity for Linux icon Audacity for Linux (Linux/Unix)

Apps designed for playing aac files:

Media Player icon Media Player (Microsoft Windows)

VLC media player icon VLC media player (Microsoft Windows)

RealPlayer icon RealPlayer (Microsoft Windows)

Adobe Soundbooth icon Adobe Soundbooth (Microsoft Windows)

Audacity icon Audacity (Microsoft Windows)

no icon available Foobar2000 (Microsoft Windows)

Apple iTunes for Windows icon Apple iTunes for Windows (Microsoft Windows)

no icon available WMAConvert Platinum (Microsoft Windows)

ALLPlayer icon ALLPlayer (Microsoft Windows)

MPlayer icon MPlayer (Microsoft Windows)

MediaMonkey icon MediaMonkey (Microsoft Windows)

Helium icon Helium (Microsoft Windows)

Helium Music Manager icon Helium Music Manager (Microsoft Windows)

Microsoft Windows Media Player icon Microsoft Windows Media Player (Microsoft Windows)

Winamp icon Winamp (Microsoft Windows)

Apple iTunes for Mac icon Apple iTunes for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

Play icon Play (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

Roxio Toast Titanium icon Roxio Toast Titanium (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

MPlayer for Mac icon MPlayer for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

VLC media player for Mac icon VLC media player for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

Elmedia Player icon Elmedia Player (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

Audacity for Mac icon Audacity for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

Xine icon Xine (Linux/Unix)

MPlayer for Linux icon MPlayer for Linux (Linux/Unix)

VLC media player for Linux icon VLC media player for Linux (Linux/Unix)

Audacity for Linux icon Audacity for Linux (Linux/Unix)

no icon available UltraMixer (Multiplatform)

no icon available KORG AudioGate (Multiplatform)

VLC media player for Android icon VLC media player for Android (Google Android)

no icon available Music Player & MP3 Player (Google Android)

Software apps that create aac files:

Adobe Soundbooth icon Adobe Soundbooth (Microsoft Windows)

Software apps that record to aac files:

Adobe Soundbooth icon Adobe Soundbooth (Microsoft Windows)

Software apps that convert aac files:

Freemake Audio Converter icon Freemake Audio Converter (Microsoft Windows)

Adobe Soundbooth icon Adobe Soundbooth (Microsoft Windows)

no icon available Switch Audio File Converter Software (Microsoft Windows)

no icon available SUPER (Microsoft Windows)

fre:ac icon fre:ac (Microsoft Windows)

no icon available Aimersoft DRM Media Converter for Windows (Microsoft Windows)

MediaCoder icon MediaCoder (Microsoft Windows)

Freemake Video Converter icon Freemake Video Converter (Microsoft Windows)

Any Audio Converter icon Any Audio Converter (Microsoft Windows)

no icon available BonkEnc Audio Encoder (Microsoft Windows)

no icon available ImTOO DPG Converter (Microsoft Windows)

Xilisoft iPod Rip icon Xilisoft iPod Rip (Microsoft Windows)

no icon available WMAConvert Platinum (Microsoft Windows)

no icon available Ultimate DVD Converter (Microsoft Windows)

Apple iTunes for Windows icon Apple iTunes for Windows (Microsoft Windows)

no icon available Ultimate Video Converter (Microsoft Windows)

no icon available DVD Ripper+Video Converter Ultimate (Microsoft Windows)

MediaMonkey icon MediaMonkey (Microsoft Windows)

Helium icon Helium (Microsoft Windows)

Icecream Media Converter icon Icecream Media Converter (Microsoft Windows)

Helium Music Manager icon Helium Music Manager (Microsoft Windows)

no icon available TAudioConverter Audio Converter (Microsoft Windows)

xrecode icon xrecode (Microsoft Windows)

Apple iTunes for Mac icon Apple iTunes for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

Aimersoft Video Converter for Mac icon Aimersoft Video Converter for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

no icon available FLAC2Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

Audacity for Mac icon Audacity for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

Audacity for Linux icon Audacity for Linux (Linux/Unix)

Software apps that import aac files:

Adobe Soundbooth icon Adobe Soundbooth (Microsoft Windows)

Audacity icon Audacity (Microsoft Windows)

no icon available AVS Audio Converter (Microsoft Windows)

no icon available iPad Video Converter Factory Pro (Microsoft Windows)

VirtualDJ icon VirtualDJ (Microsoft Windows)

Nero Video (Nero Vision Express) icon Nero Video (Nero Vision Express) (Microsoft Windows)

Audacity for Mac icon Audacity for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

Tiny Audio Converter icon Tiny Audio Converter (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

Audacity for Linux icon Audacity for Linux (Linux/Unix)

no icon available KORG AudioGate (Multiplatform)

DaVinci Resolve icon DaVinci Resolve (Multiplatform)

Software apps that export aac files:

Adobe Soundbooth icon Adobe Soundbooth (Microsoft Windows)

Audacity icon Audacity (Microsoft Windows)

no icon available WinX Video Converter (Microsoft Windows)

Nero Recode icon Nero Recode (Microsoft Windows)

Movavi Audio Converter icon Movavi Audio Converter (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

Audacity for Mac icon Audacity for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

DM1 - The Drum Machine icon DM1 - The Drum Machine (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

Tiny Audio Converter icon Tiny Audio Converter (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

Audacity for Linux icon Audacity for Linux (Linux/Unix)

no icon available KORG AudioGate (Multiplatform)

messages.fburn_description:

Apple iTunes for Windows icon Apple iTunes for Windows (Microsoft Windows)

MediaMonkey icon MediaMonkey (Microsoft Windows)

Helium Music Manager icon Helium Music Manager (Microsoft Windows)

Apple iTunes for Mac icon Apple iTunes for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

Roxio Toast Titanium icon Roxio Toast Titanium (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

Software applications that handle other tasks involving aac files:

Apple iTunes for Windows icon Apple iTunes for Windows (Microsoft Windows)

MediaMonkey icon MediaMonkey (Microsoft Windows)