Supported file types

Descript supports most common audio, video, and image formats. A few things to keep in mind before importing:

  • Each plan has its own file upload size limit (with a 50 GB max). See our pricing page for details.
  • Files with three or more audio channels are automatically downmixed to stereo on import. To work with individual channels, split the file into mono tracks first.
  • HDR video is supported but currently in beta — you may notice some slowness during editing and exporting.

This article covers:

Supported and unsupported file types

Type Supported Unsupported
Audio containers WAV, MP3, AIFF, M4A, FLAC, OPUS, AAC OGG, WMA
Audio codecs AAC, PCM (8, 16, 24, and 32-bit), Opus APAC*, ALAC

*APAC/Spatial Audio files used on iPhone 16 models are supported. In Descript they will be treated as though recorded with stereo audio.
Video containers MP4, M4V, MOV, WEBM, MKV MTS, MXF, OGV, AVI, WMV
Video codecs H.264, HEVC, VP8, VP9, ProRes*, QTRLE*

*ProRes and QTRLE formats are only supported on Creator, Business, and Enterprise plans. 		—
Image BMP, JPEG, PNG, GIF, WEBP, HEIC —

Supported codec combinations

Getting a "file not supported" error on a file type listed above? The issue may be the codec inside the file. Not every codec works in every container. The tables below show exactly which combinations Descript supports.

Video containers × codecs

Container H.264 HEVC
(H.265) 		VP8 VP9 ProRes * QTRLE * AV1 Vorbis
MOV ✅ ✅ ❌ ❌ ✅ ✅ ❌ ❌
MP4 ✅ ✅ ❌ ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌
M4V / 3GPP ✅ ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌
MKV (Matroska) ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
WebM ❌ ❌ ✅ ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌

Audio containers × codecs

Container AAC MP3 FLAC Opus PCM
MP4 / MOV / M4A ✅ ✅ ❌ ❌ ✅
ADTS (raw .aac) ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌
WebM ❌ ❌ ❌ ✅ ❌
OGG (.opus) ❌ ❌ ❌ ✅ ❌
WAV ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ✅
AIFF ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ✅
MP3 ❌ ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌
FLAC ❌ ❌ ✅ ❌ ❌