If AAC is missing from the audio Codec menu in DaVinci Resolve's Deliver page, Blackmagic's own documentation will not give you one answer — three official sources describe AAC encoding differently. The only statement all three agree on is that Linux cannot encode AAC.
That is not a cop-out. The disagreement is the useful information, because it tells you which claims about your platform are backed by a document and which are just repeated on forums.
What the three official sources actually say
The DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual, page 4206, describes the Codec dropdown in the Deliver page's Audio panel like this:
"Codec: Lets you choose between Linear PCM (the default), AAC audio, IEEE Float, or MP3. AAC audio encoding is only available on macOS."
That sentence is where the "macOS only" rule comes from, and it is stated without any qualifier about version or licence tier.
Blackmagic also publishes a separate Supported Formats and Codecs PDF. The current one — cover dated July 2025 — is split into three chapters, one each for macOS, Windows, and Rocky Linux 8.6 (CUDA), with the full table repeated in every chapter. Its columns run Format | File Ex. | Alpha Exports | Codec Passthrough | Decode | Encode. The AAC row in the Windows chapter reads:
Advanced audio coding || aac/m4a || – || – || CBR, VBR, average || CBR, VBR, averageThe last column is Encode, and it is not a dash. On that table, Windows encodes AAC with constant, variable, or average bit rate.
The same row in the Rocky Linux 8.6 (CUDA) chapter reads:
Advanced audio coding || aac/m4a || – || – || – || –Decode and Encode are both dashes.
The third source is the codec list whose filename carries the number 21. Open it and every page footer reads, verbatim:
"DaVinci Resolve 15 BETA Supported Formats and Codecs"
Its AAC encoding row is:
AAC aac 48kHz; Constant, averabe and variable bit rateThat is Blackmagic's spelling of "average", not ours. In that file, the Encode column is "Yes" for both Mac and Windows and a dash for Linux. Treat the 48kHz there with caution: the current July 2025 table has no sample-rate column at all, so that figure is not a documented current limit.
The one thing you can safely act on
Linux cannot encode AAC out of DaVinci Resolve. Every source points the same way: the manual's "only available on macOS" excludes it, the July 2025 Linux table shows dashes in both the Decode and Encode columns, and the older file shows a dash for Linux too.
The July 2025 document backs this up a second time. Its "Embedded audio" row — the audio muxed into a video container — is listed for macOS and Windows as:
"Linear PCM 16/24/32-bit, AAC (based on container), mp3 (based on container), flac (based on container)"
The Rocky Linux version of that same row drops AAC entirely:
"Linear PCM 16/24/32-bit, mp3 (based on container), flac (based on container)"
For Windows, there is no safe verdict to give you. The manual says one thing, both codec lists say another, and the July 2025 document's closing NOTES include the line "Specifications format and codec support subject to change without notice." If the menu is empty on your Windows machine, check the official documentation for your exact build rather than trusting any single page — including this one.
The fastest fix: get the AAC file somewhere else
Whatever the menu shows, Resolve's job here is to render your mix. The July 2025 tables list only four encodable audio formats: Linear PCM (WAV), MP3, AAC/M4A, and FLAC. Of those, Linear PCM and FLAC are listed as encodable on all three platforms, and MP3 is listed as "Constant bit rate" on all three.
So the reliable route is: render Linear PCM to WAV out of Resolve, which no platform table restricts, then convert that file to the codec you needed.
Try it right here
Runs in your browser. Your file is not uploaded anywhere.
This runs in your browser tab — the file is read from disk, re-encoded locally, and handed back. Nothing is uploaded, which matters when the audio is a client mix. If you already exported a video and want the audio out of it rather than re-rendering the timeline, extract audio from video does that in one pass, and WAV to MP3 handles the lossless master you rendered from the Deliver page.
Other causes that look like the same problem
You still have Export Video switched on. The audio Format menu only appears when video rendering is off. The manual is explicit: "Export Video: Turn this checkbox on to render the source video. Turn this checkbox off if you want to render the source audio all by itself; this disables all video controls, and shows an Audio Format dropdown menu in the audio section of settings."
A render preset has locked the control. Per the manual, "Each preset automatically sets up what you need and locks you out of settings that are not necessary for rendering that type of media." Several presets already set AAC for you — the H.264 Master preset's audio "defaults to the Codec being AAC with the Data Rate set to 320 Kb/s and the Bit Depth set to 16", and the YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok and Dropbox presets all list "Audio Codec: AAC".
The container list is machine-specific. The manual's description of the Format dropdown keeps three qualifiers that people drop when quoting it: it "gives access to the container formats that are currently available on your system", and "the available options depend on whether you have Final Cut Pro and QuickTime installed, and on the operating system you're using."
AAC is there, but its sub-controls are not. Three settings only appear once AAC is selected: Bit Rate Strategy, where you "can choose among Constant Bit Rate, Average Bit Rate, Variable Bit Rate Constrained, and Variable Bit Rate"; Quality, described as "Five settings you trade between speed and quality when encoding AAC audio" and available only when the strategy is Variable Bit Rate; and Data Rate, available for the constant and variable strategies. If those are greyed out, AAC is not the active codec yet. Those three are the only Audio panel controls the manual tags with an "(Available for AAC encoding)" qualifier — the entries for "Sample Rate: Lets you set the sample rate, in Hz, of the output of the audio" and "Bit Depth: Lets you specify the bit depth at which to output the source audio" carry no such tag.
How to tell it worked
Render, then check the extension and the file's actual codec — not the extension alone. If the mix plays end to end at the right length, the render is fine.
FAQ
Is AAC export really macOS-only in DaVinci Resolve? The Reference Manual (p. 4206) says "AAC audio encoding is only available on macOS." Both of Blackmagic's Supported Formats and Codecs PDFs list AAC encoding for Windows as well. The documents disagree; only the Linux restriction is consistent across all three.
Why can't I encode AAC on Linux? The July 2025 codec list shows a dash in both the Decode and Encode columns for AAC in its Rocky Linux 8.6 (CUDA) chapter, and its Linux embedded-audio row omits AAC. That is the one AAC restriction every official source supports.
What audio formats can DaVinci Resolve export instead? The July 2025 tables list four: Linear PCM (WAV), MP3, AAC/M4A, and FLAC. Linear PCM and FLAC are listed as encodable on all three platforms; MP3 is listed as constant bit rate only.
Why does Blackmagic's codec PDF named 21 look out of date? Because its own page footers read "DaVinci Resolve 15 BETA Supported Formats and Codecs". Three files in the series sit on the documentation server at once; the July 2025 one is the newest and the most complete, despite carrying a lower version number in its filename.
Can I just render a WAV and convert it? Yes, and it is the most portable answer. Linear PCM is listed as encodable on every platform, so the WAV render is never the thing that fails. See all Clapr tools for the converters, or more export fixes if something else in the Deliver page is misbehaving.
Sources: DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual (pp. 4186–4206) and the Supported Formats and Codecs PDFs dated July 2025 and footed "DaVinci Resolve 15 BETA", all published by Blackmagic Design and checked 16 September 2026. Blackmagic states that codec support is "subject to change without notice" — verify against the current documents before relying on them.
