What does it cost to convert AVI to AAC?

$0.003 per call, paid in USDC on Base via x402.

How large can the AVI file be?

Up to 100 MB (104,857,600 bytes), and at most 60 min (3,600 s) of media. Past a limit the call answers too_large (413).

What happens if the conversion 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.

catalogue / tools / Audio & video / AVI to AAC

Convert AVI to AAC

To convert AVI to AAC, send one POST to /v1/audio-convert with the AVI source and "to": "aac" in the body. Left out, "to" falls back to its default "mp3", so a AAC request has to send it. Each call costs $0.003 in USDC on Base via x402, with no account and no API key. The source file can be up to 100 MB and 60 min (3,600 s) long.

Endpoint: POST /v1/audio-convert
Price: $0.003 per call
Service: audio-convert
Docs: /docs/audio-convert

01Limits

Limit	Value
Largest source file	100 MB (104,857,600 bytes)
Longest input	60 min (3,600 s)
Timeout	94 s
Source formats	AIFF, AVI, FLAC, MKV, MP3, MP4, Ogg, WAV
Output formats	AAC, FLAC, MP3, Opus, WAV

02Example

A real AVI to AAC run of audio-convert.

Request

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

{
  "url": "https://grist.tools/samples/av/pair-clip.avi",
  "to": "aac"
}

Response

200 OK
payment-response: <base64 settlement receipt>

{
  "source_url": "https://grist.tools/samples/av/pair-clip.avi",
  "bytes": 76302,
  "source_container": "avi",
  "format": "aac",
  "bitrate_kbps": null,
  "sample_rate": null,
  "audio_bytes": 11183,
  "audio_base64": "//FsQEV//AEQVCwkah2KhMuwwFjUFCWJ/0yl5qpSSvEt559nE+3Stuq5q1X//2HG..."
}

Source file: av/pair-clip.avi, 74.5 KB (76,302 bytes). 4 s AVI file made by ffmpeg: a 64x36 PNG video stream at 1 fps (a slate field with a small amber square moving right) and a mono 8 kHz 16-bit PCM audio track of two 500 Hz triangle beeps; no subtitle stream. The recorded run returned 10.9 KB (11,183 bytes) of AAC, 15% of the source size, with the source read as the avi container. Decoded, the AAC in audio_base64 opens with FF F1 6C 40 45 7F FC 01 10 54 2C 24. Recorded with ffmpeg 8.1.2.

In the sample itself, the avih main header sets 1,000,000 microseconds per frame, 4 frames, 2 streams and a 64 by 36 frame; the stream headers are vids with handler MPNG, rate 1 over scale 1 and auds, rate 8,000 over scale 1, format tag 0x0001 at 8,000 Hz and 16 bits; an idx1 chunk indexes the frames at the end of the file. In the returned AAC: it opens with an ADTS frame header carrying no CRC: MPEG-4 AAC LC, 8,000 Hz, 1 channel, a first frame of 555 bytes, and buffer fullness 0x7FF, the value that marks a variable bitrate stream.

03Format notes

AVI as a source

AVI is a RIFF container whose form type at byte eight is the four characters AVI followed by a space. Grist checks that form type, not the extension, before ffmpeg sees the file. Three of the conversion services on these pages accept it. audio-convert reads the first audio stream and ignores video; video-thumbnail seeks at the demuxer and decodes exactly one frame with audio disabled; subtitle-extract maps a subtitle stream by its zero-based index. That last route has a practical gap: ffmpeg's AVI muxer writes no text subtitle stream, only DivX XSUB bitmaps, so no real AVI with text captions could be produced for an example, and the AVI subtitle pages carry none. An AVI whose subtitle index matches nothing is refused rather than answered with an empty result. Each response reports the sniffed container as avi alongside the size of the fetched file.

AAC as a target

AAC output is a raw ADTS stream: ffmpeg's aac encoder writes through the adts muxer, and no MP4 container is built around it. Each ADTS frame carries its own header, and the stream is written straight to a pipe without a seekable file. The bitrate_kbps setting applies, but AAC has its own lower ceiling, because it is the slowest encoder of the set and that ceiling keeps a maximum-length input inside the encode deadline. Only the first audio stream is encoded; video, metadata and chapters are dropped, and bit-exact flags keep output reproducible for the pinned ffmpeg. sample_rate is optional, otherwise ffmpeg normally keeps the source rate. AAC is a destination only: a raw ADTS file would pass the MPEG frame-sync sniff, yet nothing proves ffmpeg would receive the right demuxer, so it is not accepted as a source.

04Errors

Code	HTTP
`invalid_input`	`400`
`blocked_target`	`403`
`unreachable_target`	`424`
`upstream_timeout`	`424`
`unsupported_content_type`	`415`
`too_large`	`413`
`unprocessable`	`422`
`internal`	`500`

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

05Questions

What does it cost to convert AVI to AAC?: $0.003 per call, paid in USDC on Base via x402.
How large can the AVI file be?: Up to 100 MB (104,857,600 bytes), and at most 60 min (3,600 s) of media. Past a limit the call answers too_large (413).
What happens if the conversion 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.