Free online USDZ viewer
Drop a .usdz. Packages whose scene is written as text (USDA) are drawn here; packages in the binary encoding — most of those made by Apple’s tools and by Blender — are recognised and pointed to a converter instead of opening empty. Nothing is uploaded.
How to open a USDZ file
- Drop the .usdz on the viewer. It looks inside the package first and tells you how the scene is encoded before trying to draw anything.
- If the scene is text-encoded, the model appears with its colours and PNG textures; the panel lists the up axis and unit the stage declares and anything in the file that was not drawn.
- If the scene is binary (USDC), the page says so and offers the USDZ to GLB converter. The converted file opens in the GLB viewer, on any system.
Exactly what is read
A USDZ is an uncompressed zip holding a USD scene and its images. USD scenes come in two encodings: USDA, which is text, and USDC, a binary form called crate. The loader this page uses reads USDA only. Reality Composer, Reality Converter, iPhone scanning apps and Blender’s exporter all write USDC, so in practice most USDZ files found in the wild are refused here. The ones that open are mostly files written by web tools, such as three.js’s own USDZ exporter.
Within a text-encoded package it reads: meshes placed under Xform and Scope prims, made entirely of triangles or entirely of quads; their points, normals and one UV set; a transform given as a full 4×4 matrix; and UsdPreviewSurface materials — diffuse colour, emissive, roughness, metallic, clearcoat, index of refraction, with diffuse, emissive, normal, roughness, metallic, clearcoat and occlusion textures, provided those textures are PNG.
It does not read: skeletons, skinning and blendshapes (UsdSkel), animation, transforms written as separate translate, rotate and scale operations, opacity, JPEG textures, cameras, lights, variants, per-face material subsets, or primitives that are not meshes. Meshes that mix triangles and quads are detected and refused, because the loader would scramble them. The panel names whichever of these it finds in your file.
For avatars: USD can describe a rigged character, but this viewer does not read rigs, and VRM tools do not take USDZ. Convert to GLB first.
If you only need to look at the file
On a Mac, select the file in Finder and press Space — Quick Look renders USDZ natively, binary or text. On an iPhone or iPad, tapping the file in Files opens it in AR Quick Look. On Windows, Linux and Android there is no built-in viewer, which is where converting to GLB helps: GLB opens everywhere, including in the GLB viewer here.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my USDZ say it is binary and will not open?
Because its scene is stored as USDC, the compact binary encoding of USD. Decoding it takes a much larger piece of software than a web page loader, and the one used here does not include it. The page checks the first bytes of the scene file inside the package and tells you, rather than showing an empty view. Converting the file to GLB gets you something every viewer opens.
How can I open a USDZ on Windows or Android?
Neither system reads USDZ on its own. Convert it to GLB with the USDZ to GLB converter and open the result in the GLB viewer. If the file happens to be text-encoded, it opens on this page directly.
What is the difference between USD, USDA, USDC and USDZ?
USD is the scene description system from Pixar. USDA is a USD scene written as text, USDC is the same scene in binary, and .usd may be either. USDZ is a zip package, stored without compression, that bundles one scene with its textures so it can be passed around as a single file — Apple adopted it for AR on iPhone in 2018.
The model opened but has no textures. Why?
The loader hands only PNG images to the materials. USDZ files very often carry JPEG textures, and those are left out, so the surface shows its plain colour. The panel lists every image in the package and marks the ones that were not used.
Does it play USDZ animations?
No. Animation, skeletons and blendshapes are not read, even in text-encoded files. An animated USDZ either opens as a still model or, if it depends on transforms the loader skips, with parts out of place — the panel says when the file contains animation.
Is my file uploaded?
Not by this page: the package is unzipped and drawn in your browser. The converter it points to for binary files is a different tool: it sends the file to a server to do the conversion.
Can I make a VRM avatar from a USDZ?
Only by way of GLB, and only if the model is a rigged humanoid. Convert the USDZ to GLB, check the result in the GLB viewer, then try the GLB to VRM converter. A scanned object or a product model has no skeleton and cannot become an avatar.
Binary USDZ? Convert it
The USDZ to GLB converter runs a full USD reader on a server, so it handles the binary packages this page refuses. The .glb it returns opens in the GLB viewer.