How to open a RAR or 7z file

What these files are

A RAR or 7z file is a container that holds one or more files squeezed into a single package, like a ZIP file. You cannot read the contents until you extract them. If you got one in an email or a download, the steps below get the files out. Only open archives from people and sites you trust, since the files inside are ordinary files that can contain anything.

On Windows 11

Microsoft's support page on zipping and unzipping says Windows 11, version 24H2 supports ZIP, RAR, 7z and TAR archive formats. Open the archive and drag files out, or right-click it and choose Extract All, then follow the prompts.

The same page says this built-in support does not handle encrypted archives, and suggests apps such as 7-Zip or WinRAR for those. Older versions of Windows 11 and Windows 10 need an app too. 7-Zip is free and open source, and lists RAR among the formats it can unpack.

On a Mac

Apple's page on zipping and unzipping on a Mac only describes .zip files, and says nothing about RAR or 7z, as of October 2026. In practice, you need a free app. The Unarchiver is free in the Mac App Store, runs on macOS 10.13 or later, and its website lists RAR (including encrypted and multi-part archives) and 7z. After you install it, double-click the archive.

On an iPhone or Android phone

Android's Files by Google app says on its help page that only .zip files are supported, so RAR and 7z are out. Apple's help for the iPhone Files app is titled Create or open ZIP files, and we found nothing there about RAR or 7z either. On a phone, the usual choices are to install a third-party archive app or use a browser tool.

In the browser, without uploading

The archive extractor opens ZIP, RAR (old RAR and RAR5), 7z, TAR and its compressed forms, ISO and CAB files, one or several at once. Each file inside is listed so you can download it on its own, or all of them as one ZIP.

If all you have is a RAR, the RAR extractor page is set up for it; for a .7z, use the 7z opener.

• Folders: the paths inside the archive are kept, so files from a folder show as folder/name.
• Passwords, as of October 2026: a password-protected ZIP opens after you enter the password, so type it before pressing Extract; a wrong one shows an error. Encrypted 7z and RAR archives are not supported yet: in our tests they did not open even with the correct password. Use 7-Zip for an encrypted 7z, and WinRAR or The Unarchiver for an encrypted RAR.
• Split archives: archives in parts, such as .part1.rar or .7z.001, are not supported.
• Size: the tool sets no size limit, but the archive is unpacked in your device's memory, so a very large one may not fit on a phone.

In our test, a small RAR5 archive and a 7z archive with a folder in it both opened and listed their files, with the right names and sizes. The extraction code is the open-source libarchive library, running in your browser tab as WebAssembly, so the archive never leaves your device. That is the main difference from online extractors that upload the file to a server.

Which one to choose

On Windows 11 with a plain archive, File Explorer is enough. For a locked 7z, or a lot of archives, install 7-Zip. On a Mac, The Unarchiver is the simple option. On a Chromebook, a work computer where you cannot install anything, or a phone, the browser tool is the quickest. To pack files up again, the ZIP creator makes a ZIP that every device opens.

Questions