.aiff File Extension

What kind of file is an .aiff?

An .aiff file is usually an Audio Interchange File Format recording. Apple created this binary, chunk-based container for sampled sound, and it commonly holds uncompressed linear PCM audio. That makes AIFF useful for recording, editing, sample libraries, and interchange where preserving the decoded samples matters.¹

AIFF has no registered IANA media type. Software commonly uses audio/x-aiff or audio/aiff, but neither appears in IANA's current registry.² A reliable content check looks beyond the filename:

The first marker alone is not enough because other IFF-family files also begin with FORM. AIFC at offset 8 identifies AIFF-C, a related form that can carry compressed or alternative sample encodings.³

How do I open an .aiff on my computer?

• On macOS, open AIFF in Logic Pro or another audio editor. Logic Pro supports AIFF at common professional bit depths and sample rates up to 192 kHz.⁴
• On Windows or macOS, Adobe Audition opens .aiff and related AIFF variants, including uncompressed files with as many as 32 channels.⁵
• On Windows, macOS, or Linux, use VLC for convenient playback or FFmpeg for inspection and conversion.

Web playback is less predictable than MP3 or AAC playback. It depends on the browser, operating system, and audio encoding, so use a desktop audio application when a browser stays silent.

Poly support for .aiff

Poly recognizes .aiff filenames as audio. It can extract duration and available tags, use embedded cover art, create audio-similarity segments, and transcribe intelligible speech. Those results make a recording searchable and available to the Poly agent.

The file opens in Poly's audio player, although the browser must be able to decode its particular audio encoding. Instrumental audio may have little useful transcript text, but filename, metadata, and audio-similarity search can still help locate it.

History of .aiff

Apple published AIFF version 1.3 on January 4, 1989, adapting Electronic Arts' IFF chunk structure for sampled sound.¹ .aiff is one of the format's established filename extensions. The shorter .aif spelling represents the same ordinary AIFF structure, not a lower-quality version.

AIFF-C followed in 1991. Its expanded common chunk added an encoding identifier, although an .aifc file can still contain uncompressed PCM.³

Working with .aiff and alternatives

Uncompressed PCM payload size is approximately sample rate x bytes per sample x channels x duration. One minute of stereo 44.1 kHz, 16-bit audio uses about 10.6 MB before small container overhead. Sample rate, bit depth, and channel count each affect the result.

Choose a destination based on the next workflow:

• WAV for broad uncompressed interchange.
• FLAC for lossless storage with smaller files.
• AAC, MP3, or Opus for compact distribution.

AIFF and WAV can preserve identical PCM samples even though their containers differ. FLAC can preserve those decoded samples losslessly. Match the source sample rate and bit depth during conversion when you want to avoid resampling or reduced precision. Converting a lossy source to .aiff cannot restore discarded detail.