The Best File Converter App for Mac in 2026

Permute is built for exactly this query. Its own page lists 100+ formats across video, audio, images, PDF and text, naming MP4, HEVC, ProRes, WebM, AV1, MP3, FLAC, HEIC, AVIF and WebP among them. You drop files into a queue, choose an output, and it can trim, crop or resize files in bulk. It also lists PDFs among its supported formats, including exporting PDF pages as images.

Price is the second reason it leads. Permute 4 is $14.99 direct. A Mac App Store version exists, where Permute notes some features are limited by Apple’s sandbox. A bundle with Downie 4 is $26.99, and Setapp lists it at $14.99 a month. A free trial is offered through the full-version download, though the page does not give its length.

The limit to know before you buy: Permute 4 requires macOS 26 or later on Apple Silicon. On an older macOS or an Intel Mac, the page points you to Permute 3, listed for macOS 11 to 15, also at $14.99. Permute can also set a target output file size, so it is not only a format swapper.

Pick it if conversion is the whole job and you want the widest format list for the lowest price among the paid apps here.

Smol is a Mac app that processes files on your own Mac: nothing is uploaded and there is no account. Its Convert operation turns images into JPG, PNG, WebP, AVIF, HEIC, TIFF, BMP, GIF or PDF, moves video between MP4, MOV, WebM and MKV, and audio to M4A, MP3, WAV, FLAC or OGG. It also converts tables (CSV, TSV, JSON, NDJSON, HTML, Markdown, XLSX) and fonts (TTF, WOFF, WOFF2). It reads camera RAW and AVI as input. The full list, with limits, is in every format Smol converts.

Where it earns its place is everything around conversion. The same window compresses with a quality setting, strips EXIF, GPS and other metadata, upscales images, and takes a mixed folder of images, PDFs, video and audio in one batch, with per-file savings shown. There is a Finder Quick Action and a menu bar tray too. Output is a copy next to the original with a _compressed suffix by default.

The honest limits. It does not convert Office documents: no Word, Excel or PowerPoint conversion. It cannot write AVI, SVG or JPEG XL, and PDF to image converts the first page only. Converting to JPG ignores the quality slider, so for a small JPG from a HEIC use Compress with JPG as the output instead. It is also not the fastest tool for a bare format swap.

Smol is $29 once for one Mac. There is no free trial and purchases are not refundable, so decide on the format list above rather than on a test drive. The only free thing is the in-browser demo on the homepage, which is not the app.

For most people reading this, the answer is already on the Dock. In Preview, File then Export offers HEIC, JPEG, JPEG-2000, OpenEXR, PDF, PNG and TIFF, and holding the Option key while you open the Format menu reveals more specialized formats. JPEG and JPEG-2000 expose a quality slider, and you can select several images in the sidebar and export them together.

QuickTime Player covers video. File then Export As offers 4K, 1080p, 720p, 480p and Audio Only. For 4K and 1080p, Apple’s page says the Format menu chooses between Smaller File Size (HEVC) and Greater Compatibility (H.264), and that video exports are QuickTime movies (.mov). Audio Only gives an AAC file.

The limits are the point. There is no format list beyond those menus, no audio converter between MP3, FLAC and WAV, no folder drop, and no queue for video: you export one movie at a time. If you convert a file a month, stop here and keep your money. If you convert folders weekly, the repeated clicking is what you are paying an app to remove. Step by step instructions follow in the section below.

HandBrake describes itself as a free and open-source video transcoder that converts video from “nearly any format” to modern, widely supported codecs. It runs on macOS, Windows and Linux, and its homepage lists version 1.11.2.

It wins on control and price. It is free and built around presets, which suits a person who converts a lot of video and does not mind settings. Its official presets output MP4 or MKV containers, and its preset documentation says nothing about images or audio-only output, so treat it as a video tool.

That narrowness is the trade. If your week mixes HEIC photos, a podcast WAV and a screen recording, HandBrake handles one of the three. We compare it more closely in HandBrake alternatives for Mac.

CloudConvert is a website, so it works on any computer. Its pricing page lists Office to PDF and iWork to PDF conversions, which Smol does not do. If you must turn a Word file into a PDF, a Mac app like Smol will not do it and this will.

Its pricing page shows a free tier at €0 with 10 conversion credits per day, a 1 GB file cap, five minutes of processing and low priority. Paid use is by credits, either a one-time package whose credits never expire or a subscription that resets monthly. Credit costs vary: a general conversion starts at 1, Office or iWork to PDF at 2, and PDF to Office at 4. The page does not show the paid amounts as plain text, so check them live before buying.

The cost is the upload. Every file travels to their servers, which is fine for a menu photo and a real question for a client contract. Read its current retention terms before sending anything sensitive. More in CloudConvert alternatives that work offline.

FreeConvert is another upload-based tool. Its pricing page gives the free tier 20 conversion minutes a day, with a limit of 5 conversion minutes per file.

Paid plans are monthly: Basic is $12.99 with a 1.5 GB file limit, Standard is $24.99 at 2 GB, Pro is $29.99 at 5 GB, and Scale is on-demand up to 20 GB. That is a subscription, so a year of Basic costs more than Permute or Smol does once.

It earns its place for the occasional conversion from a borrowed laptop or a phone, where installing an app is not an option. As with any upload service, treat anything sensitive as a decision before you click. Our fuller write-up is in FreeConvert alternatives for Mac.