How to open a .ZIP file online
No extra software to download or install.
Pick your .ZIP 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 .ZIP files
What a .ZIP file is, and what's inside it.
A ZIP file is a compressed archive that stores one or more files in a single smaller package. On Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android you can open it without installing anything, just double-click or tap. A ZIP cannot be converted to a PDF or MP3; it is a container of files, not a document.
Programs that open .ZIP files
| Full name | ZIP Archive |
|---|---|
| Developer | Phil Katz / PKWARE (originally PKZIP, 1989) |
| First released | 1989 (PKZIP 1.0); APPNOTE specification is public |
| Category | Archives |
| MIME type | application/zip |
| Signature | 50 4B 03 04 "PK\\x03\\x04" - local file header |
Related viewers
Found something inside the archive? Open it here.
Do I have to unpack the whole .ZIP 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 .ZIP 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.
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