Open Parquet
Apache Parquet is a compressed, columnar file format — which is exactly why double-clicking a .parquet file gets you nothing. It is binary, so Notepad, Excel, and text editors show gibberish, and most advice online starts with "install Python and pandas".
You do not need any of that for a quick look. viewparquet opens Parquet files directly in your browser: drag the file in and DuckDB-WASM parses it locally on your machine. No account or upload is required, and it works on Windows, macOS, and Linux — including locked-down work laptops where you cannot install software. A private Cloud copy is created only when you explicitly choose that option.
No sign-up or install. The viewer runs entirely in your browser tab.
Or click "Open a file" and pick it. The file is parsed locally with DuckDB-WASM unless you explicitly add a private Cloud copy. You can also open a file straight from S3 or a URL.
Scroll millions of rows in the grid, check column names and types in the schema panel, and inspect row groups and compression in the metadata view. Run DuckDB SQL or export to CSV or JSON when you need more.
No default desktop app opens .parquet files — the format is a binary, columnar data file, not a document. Use a Parquet viewer: viewparquet opens the file in your browser with no install, and command-line options include the DuckDB CLI and parquet-tools.
Open it in a browser-based viewer. Drag the .parquet file into viewparquet and it loads instantly with DuckDB-WASM — no Python, pandas, Spark, or install required. You can browse rows, read the schema, and run SQL right away.
Open your browser (Edge or Chrome both work), go to viewparquet.com, and drag the .parquet file into the page. Nothing is installed and the file is processed locally, so it also works on corporate machines without admin rights.
Not by double-clicking. Recent Microsoft 365 versions can import Parquet through Power Query (Get Data), but the quickest universal path is to open the file in viewparquet, export it to CSV, and open the CSV in Excel.
Local viewing and SQL use DuckDB-WASM in your browser, so the file is not uploaded unless you explicitly add a private Cloud copy. Optional AI can send only the context allowed by your sharing settings; use Local AI or disable value sharing for sensitive work.
viewparquet streams and paginates instead of loading every row into memory, so size is limited mainly by your browser’s available memory. Multi-gigabyte files open fine; query only the columns and rows you need to keep memory low.
Drop a Parquet, GeoParquet, CSV, or JSON file into viewparquet: browse rows, run DuckDB SQL, and export results locally in your browser. A file is uploaded only if you explicitly add a private Cloud copy.