The Unarchiver

Open any archive in seconds

The Unarchiver is the only app you need to open RAR on Mac. It’s times more powerful than the native macOS utility and supports infinitely more archive formats.

Download
Latest version: 4.3.8 (16 May 2024)
macOS 10.13 or later. For earlier versions click here.
Quick install
Takes a few clicks to install and set it as a default app for all archive files.
Free and always will be
The Unarchiver for Mac is free. No in-apps for additional features.
Reads foreign characters
If your archive is named with non-Latin characters, it’s not a problem.

Supported archive formats

With The Unarchiver you can extract files from the following archive formats

Popular formats
Zip
Full

Zip

Full support for the normal zip format, with additional support for AES encryption, Zip64 extensions for large files, Mac OS extensions of many different kinds, and several unusual compression methods. Can also extract .EXE self-extracting files using Zip.

Zipx
Full

Zipx

Full support for the new compression modes introduced by WinZip.

RAR
Full

RAR

Including encryption and multiple volumes. Can also extract .EXE self-extracting files using RAR.

7z
Full

7z

All common compression methods are supported. Also supports Unix extensions.

Tar
Full
Gzip
Full
Bzip2
Full
LZMA, XZ
Full

LZMA, XZ

Both the old "LZMA-alone" format, usually named .lzma, and the new .xz format.

CAB
Full
MSI
Full

MSI

This format is also used by many other Microsoft formats, meanings that you can use The Unarchiver to extract internal data from DOC and PPT files, and others. There is probably no reason to do this, but you can.

NSIS
Extensive

NSIS

Supports many different versions, starting from version 1.10

EXE
Some

EXE

Many kinds of .exe self-extracting formats are supported. However, if you find one that is not, please post an issue on the bug tracker.

ISO, BIN, MDF, NRG, CDI
Extensive

ISO, BIN, MDF, NRG, CDI

Most common disc images can be unpacked, both normal and raw.

Split files
Basic

Split files

Can join files named .001, .002 that do not use any extra wrapper format.

Old formats
StuffIt
No encryption

StuffIt

Can unpack all files I've been able to locate.

StuffIt X
Partial

StuffIt X

Can unpack many files, some more obscure features are still unsupported. JPEG compression is also unsupported.

DiskDoubler
Almost full

DiskDoubler

Only lacks some old compression methods, because I have not been able to locate any files using these. If you have some that do not work, please post them here.

Compact Pro
No encryption
PackIt
Full
Cpio
Full
Compress (.Z)
Full
ARJ
No multi-part
ARC, PAK
Full

ARC, PAK

Full support for all algorithms, including proprietary ones from PAK. Encryption only works in command-line utilities.

Ace
Only old files

Ace

No support for Ace 2.0 and up (WinAce).

Zoo
Full
LZH
Full
ADF
FFS

ADF

Can extract files from Amiga disk images using the regular FFS file system.

DMS
FFS

DMS

Can extract files from compressed Amiga disk images using the regular FFS file system.

LZX
Full
PowerPacker
Full
LBR
Full
Squeeze
Full
Crunch
Full
Many other old formats, especially Amiga-specific ones, are also supported through libxad, but I have not made a full survey of which ones.
Unusual formats
XAR
FFS

XAR

Suggested replacement for Tar on Unix. Used in some newer .pkg files on macOS.

RPM
Full

RPM

Linux package format.

Deb
Full

Deb

Linux package format.

Ar
Full

Ar

Unix library format.

ALZip
No encryption

ALZip

Archive format which is mainly popular in South Korea. Support for all known compression methods, including Bzip2, Deflate and obfuscated Deflate.

WARC
Full

WARC

Internet Archive Web Archive. Request and response headers also included in metadata.

NSA, SAR
Partial

NSA, SAR

Game data file. Can unpack all files I've found. If you have ones that do not unpack, please post an issue.

NDS
Full

NDS

Nintendo DS ROM image, which can contain a file system.

SWF
Images and audio

SWF

Extracts images, sounds and music from Flash files.

PDF
Bitmap images

PDF

Extracts bitmap images from PDF files. Especially useful for scanned PDFs.

How to use The Unarchiver

1
Choose any archive file
2
Go to File -> Get info menu
3
In the Open with choose The Unarchiver
4
Click Change all