How to open a .ARK file online
No extra software to download or install.
Pick your .ARK file
Drag it in or click to choose it. We read its contents list first, so it opens right away without unpacking everything.
Browse what's inside
See every file with its size, how much it's compressed and its date, and search by name across all the folders.
Preview or download
Click a file to preview text or images, or save just that one. Need everything? Download it all as a single ZIP.
About .ARK files
What a .ARK file is, and what's inside it.
An ARK file is a legacy compressed archive from the CP/M BBS era (mid-1980s), using the same binary format as a .arc file. On Windows, open it with PeaZip or IZArc. If your ARK file came from a game, it is a proprietary asset container with no relation to this format - you need game-specific tools.
Programs that open .ARK files
| Full name | ARC Archive (CP/M variant) |
|---|---|
| Developer | System Enhancement Associates (SEA) / CP/M community convention; not a separate developer from ARC |
| First released | Circa 1985–1986 (alongside SEA ARC; .ark convention used on CP/M BBS systems) |
| Category | Archives |
| MIME type | application/x-arc |
| Signature | 1A Control-Z byte (0x1A) - same as SEA ARC |
Related viewers
Found something inside the archive? Open it here.
Do I have to unpack the whole .ARK file?
No. The viewer reads its table of contents first and only unpacks a file when you click it. That works even with multi-gigabyte archives, because we read just the bytes we need.
Can I open password-protected archives?
Yes, for ZIP (ZipCrypto and AES) and 7Z. You'll be asked for the password,. We can't recover forgotten passwords.
Is my .ARK file uploaded anywhere?
No. The code that unpacks the file is downloaded once and then reused.
Why does a .docx or .apk open as an archive?
Because they are ZIP archives under the hood. Office documents, Android apps, Java programs and EPUB books all use ZIP as their container.
What about split archives (.001, .z01, .part1.rar)?
Multi-part archives need all their parts. Today you can open the first part to see the file list; joining parts is on our roadmap.
Was this tool helpful?
Your rating helps us decide which tools to improve next.