USDZ Viewer — Open USDZ Files Online
Open Apple USDZ augmented-reality files on any device — including Windows and Android, where Quick Look is not available.
Your USDZ file is read and rendered entirely by your own browser. It is never uploaded to A23D, never stored, and never seen by anyone but you.
How to open an USDZ file
No account, no plugin, no upload. Three steps and your model is on screen.
Drop in your file
Drag the .usdz onto the viewer, or click to browse. If the model references separate material or texture files, drop the whole folder or a .zip so everything resolves.
Inspect the scene
Orbit, pan and zoom to look around. The inspector lists every mesh in the hierarchy with its triangle count, and reports the bounding box so you can sanity-check scale.
Convert or capture
Save a PNG of the viewport, or download the model converted to GLB, OBJ, STL, PLY or USDZ — all without the file leaving your browser.
What is a USDZ file?
USDZ is Apple's augmented-reality file format, announced with iOS 12 in 2018 and developed jointly with Pixar. It is the format behind AR Quick Look — tap a USDZ link on an iPhone and the model appears in your room without any app being installed.
Technically a .usdz is an uncompressed ZIP archive wrapping a USD scene together with its textures. The lack of compression is deliberate: files can be memory-mapped and read in place, so a model starts rendering without being unpacked first.
Inside sits ordinary USD, so USDZ inherits Pixar's scene description: hierarchies, transforms, PBR materials through the UsdPreviewSurface shader, skeletal animation and blend shapes. What USDZ adds is the packaging constraint that makes it reliable for distribution — one file, everything included.
The awkwardness is platform asymmetry. On an iPhone or iPad a USDZ opens natively. On Windows, Android or a desktop browser there is often nothing that will open it at all, which is exactly the gap this viewer fills — you can check a USDZ before publishing it without needing an Apple device.
For the web more broadly, GLB remains the more universal choice; many teams publish both, serving USDZ to iOS for Quick Look and GLB everywhere else. You can produce that GLB here directly from the USDZ.
USDZ at a glance
- Extension
- .usdz
- Developer
- Apple with Pixar
- First released
- 2018 (iOS 12)
- Encoding
- Uncompressed ZIP of USD
- Up axis
- Usually Y-up
- Used by
- AR Quick Look
- Stores
- Geometry, PBR, animation
What this viewer supports
- USDZ archives with packed textures
- USD geometry and scene hierarchy
- UsdPreviewSurface PBR materials
- Works on Windows, Android and desktop
- Export to GLB, OBJ, STL, PLY
- Textures in subfolders
- USD layers stored in subfolders
- Placing the model in your real room
USDZ viewer FAQs
The questions we get asked most about opening USDZ files.
How do I open a USDZ on Windows or Android?
Drop it here. USDZ is an Apple format and there is often no native way to open one outside iOS and macOS, which is exactly what this viewer is for — it runs in any browser with WebGL, on any operating system.
Is my USDZ uploaded to a server?
No. The archive is unpacked and rendered inside your browser. Nothing is transmitted to A23D or stored, so unreleased product models stay private.
Can I place the model in my room from here?
No. This is a 3D viewer, not an AR session — it renders the model on screen so you can inspect it. To place it in a real space, open the same USDZ on an iPhone or iPad, where AR Quick Look handles it natively.
What is the difference between USDZ and GLB?
Both package a scene and its textures into one file. USDZ is Apple's choice and is what AR Quick Look needs on iOS; GLB is the Khronos standard and works nearly everywhere else. Many teams publish both from the same source.
Can I convert USDZ to GLB?
Yes. Load the file and use Convert to, then choose GLB. That gives you the version to serve to Android and desktop browsers while keeping the USDZ for iOS.
Why does my USDZ look untextured?
A correctly built USDZ contains its textures inside the archive. If it renders plain, the file was likely assembled without them packed in. Check the export settings in the tool that produced it.
My USDZ was refused because a USD layer is in a folder. Why?
A known flaw in the underlying USD reader means that when a .usd, .usda or .usdc layer sits inside a folder, texture paths are fetched directly instead of going through the viewer's protection against files requesting external addresses. Rather than weaken that protection we decline the file. Repackage with all USD layers at the top level of the archive — which is what Apple's own usdzip produces — and it opens normally. Textures may stay in folders.
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