Converting video and audio on a Mac, without a subscription or an upload
QuickTime exports .mov and audio only files free, but never MP4. HandBrake is free and open source, and writes MP4, MKV and WebM. Permute costs $14.99 once. CloudConvert's free tier is 10 credits a day. Vocemo converts to MP4, MOV and M4A on your Mac for $15 a month.
- HandBrake
- Free and open source, writes MP4, MKV and WebM
- Permute 3 and 4
- $14.99 once on the Mac App Store
- CloudConvert free tier
- 10 credits a day, 1 GB a file, 5 minutes a conversion
- The local option
- MP4, MOV and M4A on your own Mac, $15 a month
How do you convert a video on a Mac for free?
Start with what is already installed, because it covers more than people expect and none of it touches the network.
QuickTime Player. Open the file, then File, Export As. Apple's user guide lists the options: 4K, 1080p, 720p, 480p and Audio Only. Video is written as a QuickTime .mov file using H.264 or HEVC, and Audio Only produces an MPEG 4 audio file with an AAC track, which is the .m4a you were probably after. At 4K and 1080p a Format menu lets you pick Smaller File Size, which is HEVC, or Greater Compatibility, which is H.264.
There is one sentence in that guide worth memorising, because it explains half the converter market: "QuickTime Player doesn't export movies as MP4 videos." If your upload form or your colleague's Windows machine insists on .mp4, QuickTime alone will not get you there.
Finder Quick Actions. Control click a file and Quick Actions can rotate a movie or trim it, and Convert Image handles the still image formats. It does not convert video formats. Useful, but not the tool for this job.
VLC. Free and open source, currently version 3.0.23 for macOS, with a Media, Convert or Save command that will remux and re-encode into common formats. The interface is awkward and the presets are dated, but it is on most Macs already and it works offline.
Why do free video converters add a watermark?
Because the encoding is not the hard part, and the vendor knows it.
The encoders that do this work ship with macOS, and modern Apple silicon has dedicated media engines for H.264 and HEVC. Any app on your Mac can call them. That is why so many converters are free to download and then place a logo across your video, or convert a third of it, or half of it. The limit is not technical, it is a sales prompt.
Movavi documents its own version of this on its trial limitations page, which is more honest than most: Movavi Video Converter has a 7 day trial, a "Trial" watermark is added to output videos, audio conversions save only half the file length, and in SuperSpeed mode only half the video is converted. Nothing there is a bug. Every one of those limits is a decision.
You do not have to accept any of it. There are two clean ways out: pay once for a native app, or use a free open source tool that has no sales prompt to insert.
Is HandBrake still the best free option?
For video, yes, and it deserves to be said plainly rather than in passing. HandBrake is free, open source, built by volunteers, and most of its source is under version 2 of the GNU General Public License. There is no trial, no watermark, no account and no file limit. The current release is 1.11.2 and it runs on macOS 10.13 or later, so it works on Intel Macs too.
Its output list is broad. Containers are MP4, MKV and WebM. Video encoders include AV1, H.265, H.264, MPEG-4, MPEG-2, VP8 and VP9, with optional hardware accelerated encoding. Audio encoders include AAC, MP3, FLAC, AC3, E-AC3, Opus and Vorbis, and it can pass audio tracks through untouched. It has queueing, chapter markers, subtitles, deinterlacing, denoise, cropping and scaling, constant quality or average bitrate encoding, and HDR pass through.
If you want control over how a file is encoded, HandBrake gives you more of it than any paid Mac converter, at no cost. Two honest caveats. It writes video containers, so it is not the tool for pulling a lecture down to an .m4a for the car. And it does not write .mov, so a Final Cut or Keynote workflow that wants QuickTime files is a QuickTime or Permute job. The interface also expects you to understand presets, which is the usual reason people buy something else.
What does an online converter cost?
CloudConvert is the serious one, so use it as the measure. Its free tier gives 10 conversion credits a day, with a 1 GB maximum file size, a 5 minute maximum processing time, 5 concurrent tasks and low priority. Paid plans remove those caps.
Credits are time based. CloudConvert says a conversion typically consumes one credit per minute of conversion time, with a base cost per conversion type: 1 credit for general conversions, 2 for Office or iWork to PDF, 4 for PDF to Office. A package of 1,000 credits is a one time purchase and the credits never expire. A subscription gives 1,000 credits a month at a lower rate, but unused credits do not roll over.
Credit to CloudConvert for how it handles files: each conversion runs in an isolated container, files are kept only for processing and deleted immediately afterwards, there is no permanent storage, the company holds ISO 27001 certification and it is a German company under GDPR. That is a good answer to the security question.
It is still an upload. A 4 GB camera file has to travel twice, up and back, and on a normal home connection that is slower than encoding it locally. For a video under NDA, unreleased footage or a recorded call with a client in it, the upload is the whole objection and no certificate removes it.
What do the Mac converters cost?
Prices checked September 2026, taken from each vendor's own page or store listing.
| Tool | Where the file goes | Price |
|---|---|---|
| QuickTime Player | Stays on your Mac | Free with macOS, .mov and audio only, no MP4 |
| HandBrake 1.11.2 | Stays on your Mac | Free and open source, MP4, MKV and WebM |
| VLC 3.0.23 | Stays on your Mac | Free and open source |
| Permute 3 and 4 | Stays on your Mac | $14.99 once on the Mac App Store |
| Movavi Video Converter | Stays on your Mac | 7 day trial with a "Trial" watermark on video and half length audio, then a paid licence |
| CloudConvert | Uploaded to CloudConvert | Free: 10 credits a day, 1 GB a file. Paid: 1,000 credits for 18.15 once, or 9.68 a month |
| Vocemo | Stays on your Mac | $15 a month, or $144 a year, which is $12 a month |
If you would rather this ran on your own Mac, that is what Vocemo does. Free for 7 days, then $15 a month for 3 Macs.
Download free for MacOne note on currency. The Permute figure is the US Mac App Store price for the Permute 3 and 4 bundle. The CloudConvert page showed euros including 21% VAT when it was checked, so 18.15 and 9.68 are the tax inclusive figures, about 15 and 8 before tax, and your own total depends on where you are billed.
Where does a local tool fit?
Vocemo converts video and audio as one of 21 document jobs, between MP4, MOV and M4A, at 720p and 1080p, using the encoders already in macOS. There is no upload, no watermark and no per file limit. It costs $15 a month, or $144 a year, with a 7 day trial that needs no account and a licence that covers 3 Macs. The installer is 5.5 MB.
The reason to keep it on the Mac is the same as with any of these files. A camera card of footage is large, a recorded interview is confidential, and the conversion itself is a solved problem your laptop can do at hardware speed. Sending it to a server buys you nothing you did not already have. That trade is set out in more detail in running AI on your own Mac.
What does the local option not do?
- Only three formats. MP4, MOV and M4A. No MKV, no WebM, no AVI, no GIF and no AV1. HandBrake covers those, for free.
- Two resolutions. 720p and 1080p. There is no 4K target and no arbitrary pixel size.
- No encoder settings. No bitrate slider, no constant quality value, no two pass encoding, no filter chain. That is HandBrake's territory.
- No DVD or disc ripping, and no image conversion.
- It is not a video editor. No trimming timeline, no subtitle burn in, no chapter markers.
- Apple silicon only, macOS 13 or later. HandBrake and VLC run on older and Intel Macs, so on those machines they are the answer.
What you get instead is a plain drop and convert step that sits next to the other document jobs, with nothing leaving the Mac and no branding on the output.
Which tool for which file?
- A .mov from your iPhone that a website wants as .mp4. HandBrake, free, or a one step convert in a native app if you would rather not think about presets.
- A lecture recording you want as audio for the car. QuickTime, File, Export As, Audio Only. It is free and already installed.
- A 6 GB camera file to shrink for review. HandBrake with a 1080p preset. Do not upload it, the transfer costs more time than the encode.
- Confidential footage or a recorded client call. Anything local. The point is that no copy exists anywhere else.
- One odd format, once, nothing sensitive in it. CloudConvert's free tier, 10 credits a day, is genuinely the fastest route.
- An old Intel Mac. HandBrake and VLC, both free, both still supported there.
Questions
How do I convert MOV to MP4 on a Mac for free?
Use HandBrake, which is free and open source and writes MP4, MKV and WebM. QuickTime Player cannot do it, because Apple's guide states plainly that QuickTime does not export movies as MP4 videos. VLC can also do it from Media, Convert or Save, though the interface is harder work.
Does QuickTime export MP4?
No. QuickTime Player exports video as a QuickTime .mov file using H.264 or HEVC, at 4K, 1080p, 720p or 480p. Its Audio Only option writes an MPEG 4 audio file with an AAC track, which is an .m4a. For .mp4 video you need another tool.
Is HandBrake free and safe to use?
Yes. HandBrake is built by volunteers and most of its source code is covered by version 2 of the GNU General Public License. There is no trial, no watermark and no account. Download it from handbrake.fr rather than a mirror, and note the current release runs on macOS 10.13 or later.
How much does Permute cost?
The Permute 3 and 4 bundle is $14.99 on the US Mac App Store, as a one time purchase rather than a subscription. Permute 3 on its own is also $14.99. Charlie Monroe sells licence codes for a specific major version, so a future major release may be a separate purchase.
Why do free video converters add watermarks?
Because the encoders are part of macOS, so converting a file costs the vendor almost nothing and the watermark is what persuades you to pay. Movavi's own trial page is clear about it: a 7 day trial, a Trial watermark on output videos, and only half the length converted for audio files and in SuperSpeed mode.
Is CloudConvert free?
There is a free tier of 10 conversion credits a day, with a 1 GB file size limit, a 5 minute processing limit and low priority. Beyond that you buy 1,000 credit packages or a monthly subscription. Files are processed in isolated containers and deleted immediately afterwards, but they are still uploaded to a server.
Sources
Every price on this page was read from the vendor's own page on the date shown above. Prices change; if you find one out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
Competitor prices in this article were checked in September 2026. Prices change; if you find one out of date, write to us and we will correct it.