catalogue / tools / Audio & video / Audio Convert API

Audio Convert API

Transcodes an audio file between WAV, MP3, FLAC, AAC and Opus, with an optional bit rate and sample rate.

Endpoint
POST /v1/audio-convert
Price
$0.003 per call
Family
Audio & video

01When to use it

  • Re-encoding audio needs ffmpeg AND a hardened fetch: an agent that pulls the URL itself walks past every SSRF control, and carrying an ffmpeg per call is not something an agent does inline.
  • Your source is AIFF, AVI, FLAC, MKV, MP3, MP4, Ogg or WAV and you need AAC, FLAC, MP3, Opus or WAV.

When not to use it

  • The input is over 100 MB (104,857,600 bytes) or longer than 60 min (3,600 s): audio-convert answers too_large (413).
  • The destination needs more than 94 s to answer: the call ends with upstream_timeout (424).
  • The destination is on a private or local network: the network guard refuses it with blocked_target (403).

Input rules the schema does not show

  • With to set to aac, bitrate_kbps is at most 192; a higher value is refused with invalid_input (400).

02Parameters

FieldTypeRequiredDescription
urlstringyesAbsolute http(s) URL of the source file, up to 2048 characters; the first audio stream of a recognised container (MP4/MOV, Matroska/WebM, AVI, Ogg, WAV, FLAC, AIFF or MP3) is converted, and it must last at most 3600 seconds.
tostringnoOutput format: wav (16-bit PCM), mp3 (LAME), flac, aac (ADTS stream) or opus (in an Ogg container); defaults to mp3. One of: "wav", "mp3", "flac", "aac", "opus". Default: "mp3".
bitrate_kbpsintegernoTarget bit rate in kbps, lossy formats only (mp3, aac, opus): 8 to 512, and at most 192 for aac.
sample_rateintegernoOutput sample rate in Hz, one of 8000, 11025, 16000, 22050, 32000, 44100 or 48000; when omitted ffmpeg chooses the rate, normally the source rate.

03Limits

LimitValue
Largest source file100 MB (104,857,600 bytes)
Longest input60 min (3,600 s)
Timeout94 s
Source formatsAIFF, AVI, FLAC, MKV, MP3, MP4, Ogg, WAV
Output formatsAAC, FLAC, MP3, Opus, WAV

04Example

The published example of audio-convert, verbatim: the request body and the response it returns.

Request
POST /v1/audio-convert
content-type: application/json
payment-signature: <base64 x402 payload>

{
  "url": "https://grist.tools/samples/av/convert-beeps.flac",
  "to": "wav"
}
Response
200 OK
payment-response: <base64 settlement receipt>

{
  "source_url": "https://grist.tools/samples/av/convert-beeps.flac",
  "bytes": 32086,
  "source_container": "flac",
  "format": "wav",
  "bitrate_kbps": null,
  "sample_rate": null,
  "audio_bytes": 32044,
  "audio_base64": "UklGRiR9AABXQVZFZm10IBAAAAABAAEAQB8AAIA+AAACABAAZGF0YQB9AAAA4ADo..."
}

Sample file: av/convert-beeps.flac. Two-second mono 16-bit FLAC at 8 kHz holding the same three rising 500 Hz beeps as waveform-beeps.wav, written with uncompressed verbatim subframes by a TypeScript generator.

In the sample itself: its 34-byte STREAMINFO block, in its own field order, declares blocks of 4,096 samples, no largest frame size, 8,000 Hz, 1 channel, 16 bits per sample and 16,000 samples in total. In the returned file: the RIFF header counts 32,036 bytes after itself, and the fmt chunk, in its own field order, declares audio format 1 (integer PCM), 1 channel, 8,000 Hz, 16,000 bytes per second, a block align of 2 bytes and 16 bits per sample. The data chunk right after it holds 32,000 bytes of samples, 2 s at that rate.

Response fieldTypeIn the example
source_urlstring"https://grist.tools/samples/av/convert-beeps.flac"
bytesnumber32086
source_containerstring"flac"
formatstring"wav"
bitrate_kbpsnullnull
sample_ratenullnull
audio_bytesnumber32044
audio_base64stringa string of 67 characters

05Call it from code

JavaScript
// audio-convert: $0.003 per call, paid in USD Coin on eip155:8453 via x402
// Install: npm install @x402/fetch@2 @x402/evm@2 viem@2
// Save as client.mjs (ES module, Node 18+), export EVM_PRIVATE_KEY with the paying wallet's key in your shell, then run: node client.mjs
// The wrapper reads the 402 (payment-required), signs and retries with payment-signature.
import { wrapFetchWithPayment, x402Client, decodePaymentResponseHeader } from '@x402/fetch'
import { ExactEvmScheme } from '@x402/evm/exact/client'
import { privateKeyToAccount } from 'viem/accounts'

const account = privateKeyToAccount(process.env.EVM_PRIVATE_KEY)
const client = new x402Client().register('eip155:8453', new ExactEvmScheme(account))
const fetchWithPayment = wrapFetchWithPayment(fetch, client)

const body = {
  "url": "https://grist.tools/samples/av/convert-beeps.flac",
  "to": "wav"
}

const res = await fetchWithPayment('https://grist.tools/v1/audio-convert', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'content-type': 'application/json' },
  body: JSON.stringify(body),
})
console.log(res.status, await res.json())
const settle = res.headers.get('payment-response')
if (settle) console.log(decodePaymentResponseHeader(settle).transaction)
Python
# audio-convert: $0.003 per call, paid in USD Coin on eip155:8453 via x402
# Install: pip install "x402[requests,evm]>=2.24,<3"
# The session reads the 402 (payment-required), signs and retries with payment-signature.
import os
from eth_account import Account
from x402 import x402ClientSync
from x402.http import decode_payment_response_header
from x402.http.clients.requests import x402_requests
from x402.mechanisms.evm.exact import register_exact_evm_client
from x402.mechanisms.evm.signers import EthAccountSigner

account = Account.from_key(os.environ["EVM_PRIVATE_KEY"])
client = x402ClientSync()
register_exact_evm_client(client, EthAccountSigner(account), networks="eip155:8453")
session = x402_requests(client)

payload = {
    "url": "https://grist.tools/samples/av/convert-beeps.flac",
    "to": "wav"
}

res = session.post("https://grist.tools/v1/audio-convert", json=payload)
print(res.status_code, res.json())
settle = res.headers.get("payment-response")
if settle:
    print(decode_payment_response_header(settle).transaction)
curl
# audio-convert: $0.003 per call, paid in USD Coin on eip155:8453 via x402
# 1. Unpaid call: HTTP 402, the requirements in the payment-required header (base64 JSON) and in the body.
curl -i -X POST 'https://grist.tools/v1/audio-convert' -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{"url":"https://grist.tools/samples/av/convert-beeps.flac","to":"wav"}'

# 2. Same call with the signed payment (an EIP-3009 authorization, EIP-712 signed: it cannot be
#    typed by hand). x-payment is accepted as the v1 alternative. HTTP 200 carries payment-response.
curl -i -X POST 'https://grist.tools/v1/audio-convert' -H 'content-type: application/json' -H 'payment-signature: <base64 x402 payload>' -d '{"url":"https://grist.tools/samples/av/convert-beeps.flac","to":"wav"}'

06Errors

CodeHTTPFor this service
invalid_input400The body does not match the schema; its fields are url, to, bitrate_kbps and sample_rate.
blocked_target403
unreachable_target424
upstream_timeout424
unsupported_content_type415The source is not a type audio-convert reads; it reads AIFF, AVI, FLAC, MKV, MP3, MP4, Ogg and WAV.
too_large413
unprocessable422
internal500

Input that is rejected before the tool runs (malformed JSON, schema mismatch, body over the size limit) is never charged.

When each code is raised, and what it means for payment: /docs/audio-convert.

07Conversions

ConversionRecorded sampleSource sizeOutput size
AIFF to AACav/pair-tone.aiff46.9 KB6.7 KB
AIFF to FLACav/pair-tone.aiff46.9 KB15.3 KB
AIFF to MP3av/pair-tone.aiff46.9 KB3.1 KB
AIFF to Opusav/pair-tone.aiff46.9 KB20 KB
AIFF to WAVav/pair-tone.aiff46.9 KB46.9 KB
AVI to AACav/pair-clip.avi74.5 KB10.9 KB
AVI to FLACav/pair-clip.avi74.5 KB16.2 KB
AVI to MP3av/pair-clip.avi74.5 KB4.1 KB
AVI to Opusav/pair-clip.avi74.5 KB33 KB
AVI to WAVav/pair-clip.avi74.5 KB62.5 KB
FLAC to AACav/convert-beeps.flac31.3 KB5.1 KB
FLAC to MP3av/convert-beeps.flac31.3 KB2.1 KB
FLAC to Opusav/convert-beeps.flac31.3 KB16.7 KB
FLAC to WAVav/convert-beeps.flac31.3 KB31.3 KB
MKV to AACav/pair-clip.mkv10.3 KB10.9 KB
MKV to FLACav/pair-clip.mkv10.3 KB16.2 KB
MKV to MP3av/pair-clip.mkv10.3 KB4.1 KB
MKV to Opusav/pair-clip.mkv10.3 KB33 KB
MKV to WAVav/pair-clip.mkv10.3 KB62.5 KB
MP3 to AACav/pair-tone.mp312.7 KB10 KB
MP3 to FLACav/pair-tone.mp312.7 KB42 KB
MP3 to Opusav/pair-tone.mp312.7 KB26.5 KB
MP3 to WAVav/pair-tone.mp312.7 KB46.9 KB
MP4 to AACav/pair-clip.mp411 KB10.9 KB
MP4 to FLACav/pair-clip.mp411 KB16.2 KB
MP4 to MP3av/pair-clip.mp411 KB4.1 KB
MP4 to Opusav/pair-clip.mp411 KB33 KB
MP4 to WAVav/pair-clip.mp411 KB62.5 KB
Ogg to AACav/pair-clip.ogg12.3 KB10.9 KB
Ogg to FLACav/pair-clip.ogg12.3 KB16.2 KB
Ogg to MP3av/pair-clip.ogg12.3 KB4.1 KB
Ogg to Opusav/pair-clip.ogg12.3 KB33 KB
Ogg to WAVav/pair-clip.ogg12.3 KB62.5 KB
WAV to AACav/waveform-beeps.wav31.3 KB5.1 KB
WAV to FLACav/waveform-beeps.wav31.3 KB13.8 KB
WAV to MP3av/waveform-beeps.wav31.3 KB2.1 KB
WAV to Opusav/waveform-beeps.wav31.3 KB16.7 KB

08Questions

How much does a audio-convert call cost?
$0.003 per call, paid in USDC on Base via x402, with no account and no API key.
What does audio-convert return?
A JSON object with 8 top-level fields: source_url, bytes, source_container, format, bitrate_kbps, sample_rate, audio_bytes and audio_base64. The example on this page is a real call over av/convert-beeps.flac.
What happens when a audio-convert call fails?
The tool answers with a typed JSON error from the errors table. Payment is settled only after the tool has produced its result; a call that fails inside the tool is never settled. A 503 upstream_unavailable can follow a settled call; the x402 payments guide covers it, 429, 402 and an uncertain 500.

09Related