magnet: URI file format

· identifier (not a file) · introduced 2002 by Bitzi

What is a magnet: URI file?

Magnet is a URI scheme that identifies content by a hash (typically BitTorrent's info hash) rather than a location. Users paste a magnet URI into a torrent client and the client looks up peers via DHT or trackers — no .torrent file required. Magnet is included here because it is the most common way to point at multi-gigabyte archives today.

Most readers reach this page after double-clicking a file and finding their operating system unsure what to do with it. The good news: magnet: URI is a well-understood format with mature tooling on every major platform. It is supported in one click by mainstream archivers on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

How to extract a magnet: URI file

Opening a file is straightforward on every modern operating system. The exact steps depend on which platform you are on:

On Windows

Locate the file in File Explorer.
Right-click the file. If you have 7-Zip installed, choose 7-Zip → Extract Here. On Windows 11 the built-in extractor handles ZIP, 7z, RAR and several other formats directly through Extract All…
If prompted, pick a destination folder and click Extract.
The extracted files appear in a folder next to the original archive.

On macOS

Find the file in Finder.
Install The Unarchiver from the Mac App Store, or Keka for both creating and extracting.
Right-click the file → Open With → The Unarchiver (or just double-click after Unarchiver is set as the default).
The extracted folder appears next to the archive.

On Linux

Use your file manager: right-click the archive → Extract Here (file-roller on GNOME, Ark on KDE).

On the command line, run one of:

7z x archive    # works for almost any format

The files appear in the current directory.

How to create a magnet: URI file

To pack files into a archive, you typically need an archiver that supports writing this format. Not every tool can create every format — for example, only WinRAR can create real RAR files. The sidebar lists the software known to read and write magnet: URI.

On the command line, the canonical create command is:

# Use 7-Zip, PeaZip, or the format's reference tool to create  files.

If you regularly create archives at scale, a dedicated archive automation suite can wrap this command in scheduled jobs, integrity checks, and offsite replication.

Strengths

No central host required
Trivial to share — copy the URL
Works with DHT

Weaknesses and limitations

Requires DHT bootstrap
Not actually a file format

Typical use cases

BitTorrent transfers
Decentralized content addressing

Technical details

magnet: URI uses the None algorithm and is identified on disk by the magic byte sequence (URI). The standard MIME type is text/uri-list. The format is an open specification and is free for any use.

Frequently asked questions

Is magnet: URI safe to open?

Archive files are containers — they are only as safe as what they contain. A from a trusted source is fine; one received from a stranger can hold malicious executables, scripts, or files engineered to exploit bugs in your archiver. Always keep your archiver updated, and never run unknown executables that come out of an archive. A safe workflow is to extract into a sandbox and scan the contents before opening anything.

What is the maximum file size?

Modern implementations support archives in the multi-terabyte range. The practical limit is your filesystem (FAT32 caps at 4 GB; ext4, NTFS, APFS, and exFAT all comfortably handle multi-TB files).

Can I password-protect a magnet: URI?

Some archivers can wrap magnet: URI files in an encrypted container, but the format itself does not always include built-in encryption. Check your archiver's documentation.

How does magnet: URI compare to other formats?

See our format comparison pages such as ZIP vs 7z, ZIP vs RAR, and tar.gz vs tar.xz for side-by-side feature tables.