Convert M4A to MP3
Drop an M4A, such as a voice memo from an iPhone or a song from iTunes, and get it back as an MP3, which plays on every phone, car, and old MP3 player. Pick a bitrate, keep the whole file or only part of it, and the size of the MP3 is shown before you download it.
Play the sound to a moment, then press Set from player to use that time as the start or the end. Times can be typed too.
The result appears here once a file is open.
How to use it#
- Drop an M4A onto the box above, or click it to choose one. An M4B audiobook works the same way.
- The bitrate starts at the one the M4A was made at, so the MP3 comes out about the same size. Pick a higher one for music you want at its best.
- To keep only part of it, set the start and end, typed or taken from the player with Set from player.
- Play the MP3 in the preview, then download it.
What an M4A is, and why MP3 still matters#
An M4A is an MP4 file with no picture, holding sound compressed as AAC. It is how Apple's Voice Memos, iTunes, Apple Music downloads, and many Android recorders save sound, and it is a little smaller than an MP3 of the same quality. Every current phone and browser plays it.
MP3 plays in more places still: car stereos, older MP3 players, some smart speakers, upload forms that list MP3 only, and editing apps that never learned AAC. Converting gives you a copy that works in all of them. The title, artist, album, and cover art in the M4A go into the MP3 as ID3 tags, so a song keeps its name and picture.
What it costs to convert#
The AAC sound has to be decoded and encoded again as MP3, and both formats leave detail out, so the MP3 is a copy of a copy. At 192 kbps that is very hard to hear for music, and a voice memo, which a phone records at a low bitrate made for speech, sounds the same at 64 or 96 kbps. The page starts at the bitrate the M4A has, because a higher one only makes the file larger.
Some M4A files cannot be converted by any browser. A voice memo recorded with Lossless Audio turned on, and music ripped as Apple Lossless, hold ALAC rather than AAC, and the page says so when it meets one. Songs streamed through Apple Music and saved for offline listening are locked to the Music app and are not M4A files you can open.
Audiobooks and long recordings#
An M4B is an M4A audiobook under another name, and it converts the same way. The chapter marks it carries do not go into the MP3, which has nowhere standard to hold them, so the result is one long file. Set the start and end to save one chapter at a time.
Length is no problem in a current Chrome, Edge, or Safari, which read the sound a piece at a time. An older Safari, such as Safari 17, reads the whole file at once and handles up to 30 minutes; for a longer recording there, convert it in parts with the start and end.
Frequently asked questions#
How do I convert an iPhone voice memo to MP3?
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In the Voice Memos app, tap the memo, tap the three dots, and choose Save to Files. Then open this page in Safari, tap the box, and choose the memo from Files. The MP3 is saved to Files too, where it shows under Recents.
Does converting M4A to MP3 lose quality?
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A little, because the AAC sound is encoded again as MP3. At 192 kbps for music and 128 kbps for speech the difference is very hard to hear.
Which bitrate should I pick?
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The one the page starts at, which matches the M4A, suits most files. 64 or 96 kbps is enough for a voice memo, 128 kbps for a lecture or a podcast, and 192 kbps for music. Pick 256 or 320 kbps only for music from a high-quality M4A, since an MP3 cannot sound better than the file it came from.
Why is the MP3 bigger than the M4A?
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An MP3's size is set by its bitrate. The page starts at the bitrate the M4A has, so the two come out close, but a higher bitrate than the M4A's makes a larger MP3 that sounds no better. MP3 also needs a little more than AAC for the same sound, so a memo at the lowest rate can still come out slightly larger.
Why does it say my file is a video?
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An M4A and an MP4 video are the same kind of file, told apart by whether they hold a picture. A file with a picture is turned away here, with a link to MP4 to MP3, which takes the sound out of a video.
Why can my M4A not be read?
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It most likely holds Apple Lossless (ALAC), as voice memos recorded with Lossless Audio on and some ripped CDs do, which this page cannot read in any browser. Open it in the Music app or another audio app, and export it as AAC or WAV, then convert that.
Is my file uploaded?
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No. The M4A is read and converted inside this browser tab, and the MP3 is handed straight to your downloads. Nothing is sent to a server.