PIXPUNK
ON YOUR DEVICE · FREE

M4A to MP3

An M4A is what an iPhone voice memo saves as, and what an Apple Music or iTunes purchase arrives as

…

What the conversion sites charge

Convertio$6.99 / monthconverts on their servers, with a daily cap
Zamzar$12 / monthconverts on their servers, with a size cap
CloudConvert$10 / monthconverts on their servers, priced per minute
PixPunkFreeno upload, no account, no daily cap

A protected M4P from the old iTunes store is a different thing and will not decode here or anywhere else without the original account. Their caps exist because every conversion runs on a machine they rent. Yours runs on the machine in front of you.

  1. 1

    Where your M4A came from

    An M4A is what an iPhone voice memo saves as, and what an Apple Music or iTunes purchase arrives as. It is AAC audio in an MPEG-4 container, which is why the extension looks like a video file with a letter changed.

  2. 2

    Why you are converting it

    Car stereos, older players and upload forms that check the extension are the usual reason. MP3 is the format nothing refuses, and for a voice memo you are about to email or attach, refusing is the only failure mode that matters.

  3. 3

    What it costs

    MP3 is lossy and the M4A was already lossy, so this is a second encode on a file that has been through one. At 192 kbps that is inaudible on speech. It is worth knowing rather than worrying about.

FAQ

How do I convert M4A to MP3?
Drop the file on this page and press the button. It runs in your browser, so there is no upload, no account and no daily limit.
Why will my device not open a M4A file?
Car stereos, older DAPs, Windows media software from before about 2015 and a surprising number of upload forms will refuse it outright, usually without saying why.
Is there anything odd about M4A?
A protected M4P from the old iTunes store is a different thing and will not decode here or anywhere else without the original account.
Does converting to MP3 lose quality?
MP3 is lossy and the M4A was already lossy, so this is a second encode on a file that has been through one. At 192 kbps that is inaudible on speech. It is worth knowing rather than worrying about.
Is the file uploaded?
No. The decode and the encode both happen in the page, and no request carries the audio anywhere. Watch the network panel while it runs.

The other tools

fees you stop
paying

$3,042.36 /year

Ten subscriptions at the prices they publish themselves, $253.53 a month, added up. Nothing here counts or stores what you do with the tools: this is arithmetic on a price list, not a tally of what anyone saved. See the list