How to open a .XZ file online
No extra software to download or install.
Pick your .XZ 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 .XZ files
What a .XZ file is, and what's inside it.
An .xz file is a compressed archive created with XZ Utils, using the LZMA2 algorithm. It usually wraps a single file, most often a .tar, so you commonly see .tar.xz. On Windows, open it with 7-Zip or PeaZip. On macOS, use The Unarchiver or Keka. On Linux, run `tar -xf file.tar.xz`. The format has no encryption and no built-in malware risk.
Programs that open .XZ files
| Full name | XZ Compressed Archive |
|---|---|
| Developer | Tukaani Project (Lasse Collin) |
| First released | 2009 (XZ Utils 4.999.x / 5.0; format finalized 2009) |
| Category | Archives |
| MIME type | application/x-xz |
| Signature | FD 37 7A 58 5A 00 "\xFD 7zXZ \x00" - fixed 6-byte stream header magic |
Related viewers
Found something inside the archive? Open it here.
Do I have to unpack the whole .XZ 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 .XZ 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.