.eml Viewer Online
Open a saved email message without Outlook, Thunderbird or Apple Mail. Read it, see the embedded images and save the attachments.
How to open an EML file online
- Drop the
.emlfile onto the box above, or click to choose it. - The message opens with its sender, recipients, date and body. Switch between the HTML view, the plain-text view and the raw headers.
- Download a single attachment, or all of them as one
.zip.
What an EML file is
An .eml file is one email message exactly as it travelled between mail servers: a block of headers, then the body and attachments encoded as text. It is an open standard, not tied to any program, which is why so many tools export it. You typically get one by dragging a message out of Thunderbird or Apple Mail, choosing “download message” or “show original” in webmail, or receiving a forwarded message as an attachment.
Because it is plain text you can open one in a text editor, but what you see is not readable: bodies are base64 or quoted-printable, attachments are long blocks of letters, and anything outside plain English is wrapped in encoded words. This viewer decodes all of that.
What it handles
- Messages with both a plain-text and an HTML version, and deeply nested multipart structures.
- Images embedded in the message (referenced by
cid:), shown in place. - Attachment names with accents or non-Latin scripts, in both the older encoded-word style and the newer RFC 2231 style.
- Legacy character sets: ISO-2022-JP, Windows-1252, GBK and KOI8-R were tested, alongside UTF-8.
- A message attached to a message opens as its own message. Calendar invitations appear as
.icsattachments. Awinmail.datattachment can be opened in place.
Encrypted messages (S/MIME or PGP) are not decrypted; you will see the encrypted part as an attachment.
Reading HTML email safely
An HTML email is a small web page written by a stranger. Before the body is shown, scripts, forms, embedded frames and every link to remote content are removed, and what remains is displayed in an isolated frame that cannot run code or make network requests. Remote images are blocked, so the sender’s tracking pixel never fires. Links are kept and open in a new tab.
The file itself stays on your device. Nothing is uploaded.
Frequently asked questions
How do I open an EML file without Outlook or Thunderbird?
Drop it on this page. The message is decoded in your browser and shown with its sender, recipients, date, body and attachments. No mail program is needed.
Why does my EML file look like gibberish in a text editor?
The body and attachments are stored encoded, usually as base64 or quoted-printable, and non-English text in headers is wrapped in encoded words. A viewer has to decode them; a text editor shows them raw.
Can I save the attachments from an EML file?
Yes. Each attachment has a download button and keeps its original file name. With more than one attachment you can also download them all as a single .zip file.
Why are some images not showing?
Images hosted on a remote server are blocked for privacy, because fetching them reveals that you opened the message. Images embedded inside the .eml file are displayed.
Is the EML file uploaded to a server?
No. It is read and decoded by your browser on your own device, and nothing is sent anywhere.