How to open a .TAR file online
No extra software to download or install.
Pick your .TAR 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 .TAR files
What a .TAR file is, and what's inside it.
A TAR file (also called a tarball) bundles files and folders into one archive but does not compress them. That is why you almost always see it as .tar.gz or .tgz, with gzip added on top. On Linux and macOS run tar -xf file.tar. On Windows 10/11 the same command works in a terminal, or use the free 7-Zip or PeaZip.
Programs that open .TAR files
| Full name | Tape Archive |
|---|---|
| Developer | AT&T Bell Labs (Unix); POSIX (ustar/pax standards), GNU tar (GNU Project) |
| First released | 1979 (Version 7 Unix); standardized as POSIX ustar (1988) and pax (2001) |
| Category | Archives |
| MIME type | application/x-tar |
| Signature | 75 73 74 61 72 "ustar" - magic field inside the 512-byte header |
Related viewers
Found something inside the archive? Open it here.
Do I have to unpack the whole .TAR 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 .TAR 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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