Permute review

Permute is a converter for Mac owners who would rather pay once than subscribe. Charlie Monroe Software sells a permanent Permute 4 license for $14.99, excluding VAT or sales tax, and also offers it on the Mac App Store and through Setapp. It converts video, audio and images between formats such as MP4, HEVC, ProRes, WebM, AV1, MP3, FLAC, HEIC, AVIF and WebP, and handles PDFs and text too, with more than 100 formats listed. Beyond conversion it trims, crops, merges and splits files, sets a target output size, exports audio or subtitle tracks without re-encoding and transcribes audio to SRT subtitles with on-device AI. Advanced users get hardware-accelerated ProRes and raw FFmpeg commands. Everything runs locally on your Mac. The limits are platform ones: Permute 4 requires macOS 26 and Apple Silicon, so older or Intel Macs need Permute 3 at the same price, with a free upgrade later. We compared documented features and published prices.

Who it is for

Mac users who want an offline converter without a subscription

Price

$14.99 one-time license, excluding VAT or sales tax.

Permute 4 $ 14.99 * Buy a permanent license directly from the developer. One purchase, yours forever.
Quoted from the vendor pricing page on November 13, 2026.

Key features

• Converts 100+ formats across video, audio, images, PDF and text
• Trim, crop, resize, rotate, merge and split files individually or in bulk
• On-device AI transcription to text or SRT subtitles
• Hardware-accelerated ProRes encoding and raw FFmpeg commands
• Also sold on the Mac App Store and included in Setapp

Strengths and weaknesses

• Strength: One payment of $14.99 instead of a subscription
• Strength: Files are processed on your Mac, not uploaded
• Strength: Free trial of the full version before buying
• Weakness: Mac only; Permute 4 needs macOS 26 and Apple Silicon
• Weakness: Intel Macs and macOS 11 to 15 need Permute 3
• Weakness: Listed USD price excludes VAT or sales tax added at checkout

Key facts

• Price: $14.99 one-time
• Platform: macOS 26+, Apple Silicon (Permute 4)
• Formats: 100+
• Other ways to buy: Mac App Store, Setapp

Where it ranks

Permute is No. 5 in our Best File Converters verdict.