CAF to MP3 Converter
Upload a Core Audio Format file and get back an MP3 encoded at a fixed 192 kbps, with title, artist and album tags carried across. Album artwork is not: every picture stream is dropped during conversion.
Download Started!
How would you rate your experience with MiConvert?
Why Convert CAF to MP3
CAF is Apple's Core Audio Format, a container built for macOS and iOS rather than for sharing. It can hold almost anything Core Audio decodes, from plain PCM to Apple Lossless, and it has no practical size ceiling, which is why Logic Pro, GarageBand, macOS alert sounds and several Mac and iOS recording apps write it. Outside the Apple world a .caf file is a dead end: Windows Media Player, most Android players, car head units and podcast upload forms will not take it.
MiConvert reads the CAF with ffmpeg, decodes whatever stream is inside, and re-encodes it with LAME to MP3. PCM and Apple Lossless payloads, the two you are most likely to have, both decode without an extra step. There is one encode pass and no filters: nothing is normalized, denoised or trimmed, and there is no bitrate or quality selector. The file comes back as your original name with an .mp3 extension.
What survives: the sample rate up to 48 kHz, mono stays mono, and title, artist and album tags rewritten as ID3. Chapter markers, if your CAF has them, carry over too. What changes: anything above 48 kHz is lowered to 48 kHz, more than two channels are folded to stereo, and MP3 is lossy, so the result approximates the decoded audio rather than copying it. Keep the CAF as your master if the recording matters.
This page is for Mac and iPhone recordings that have to play somewhere else - voice memos going to a Windows colleague, a Logic bounce headed for a podcast host, interview audio bound for a transcription service - and uploads here, usually voice-length files, finish within a few seconds.
How to Convert CAF to MP3
- Find the .caf file. In Logic Pro or GarageBand use Share or Bounce to write it out first, and copy iOS recordings to a Mac or iCloud Drive so you can pick them in a browser.
- Check the extension is exactly .caf. That is the only spelling this page accepts, so rename anything saved as .caff or with the extension missing.
- Drag one or more files onto the upload box, or click to browse. Guests can send up to 10 files per batch at 50 MB each; a free account raises the per-file limit to 100 MB.
- Press Convert. Each file is decoded and encoded separately on our servers, so a batch of short recordings and a long one can go in together.
- Download each MP3 from the result list. Downloads are individual links, there is no ZIP option, and the links stay valid for about four hours.
What This Converter Does
- Decodes CAF payloads with ffmpeg, including PCM and Apple Lossless inside the container, so Mac exports and system recordings need no pre-step
- Encodes with LAME at a requested constant 192 kbps, the same setting for every file, with no options to get wrong
- Copies title, artist and album tags into ID3 and keeps chapter markers if the source had them
- Keeps the source sample rate up to 48 kHz and keeps mono recordings mono instead of padding them to stereo
- Converts several files in one request, each producing one MP3 named after the original file
- Works from any browser on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android or iOS
CAF to MP3: Questions
Where do CAF files even come from?
Core Audio Format is Apple's own container. You will meet it in Logic Pro and GarageBand project folders, in macOS system and alert sounds, in some iOS recording apps, and in app assets built on Core Audio. Because it is a container rather than a codec, two .caf files can hold completely different audio.
What bitrate and sample rate do I get?
The encoder is asked for a constant 192 kbps, and that is what you get from ordinary 44.1 or 48 kHz recordings. There is no quality, bitrate or sample-rate control on the page. The sample rate of your CAF is kept up to 48 kHz; a 96 kHz source is lowered to 48 kHz. Low-rate speech sources are an exception: LAME drops the bitrate itself, for example 64 kbps from 8 kHz audio.
Will my album art and metadata survive?
Title, artist and album tags are written into the MP3 as ID3. Embedded artwork is not: picture streams are dropped on every conversion we run, so expect a tagged but art-free MP3. If you need the artwork back, add it in a tag editor such as Mp3tag or Music after downloading.
I wanted WAV, not MP3. Can I change the output here?
No. The target on this page is fixed to MP3. MiConvert also has CAF to WAV and CAF to FLAC pages, and neither adds a second lossy pass. One caveat: WAV output is always 16-bit, so a 24-bit CAF is reduced; FLAC keeps the original bit depth, which makes it the better choice for a master recording you still have to edit.
My CAF was refused or failed. What now?
A browser message about an unsupported format usually means the extension is not .caf; a size message means the file is over your plan limit, so sign in for 100 MB. If the job fails with invalid data found, the file is truncated or is not really CAF audio, so copy it off the device again. A message about DRM or undecodable data means ffmpeg could not read most of the stream; export an unprotected copy from the app that made it.
Can I convert a batch of voice memos?
Yes, within the limits: 10 files per request for guests and free accounts, 25 on Plus, 50 on Pro, plus a cap of 10 conversion jobs per hour per IP address for guests and free accounts. Each memo becomes its own MP3 with the original file name.
Is quality lost compared to the original CAF?
Yes. MP3 is lossy, so a CAF holding PCM or Apple Lossless audio is re-encoded and some information is discarded for good. At 192 kbps that is generally inaudible for speech and casual listening, but archive the CAF rather than delete it.
What happens to my file after conversion?
Conversion runs on our servers, not in your browser. The uploaded CAF is deleted as soon as the job finishes, and the MP3 plus its download link are removed automatically after about four hours. We do log file names, sizes and conversion outcomes, and signed-in accounts keep a conversion history row.