About AIFF Files
AIFF Audio
AIFF is Apple's uncompressed audio format, equivalent to WAV in the macOS ecosystem. It stores CD-quality PCM audio and is widely used in professional audio production on Apple hardware.
Family
Audio Files
Extension
.aiff
MIME Type
audio/aiff, audio/x-aiff
Can Use As
HOW AIFF
CAME TO BE.
AIFF — Audio Interchange File Format — shipped with Apple\u2019s Audio IFF specification in 1988, based on Electronic Arts\u2019 Interchange File Format (IFF). The goal matched WAV\u2019s on Windows: a simple uncompressed container for studio-quality audio. AIFF stores PCM samples in big-endian order (because it came from the 68000-era Macintosh) while WAV stores them little-endian (Intel x86). That\u2019s the only meaningful difference between the two.
AIFF was the native audio format of classic Mac OS and remains ubiquitous in professional audio workflows on macOS. Pro Tools, Logic Pro, and most audio-for-video pipelines accept AIFF without conversion. A compressed variant, AIFF-C, allows codecs like IMA ADPCM or MACE, but in practice "AIFF" almost always means uncompressed PCM.
CURIOSITIES &
TRIVIA.
AIFF and WAV store the same data — the only difference is byte order (AIFF is big-endian, WAV is little-endian).
AIFF descends from Electronic Arts' Interchange File Format, used in 1985 for Amiga IFF graphics.
Pro Tools and Logic Pro prefer AIFF over WAV because classic Macs were big-endian.
AIFF files carry four-character "chunk IDs" like SSND (sound data) and COMM (common info) readable in a hex editor.
The compressed variant AIFF-C is so rare that most audio software treats "AIFF" as a synonym for uncompressed PCM.
STRENGTHS &
LIMITATIONS.
Strengths
- Lossless and uncompressed — bit-exact audio reproduction.
- Native to macOS and all Apple Pro Audio apps.
- Simple structure — trivially parsed by audio libraries.
- Supports up to 32-bit float, 192 kHz, and multi-channel audio.
- Rich metadata via named chunks (annotations, markers, MIDI).
Limitations
- Enormous file sizes — 10 MB per minute at CD quality.
- No built-in compression — use FLAC for lossless with smaller files.
- Big-endian byte order confuses tools written on little-endian hardware.
- Less common on Windows; WAV is the local equivalent.
Typical Sizes & Weights
3-min song (CD quality)
30 MB
3-min song (24-bit / 96 kHz)
100 MB
Full album (CD, 10 tracks)
450 MB
Technical Specifications
- MIME types
- audio/aiff, audio/x-aiff
- Extensions
- .aif, .aiff, .aifc
- Byte order
- Big-endian
- Max bit depth
- 32 bits (PCM or float)
- Max sample rate
- 192 kHz (practical); unlimited (spec)
CONVERT FROM
AIFF
CONVERT TO
AIFF
Common Use Cases
Mac audio production, music mastering, professional editing.
Popular AIFF conversions
The most-requested destinations when starting from AIFF.
Frequently Asked Questions about AIFF
Frequently Asked Questions
AIFF (AIFF Audio) is an audio file format used to store sound recordings — music, voice, podcasts, sound effects. The format defines how the audio samples are compressed (or stored raw), what bitrates are supported, and how metadata such as title, artist, album, and cover art is embedded. It is part of the audio files family.
VLC, foobar2000, and the default media players on Windows and macOS handle AIFF natively. On mobile, iOS Music and Android media apps vary in their support — popular formats work everywhere; niche ones may need a dedicated app. If playback fails on a device, converting to MP3 or AAC usually solves it.
Upload the AIFF to KaijuConverter and pick MP3, WAV, FLAC, AAC, OGG, or any other target. Our FFmpeg pipeline decodes the audio and re-encodes to the target format at sensible default bitrates (VBR ~190 kbps for music, 96 kbps for speech). Metadata and cover art travel with the audio where both formats support them.
AIFF can be lossy or lossless depending on the specific variant. Lossy variants (smaller files) discard some audio detail during compression in ways tuned to be inaudible; lossless variants preserve every sample exactly but produce larger files. For distribution, lossy at high bitrate is standard; for archival, lossless wins.