Open an .eml file

What an .eml file is

.eml is the plain, standard way to save one email: exactly what travelled between mail servers, headers and all. Thunderbird, Apple Mail, Windows Mail, many webmail services and lots of business systems save or export emails this way. People run into them when an email is forwarded as an attachment from Gmail, or when a system sends notices as .eml files.

Open it here

1. Drop the .eml file on this page, or press Choose a file.
2. Read the message, formatted as the sender intended or as plain text.
3. Save attachments one at a time, or open attached emails in place.

The file is read by your browser and never uploaded. That makes it safe for emails you’ve been asked to keep as evidence, invoices and anything personal.

Why a double-click sometimes fails

On a Mac, Apple Mail opens .eml files directly. On Windows, they open in whichever mail app is set as the default, and if that’s nothing, or a webmail account, you get an error or a page of code in Notepad. On phones and Chromebooks there’s usually no app for them at all. A browser can always open one here.

Handy extras

• winmail.dat inside. If the email carries a winmail.dat from an Outlook sender, it’s unpacked automatically and the files inside are listed.
• Headers. Open Technical headers to see the full routing information, useful for checking whether a message is genuine.
• Signed email. S/MIME-signed messages open normally and are marked as signed. The signature itself isn’t verified here.
• Apple Mail .emlx files from the Mail folder in your Library open too.

Safety

Email formatting can hide tricks. The message is shown in a sealed-off frame where scripts can’t run, forms can’t submit and links open in a new tab. Remote pictures, which senders use to track opens, stay off until you allow them. Attachments are saved as files and never opened inside the page.

Checking a suspicious email

If someone forwarded you a message to ask “is this real?”, an .eml file is the best thing to have, because it keeps the full headers. Open it here, then open Technical headers: the Received lines show which servers handled it, and the Authentication-Results line, when present, shows whether the sending domain’s SPF, DKIM and DMARC checks passed. A message claiming to be from your bank that failed those checks, or came through an unrelated server, is worth reporting rather than answering.