Convertessa

Convert AC-3 to AAC. Offline.

Your files stay on your Mac.

Get the app
1,100+ conversion combinations ›_Command-line included
Convertessa app window showing the format catalog and drop area
What it does

What AC-3-to-AAC conversion does

AC-3 (Dolby Digital) is a multi-channel audio codec used in DVDs, Blu-rays, and broadcast TV. Converting AC-3 to AAC produces audio broadly supported by Apple devices, streaming platforms, and mobile apps. Convertessa runs the entire conversion on your Mac — your files never leave the machine.

AC-3 Converter AAC Converter AC-3 to AIFF AC-3 to AU
How it works

Three steps. No upload required.

1

Drop your AC-3 files

Drag one file or an entire folder into Convertessa. Batch mode converts every AC-3 file in the folder in a single pass.

2

Choose AAC

Choose AAC from the output list. Set quality to your preference — AAC is a lossy format, so higher quality yields larger files.

3

Convert

Click Convert. Convertessa encodes each file locally and saves the AAC output alongside the originals.

Format catalog

From everyday files to pro media.

Images, audio, video, documents, archives, eBooks and fonts — all converted natively, right on your Mac.

Images

JPG PNG HEIC AVIF WebP TIFF SVG JPEG XL GIF BMP PSD PPM OpenEXR JPEG 2000 Radiance HDR Canon RAW 3 Pentax RAW Leica RAW Hasselblad 3FR RAW Canon RAW (CRW) Kodak RAW Hasselblad FFF RAW Phase One RAW Kodak DC RAW Mamiya RAW Minolta RAW Nikon RAW (NRW) Sony RAW (SR2) Sony RAW (SRF) Windows Cursor SGI RGB Image X BitMap GIMP XCF Image

Audio

MP3 AAC FLAC WAV OGG Opus AIFF M4A AC-3 CAF WMA AMR Monkey's Audio WavPack Matroska Audio DTS

Video

MP4 MOV Matroska WebM AVI MPEG Animated GIF M4V MPEG-TS Animated PNG WMV FLV 3GP OGV VOB AVCHD MXF

Documents

PDF Word Markdown HTML PowerPoint Excel LaTeX Word 97 CSV Rich Text Plain Text OpenDocument Text OpenDocument Slides OpenDocument Sheet Excel 97 PowerPoint 97 Flat ODF Text Flat ODF Sheet Flat ODF Slides Data Interchange SYLK reStructuredText DocBook MediaWiki Org Mode Textile OPML Jupyter Notebook JATS XML AsciiDoc Typst Emacs Muse Djot Man Page Texinfo ICML

Archives

ZIP TAR 7-Zip Gzipped TAR RAR ISO Bzipped TAR XZ TAR

eBooks

EPUB MOBI AZW3 FictionBook

Fonts

TTF OTF WOFF WOFF2 TTX TTC
Conversion explorer

What do you want to convert?

Pick a format you have — see everything Convertessa can turn it into.

— conversion combinations
I have a
can be converted to
From MP4

Features

Built for real work.

Batch conversion

Convert hundreds of files at once with per-type group defaults and individual overrides.

Modern image formats

First-class support for HEIC, AVIF and WebP — encode and decode, both ways. Read JPEG XL and a dozen more modern formats too.

Drag & drop

Drop files anywhere on the window. Native, instant, and exactly what you’d expect on a Mac.

Quality control

Dial in compression, resolution and bitrate. Keep originals pristine or shrink for sharing.

Collision-safe naming

Never overwrite a file by accident. Convertessa appends safe suffixes automatically.

Conversion history

Every job is logged locally. Re-run a previous conversion or revisit recent outputs in a click.

Archive the output

Bundle your converted files straight into a single ZIP, TAR or 7z — packaged and ready to share the moment a job finishes.

Convert from Finder

Right-click any file in Finder and choose Convert. A Quick Action handles it on the spot — no need to open the app first.

Compact mode

Shrink Convertessa to a tidy mini window that tucks into a corner — just a drop zone and a format picker for quick, one-off conversions.

Your files never leave your Mac.

No cloud. No account. No upload. Every conversion happens entirely on-device, using the power already in your Mac. What you convert is nobody’s business but yours.

On-device processing Zero telemetry No file uploads
For power users

There’s a command line, too.

Script conversions, wire them into your build, or batch a folder from the terminal. The same engine, no GUI required.

Read the full CLI documentation →
zsh — convertessa
# Convert a single file
$ convertessa input.ac3 --to aac
✓ photo.aac · 1.2 MB · 0.4s
 
# Batch a whole folder
$ convertessa ./*.ac3 --to aac -o ~/Exports
✓ 14 files converted · 4.1s
Made to fit

And a compact mode.

Shrink Convertessa down to a small, focused window — drop, convert, done, with your recent conversions one click away.

Convertessa in compact mode — a small window with a drop area and recent conversions
Pricing

One price. Yours for good.

Lifetime license
$19
One-time payment
No subscription. No renewals. Ever.
Get the app
  • 1,000+ conversion combinations
  • Lifetime future updates
  • No account required
  • Unlimited devices

macOS 14+ · Apple Silicon & Intel

Changelog

What’s shipped so far.

New formats, new features, and fixes — every release, on the record.

FAQ

Good questions.

Convertessa is a native macOS app that converts your files between formats — images, audio, video, documents, archives and eBooks — entirely on your Mac. Drop a file in, choose an output, and it’s done. No uploads, no account, no subscription.
Convertessa is an orchestrator. Under the hood it relies on best-in-class open-source engines — FFmpeg for audio & video, Pandoc for documents, libvips for images, LibreOffice for office formats, and Calibre for eBooks. It installs them for you with a click, then calls the right tool, or chain of tools, in the right order for whatever you’re converting. You get one clean native interface instead of a tangle of command-line flags. These binaries aren’t bundled with the app and are never installed without your approval — Convertessa simply calls them in a terminal session on your behalf.
Popular ones include JPEG, PNG, HEIC, WebP and AVIF; MP3, AAC, FLAC and WAV; MP4, MOV and MKV; PDF, DOCX and EPUB; ZIP, TAR and 7z — and many more. See exactly what converts to what in the conversion explorer →
Email us and we’ll add it in an upcoming release. Convertessa’s format coverage grows with what people actually need, so your request genuinely helps shape the app.
Your files? Never. Every conversion happens locally on your Mac. Your files are never uploaded, and nothing you convert is ever sent anywhere. Our Privacy Policy spells out exactly what limited data the app does store.
No analytics, no tracking, no telemetry. Your files and conversions stay entirely on your Mac — nothing you convert is ever sent anywhere. The app periodically checks for software updates in the background; like any web request, that check reveals only standard request metadata (your IP and app/OS version) to our update server — never your files, name, email, or license — and updates are always user-approved. Separately, on the website only, our purchase-confirmation page reports a completed sale to Google Ads so we can measure our own ad performance — it never runs while you’re browsing or converting, only after checkout. Our Privacy Policy spells out exactly what’s stored — and what isn’t.
Yes. Convertessa is a universal app and runs natively on Intel Macs. It requires macOS 14 or later.
Yes. It’s tuned for Apple Silicon (M-series) and runs natively — fast and energy-efficient. macOS 14 or later.
Yes — your license works on an unlimited number of your own Macs. Buy once and install it everywhere you work.
You get a genuinely useful, private, native Mac app for a single $19 payment — no subscription, ever. And your purchase directly supports a small independent developer and the app’s ongoing updates and new formats.
There’s no separate trial, but every purchase is backed by a 14-day money-back guarantee. If Convertessa isn’t right for you, contact your payment processor within 14 days to request a full refund — no questions asked. You can also email us and we’ll help route it.
Quite possibly — just email us. If you’re a student, run a non-profit, or have another good reason, reach out and we’ll sort you out.
Convertessa was built by Daler Azimov — a developer who needed a fast, private, native file converter for his own work, and decided to make the one he wished existed. Connect on LinkedIn →

No. Convertessa runs entirely offline. Your AC-3 files are processed on your Mac and never uploaded anywhere.

Yes. Drag a folder onto Convertessa and every AC-3 file inside is converted to AAC in one pass. From the terminal: convertessa /path/to/folder --to aac.

Use the quality slider before converting. AAC is a lossy format — lower quality produces smaller files; higher quality preserves more audio detail at the cost of file size.

We’d love to hear from you. Email us and you’ll get a reply from a real person — the one who made the app.