How to Open a RAR File on a Mac

Q: Can a Mac open RAR files without downloading anything?

Yes, from Terminal. macOS ships /usr/bin/tar , which is bsdtar built on libarchive and includes RAR readers, so tar -xf archive.rar extracts a RAR with nothing installed. Finder itself cannot — double-clicking a .rar does nothing useful, because Archive Utility only handles ZIP and the tar family.

Q: How do I extract a RAR file in Terminal on a Mac?

Open Terminal, type tar -xf (with the trailing space), drag the .rar file from Finder into the window to fill in its path, and press Return. The contents land in whatever folder Terminal is currently in, so run cd ~/Downloads first if that is where you want them. To look inside without extracting, use tar -tf instead.

Q: How do I open a RAR file on a Mac for free?

Three free routes, in order of least effort: the built-in tar -xf command above (nothing to install), The Unarchiver from the Mac App Store, or Keka . All three are free and all three unpack RAR. Paid software is not needed to read a RAR — only to create one.

Q: Can I install unrar with Homebrew?

Not from the main Homebrew repository — unrar was removed from homebrew-core over its licence, and brew install unrar now only finds it in third-party taps that Homebrew refuses to load until you explicitly trust them. Install unar instead: brew install unar gives you unar (extract) and lsar (list), which are The Unarchiver's command-line tools and read RAR fine.

Q: How do I open a multi-part RAR (.part1.rar) on a Mac?

Put every part in the same folder, then open the first one — .part1.rar , or the plain .rar if the others are .r00 , .r01 and so on. The tool reassembles them. The Unarchiver and Keka handle this; the built-in tar does not, so split archives are the one case worth installing an app for.

macOS cannot open a RAR file in Finder — double-clicking a .rar gets you nothing, because Archive Utility only handles ZIP and the tar family. But your Mac can already read RAR without installing anything: /usr/bin/tar is bsdtar built on libarchive, whose RAR readers are compiled in, so tar -xf archive.rar in Terminal extracts it. If you would rather not use Terminal, The Unarchiver and Keka are both free.

The fastest way: one Terminal command

Nothing to download, nothing to trust:

Open Terminal (⌘Space, type “Terminal”, Return).
Type cd ~/Downloads and press Return — or whichever folder you want the files to land in.
Type tar -xf (note the trailing space), then drag the .rar file from Finder into the Terminal window. Its path fills itself in.
Press Return.

cd ~/Downloads
tar -xf archive.rar

The contents appear in the current folder. To see what is inside first, list it without unpacking:

tar -tf archive.rar

This works for both RAR4 and RAR5 archives, and the same command reads .7z too. It is the least-known route by a wide margin — most instructions send you to the App Store first — and it needs no Homebrew, no admin password and no third-party code.

One limit worth knowing up front: the built-in tar will not ask you for a password, and it will not reassemble a split archive. For those two cases, install an app.

The app route: The Unarchiver or Keka

Both are free, both are maintained, and both double-click-open a RAR the way you expect.

The Unarchiver — on the Mac App Store. Set it as the default for .rar once, and a double-click extracts to the same folder from then on. Handles password-protected and split archives.
Keka — free from its website (there is a paid App Store copy that funds development; they are the same app). Also creates archives in 7z, ZIP and TAR, which The Unarchiver does not.

From the command line, brew install unar gives you The Unarchiver’s tools — unar to extract, lsar to list. Note that brew install unrar no longer works from Homebrew’s main repository: the formula was removed over its licence, and what remains lives in third-party taps Homebrew refuses to load until you explicitly trust them. unar is the maintained answer.

Skip the online RAR extractors

Search results for this question are full of “extract RAR online, no software needed” sites. What they actually require is uploading your file to a stranger’s server, waiting, and downloading it back. Your Mac can do the whole job locally in a second, so the only thing the upload adds is a copy of your files somewhere you don’t control. If the archive holds anything you wouldn’t email to a stranger, this is not a trade worth making.

Why Finder can’t do it

Apple’s Archive Utility — the invisible app that opens ZIPs when you double-click them — supports ZIP, gzip, bzip2 and the tar family. RAR isn’t in the list, and this is a licensing decision rather than a technical one: RAR’s compressor is proprietary and its owner licenses it. Reading RAR is fine, which is why the open-source libarchive that Apple already ships can do it from the command line. Writing RAR is what costs money, which is why no free Mac tool creates one.

The RAR files that won’t open no matter what

Password-protected archives. You need the password. Terminal’s tar won’t even ask; The Unarchiver and Keka will. Without the password there is no legitimate way in.
Split archives (.part1.rar / .part2.rar, or .rar + .r00 + .r01). Every part must be in the same folder, and you open the first one. If a part is missing, the extraction stops partway.
Incomplete downloads. A truncated .rar looks perfectly normal in Finder and fails to read. Compare the file size against the source before assuming the archive is broken.

Browsing a RAR without extracting it

Extraction is the wrong step when all you want is one file out of an archive, or a look at what’s inside before you commit. Finder can’t do it for any format — even a ZIP has to be unpacked into a folder first.

ComfortFiles opens archives like folders instead: double-click a .rar, .7z or .zip and you step inside it, navigate it with the same keys as any folder, and press Space to Quick Look a file without unpacking anything. Drag out the one file you actually wanted. It reads RAR through the same libarchive readers macOS already ships, and checks at launch that they are present on your system, so it never shows you an archive it can’t actually open. ZIPs go further and can be edited in place — add, rename or delete entries without extracting.

The same limits apply, and ComfortFiles says so rather than showing an empty folder: password-protected and split archives can’t be opened, and RAR can be read but not created. See how archives work in ComfortFiles.

Frequently asked questions

Can a Mac open RAR files without downloading anything?

Yes, from Terminal. macOS ships /usr/bin/tar, which is bsdtar built on libarchive and includes RAR readers, so tar -xf archive.rar extracts a RAR with nothing installed. Finder itself cannot — double-clicking a .rar does nothing useful, because Archive Utility only handles ZIP and the tar family.

How do I extract a RAR file in Terminal on a Mac?

Open Terminal, type tar -xf (with the trailing space), drag the .rar file from Finder into the window to fill in its path, and press Return. The contents land in whatever folder Terminal is currently in, so run cd ~/Downloads first if that is where you want them. To look inside without extracting, use tar -tf instead.

How do I open a RAR file on a Mac for free?

Three free routes, in order of least effort: the built-in tar -xf command above (nothing to install), The Unarchiver from the Mac App Store, or Keka. All three are free and all three unpack RAR. Paid software is not needed to read a RAR — only to create one.

Can I install unrar with Homebrew?

Not from the main Homebrew repository — unrar was removed from homebrew-core over its licence, and brew install unrar now only finds it in third-party taps that Homebrew refuses to load until you explicitly trust them. Install unar instead: brew install unar gives you unar (extract) and lsar (list), which are The Unarchiver's command-line tools and read RAR fine.

Are online RAR extractors safe?

They require uploading your file to somebody else’s server, which is a poor trade when your Mac can already do the job locally. Anything private — documents, backups, work files — should not leave the machine to be unzipped. Use the Terminal command or a local app instead.

Why won't my RAR file open on my Mac?

Three common reasons, and they are distinguishable. If the file is password-protected, you need the password and a tool that asks for one — the built-in tar does not. If the name ends in .part1.rar or .r00, it is a split archive and every part must be in the same folder before the first one will open. And a download that stopped early produces a file that looks right and fails to read — check its size against the source.

How do I open a multi-part RAR (.part1.rar) on a Mac?

Put every part in the same folder, then open the first one — .part1.rar, or the plain .rar if the others are .r00, .r01 and so on. The tool reassembles them. The Unarchiver and Keka handle this; the built-in tar does not, so split archives are the one case worth installing an app for.

Can I create a RAR file on a Mac?

Not for free, and rarely worth it. RAR’s compressor is proprietary — the format is free to read but not to write, which is why every free Mac tool unpacks RAR and none of them makes one. Use ZIP instead: it is built into Finder (right-click → Compress), and anyone on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS or Android can open it without installing anything.

What's the difference between RAR and ZIP?

Both bundle files and compress them. ZIP is an open format supported everywhere by default; RAR is a proprietary one that usually compresses a little harder and can split itself across numbered parts, which is why it stuck around on download sites. On a Mac, ZIP is the one to send and RAR is the one you receive.