How to open a .kmz file
Zipped Keyhole Markup · Geographic data
A .kmz file is a zipped .kml plus the images it uses. Google Earth opens it directly, and renaming a copy to .zip lets any archiver show you what is inside.
What a .kmz file actually is
KMZ exists because a map often needs more than coordinates: custom icons, overlay images, photos. Bundling them into one compressed file keeps everything together.
Internally it is an ordinary ZIP with a doc.kml at the root, which is why the rename trick works and why the file is usually much smaller than its contents.
Why it will not open
As with KML, nothing claims the extension unless Google Earth is installed. And a KMZ referencing large overlay images can be slow to open even when the software is right.
Step by step
Windows
- 01Install Google Earth Pro for desktop, which is free, and double-click.
- 02Or import the .kmz directly into Google My Maps in a browser.
- 03To see the contents: copy the file, rename the copy to .zip, and open it with 7-Zip. The doc.kml inside is the map data.
macOS
- 01Google Earth Pro runs on macOS and opens KMZ directly.
- 02To unpack instead, rename a copy to .zip and open it with Keka or the built-in Archive Utility.
Programs that open .kmz
Our pick, in order. Every one links to the publisher's official download URL and the SHA-256 hash of the installer, so you can check the file before you run it.
Common questions
- How do I convert KMZ to KML?
- Rename a copy of the file to .zip, extract it, and take the doc.kml from inside. That is all a KMZ is: a ZIP with a KML and its assets.
- Can I open a KMZ without Google Earth?
- Yes. Google My Maps imports KMZ in a browser, QGIS opens it as a GIS layer, and any archiver lets you extract the KML inside to read the raw data.