The Unarchiver | Top Free Unarchiving Software for macOS
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.
Latest version: 4.3.9 (18 Mar 2025)
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. |
|
Bitmap images 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