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How to open RAR and 7z files on a Mac (without WinRAR or 7-Zip)

Double-clicking a RAR file doesn't work on a Mac, and there is no WinRAR or 7-Zip window for macOS. Two free ways to extract RAR and 7z with what macOS already includes: one Terminal command, or a right-click.

Updated

Someone sends you Project Files.rar, you double-click it, and the Mac can't open it. Archive Utility, the unarchiver built into macOS, doesn't handle RAR files. (Depending on your macOS version, it may open 7z.)

You don't need to install an extractor app, though: macOS already includes everything needed to read RAR and 7z.

Is there WinRAR or 7-Zip for Mac?

Not as you know them from Windows. RARLAB, the maker of WinRAR, offers RAR for macOS, and the 7-Zip project offers 7-Zip for macOS — but both are command-line tools for Terminal, without the familiar window. For extracting, the tool that comes with macOS (method 1) does the same job, and CrossDriver Files (method 2) gives you the right-click you're used to from Windows.

Method 1: one Terminal command

macOS comes with tar (bsdtar, built on libarchive). Besides tar files it reads RAR (RAR4 and RAR5), 7z, ZIP, .tar.gz, .tar.xz and more.

  1. Open Terminal (Applications ▸ Utilities, or search for it with Spotlight).
  2. Type cd and a space, drag the folder that contains the archive into the Terminal window, and press Return.
  3. Create a folder for the files and extract into it:
mkdir "Project Files"
tar -xf "Project Files.rar" -C "Project Files"

Replace Project Files with the name of your archive, and keep the quotes if the name contains spaces. The same two lines work for .7z, .zip, .tar.gz, .tgz and .tar.xz files.

To list what's inside without extracting anything: tar -tf "Project Files.rar"

Method 2: right-click ▸ Extract All

If you'd rather not use Terminal, CrossDriver Files, a free file manager for Mac that works like Windows File Explorer, does the same with a right-click. It uses the archive tools built into macOS, so there's nothing else to install.

  1. Open the folder with the archive in CrossDriver Files.
  2. Right-click the RAR or 7z file and choose Extract All.
The Windows 11 style context menu on a RAR archive, with Extract All
  • The files go into a new folder named after the archive. If that name is taken, the new folder gets a number — nothing is overwritten.
  • Big archives show progress with a speed graph, pause and cancel; cancelling removes the half-extracted folder.
  • Entries that try to write outside the folder (such as ../ paths) are refused.
  • Extracted the wrong archive? Ctrl+Z moves the new folder to the Trash.

Extract All opens ZIP, RAR, 7z, tar, .tar.gz, .tgz, .tar.bz2, .tar.xz, cpio, xar, cab, LHA and Apple Archive (.aar), as well as single compressed files (.gz, .bz2, .xz, .Z).

What doesn't work yet

  • Password-protected RAR and 7z archives can't be extracted with tar or with CrossDriver Files; you'll see an error message instead.
  • Multi-part RAR archives (.part1.rar, .part2.rar …) aren't supported by CrossDriver Files yet.

For these, use an extractor app that supports them.

Sending archives to Windows users

To pack files up, right-click them in CrossDriver Files and choose Compress to ZIP file. Archives of 4 GB and more use the standard ZIP64 format, so colleagues on Windows can open them too.

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