Extract Audio from HEVC to AAC — Free Online Tool
Extract the AAC audio track from an HEVC/H.265 video file, producing a standalone .aac file encoded at 128kbps. Ideal for pulling audio from high-efficiency H.265 video — including 4K HDR content — without ever re-encoding the video stream.
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FFmpeg Command
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Note: Browser-based encoding uses approximate quality targets. For precise CRF compression, copy the FFmpeg command above and run it on your desktop.
Estimated output:
Conversion Complete!
DownloadHow It Works
HEVC (H.265) video files typically contain at least one audio stream alongside the highly compressed video. This tool discards the video entirely using FFmpeg's -vn flag and re-encodes the audio stream into AAC format using FFmpeg's native AAC encoder at 128kbps. Because AAC is almost always already the native audio codec in HEVC containers (particularly .mp4 and .mov wrapping H.265), this is a lightweight operation — the heavy H.265 video data is simply ignored rather than decoded. The result is a compact .aac audio file that is broadly compatible with Apple devices, web browsers, and streaming platforms. If the source HEVC file's audio was already AAC, a small amount of quality is lost in the re-encode; if it was in another format like AC-3 or EAC-3, the transcode brings it into the widely supported AAC ecosystem.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg tool, which handles all media demuxing, decoding, encoding, and muxing. In the browser version of this tool, FFmpeg runs via WebAssembly (FFmpeg.wasm) so no software installation is needed and no files leave your device. |
-i input.hevc
|
Specifies the input HEVC file. FFmpeg reads and demuxes this file to separate the H.265 video stream and any audio streams contained within the HEVC container. |
-vn
|
Disables video output entirely, telling FFmpeg to skip decoding or copying the H.265 video stream. This is what makes the operation an audio extraction rather than a full transcode — the dense H.265 video data is discarded without being processed. |
-c:a aac
|
Encodes the audio stream using FFmpeg's built-in AAC encoder. This produces an Advanced Audio Coding bitstream that is natively compatible with Apple devices, iOS, Safari, and most modern media players without any additional plugins. |
-b:a 128k
|
Sets the AAC audio bitrate to 128 kilobits per second, the widely accepted baseline for transparent AAC quality. This balances file size and audio fidelity for speech, music, and mixed content typically found in HEVC video files. |
output.aac
|
Specifies the output filename and format. The .aac extension tells FFmpeg to write a raw ADTS AAC bitstream, which is the most universally recognized AAC file format for standalone audio playback. |
Common Use Cases
- Extract the audio commentary or narration from a 4K H.265 screen recording to repurpose as a standalone podcast or voiceover file
- Pull the audio track from an HEVC-encoded drone or action camera clip to use as background music or ambience in a separate project
- Strip the audio from an H.265 home video to create an AAC file compatible with iTunes, Apple Music, or iPhone playback without carrying the large video payload
- Extract dialogue or a soundtrack from an H.265 encoded film or TV episode for transcription, captioning, or language study
- Isolate audio from an HEVC video conference recording to archive just the spoken content at a fraction of the original file size
- Produce an AAC audio file from an H.265 source for embedding in a web page or mobile app where video playback is not needed
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, a small amount of quality loss occurs because the audio is re-encoded into AAC rather than copied directly. Even if the source HEVC file already contains an AAC audio track, FFmpeg decodes it and re-encodes it, which introduces generation loss. At 128kbps AAC, the result is transparent for most listening scenarios, but if you need to preserve the original audio exactly, you would instead use -c:a copy to stream-copy the existing audio without re-encoding — though this only works if the source audio is already in a format your output container accepts.
HEVC video is most often wrapped in MP4 or MOV containers, which typically carry AAC audio. However, HEVC can also appear in MKV or TS containers, which may contain AC-3 (Dolby Digital), EAC-3 (Dolby Digital Plus), DTS, or even lossless formats like TrueHD or FLAC. This tool transcodes whatever audio stream is present into AAC, so it handles all of these source formats — though transcoding from a lossless source like FLAC to 128kbps AAC will involve noticeable compression.
Replace the value after -b:a with your desired bitrate. For example, use -b:a 256k for higher fidelity or -b:a 96k for a smaller file. AAC at 128kbps is generally considered transparent for most content, but for music or high-dynamic-range audio extracted from HDR HEVC video, 192k or 256k may better preserve the detail. The tool on this page offers a bitrate selector so you can adjust this without editing the command manually.
Basic metadata tags such as title and artist that exist in the HEVC source container are typically carried over to the AAC output by FFmpeg. However, chapter markers are not supported by the bare .aac format and will be lost. If metadata preservation is critical, consider outputting to an M4A container (which is AAC inside an MPEG-4 wrapper) instead, as M4A supports richer metadata and chapter information.
Yes. The -vn flag tells FFmpeg to completely ignore the video stream, so the resolution, HDR metadata, and color profile of the H.265 video have no effect on the audio extraction process. A 4K HDR HEVC file and a standard 1080p HEVC file will produce identical results for this command, since only the audio stream is processed. This also means the operation is very fast and requires minimal CPU resources compared to actually decoding or transcoding H.265 video.
Yes. On Linux or macOS you can use a shell loop: for f in *.hevc; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -vn -c:a aac -b:a 128k "${f%.hevc}.aac"; done. On Windows Command Prompt, use: for %f in (*.hevc) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -vn -c:a aac -b:a 128k "%~nf.aac". This processes every HEVC file in the current directory, outputting a matching .aac file for each. For very large collections, the browser-based tool is best used for individual files; the FFmpeg command is the recommended approach for batch processing.
Technical Notes
The FFmpeg native AAC encoder (aac) used in this command is a solid general-purpose encoder, though the optional libfdk_aac encoder — when available in a custom FFmpeg build — tends to produce slightly better quality at the same bitrate, particularly below 128kbps. The output .aac file is a raw ADTS (Audio Data Transport Stream) bitstream, which is broadly playable but lacks a container for rich metadata or seeking in some players; if you need better compatibility with media libraries or players, remuxing into .m4a (an MPEG-4 Audio container) is preferable. HEVC source files from cameras or streaming devices may contain multi-channel audio (5.1 or 7.1 surround), and this command will transcode all channels to AAC without downmixing — the channel layout is preserved. One known limitation: raw .hevc elementary streams (as opposed to HEVC wrapped in MP4 or MKV) may not contain audio at all, in which case FFmpeg will report no audio streams found and produce no output.