There is no built-in support for files with .rar extensions on the Mac running on macOS. So if you have a *.rar file downloaded from the web, or shared with you by your office colleague or friend, you will need an application or a binary that will extract RAR files.
Let us take a look at 2 different ways you can extract rar files,
1. Install rar formula using Homebrew
- Open Terminal App,
- Type the below command,
% brew install rar ==> Downloading https://www.rarlab.com/rar/rarmacos-arm-612.tar.gz ==> Installing Cask rar ==> Moving Generic Artifact 'default.sfx' to '/opt/homebrew/lib/default.sfx' ==> Moving Generic Artifact 'rarfiles.lst' to '/opt/homebrew/etc/rarfiles.lst' ==> Linking Binary 'rar' to '/opt/homebrew/bin/rar' ==> Linking Binary 'unrar' to '/opt/homebrew/bin/unrar' 🍺 rar was successfully installed!
Note: If you get error "zsh: brew command not found" then you need to install homebrew
RAR will be installed from https://www.rarlab.com
- To extract a file use command unrar e filename.rar
Example:% unrar e myDir.rar
2. Install tools from the Mac App Store
There is a lot of rar file archiver and unarchive software that you can get from the official App Store on Mac. Here are a few of them you can try,
- Unzip - RAR ZIP 7Z Unarchiver: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/unzip-rar-zip-7z-unarchiver/id1537056818?mt=12
- The Unarchiver: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/the-unarchiver/id425424353?mt=12
- RAR Extractor - Unarchiver: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/rar-extractor-unarchiver/id646295438
Let us take a look at how to install The Unarchiver app on the Mac,

- Open App Store by going to Apple Menu -> App Store... (or Spotlight Search),
- Now Type in search "The Unarchiver",
- Click on the Get icon (you may be asked to enter your Apple ID Password or use Touch ID),
- Click Open once installed.
- Make sure to select the RAR options when the Preferences options come up.

To use this app simply right-click on the rar extension file and select Open With -> The Unarchiver

Have Questions? Post them here!
- Opening mac Terminal
- How to change default macOS Terminal Window size
- How to clear Mac Terminal screen
- Find Hostname of Mac running on macOS Ventura 13
- Installing MongoDB on Linux/Unix/macOS/Ubuntu
- How to switch from bash to zsh shell in macOS Terminal
- Limit scrollback rows in macOS Terminal
- How to Set Background Wallpaper on macOS 13 Ventura
- This operation couldnt be completed. Unable to locate a Java Runtime. [macOS]
- Encode or Decode Base64 String using Mac Terminal Command
- List of All Apple Silicon ARM Based M1/M2 Mac [updated Oct 2022)
- How to remove Siri from Menu Bar [macOS Big Sur]
- Must Know Homebrew Commands for Mac/Linux Users
- Hide Keyboard Text Input Icon on macOS Ventura Menu Bar
- 13.0 MacOS Ventura release date
- How to change the default location of Mac Screenshot
- How to set Out Of Office (OOO) on Outlook for Mac
- 30+ Zoom video communications application shortcuts for macOS
- How to install wget on macOS
- Mac turn dark mode on or off using terminal command
- Create Symbolic Link using Terminal Command
- Mac - How to Install VirtualBox
- How to Enable or Disable Dark Mode on macOS Ventura 13
- How to install homebrew (brew) on M1 Mac
- How to uninstall Microsoft Outlook on Mac
- How to add Business Users using Microsoft 365 Admin Center - Microsoft
- How to get current URL Location using Javascript HTML - JavaScript
- Android Parsing Data for android-L failed Unsupported major.minor version 51.0 Error - Android
- Python Program To Calculate Simple Interest (SimpleInterest.py) - Python
- [fix] fatal: pathspec index.html did not match any files error - Git
- How to share SharePoint site or document with all users in organization - SharePoint
- Java -Day of the week using Java 8 DayOfWeek Enum - Java
- [macOS] Change homepage Macbook Safari Browser - MacOS