Free online VOX viewer
Drop a MagicaVoxel .vox to turn it around and count what is in it: voxels, grid size, colours used. It is drawn in your browser, without MagicaVoxel, and nothing is uploaded.
How to open a VOX file
- Drop the .vox on the viewer or click to choose it. Files saved by current MagicaVoxel (format version 200) and by older releases (150) both open.
- Orbit and zoom. The model already stands upright — MagicaVoxel's Z axis is drawn as up — so there is no axis switch on this page.
- Read the panel: how many models the file holds, how many voxels are filled, the grid as X × Y × Z, and how many of the 255 palette colours the model actually uses.
What a .vox file is
The save format of MagicaVoxel, the free voxel editor by ephtracy. A model is a grid of at most 256 × 256 × 256 cells; each filled cell stores one byte, an index into a palette of 255 colours. Nothing else is stored per voxel — no texture, no normal — which is why the files are tiny. A file may hold several models, and since version 0.99 also a scene that places them, layers, and material settings such as glass, metal and emission for MagicaVoxel’s renderer.
Other voxel tools use the same three letters for unrelated formats. This page reads the MagicaVoxel one, recognised by the text VOX at the start of the file. It does not read Qubicle .qb, Goxel .gox, Voxlap .vxl or Minecraft schematics.
For avatars: a voxel model has no skeleton. A voxel character can become a VTuber avatar, but only after it is exported as a mesh, rigged, and converted — the .vox itself cannot.
What this viewer does not do
It reads three things from the file: grid sizes, voxels and the palette. The scene graph is not read, so a file with several models shows them set out in a row rather than where the scene puts them, and rotated or duplicated instances are not reproduced. Materials are not read either: glass is opaque, emissive voxels do not glow, and every voxel is its flat palette colour under the viewer’s own light. The triangle count is of the display mesh — two triangles per exposed voxel face, with no merging — and says nothing about what an optimised export would weigh.
Frequently asked questions
How do I open a .vox file without MagicaVoxel?
Drop it on this page. MagicaVoxel runs on Windows and macOS only and has to be downloaded; this viewer reads the same file in a browser on any system, including Linux and Chromebooks, which is enough to check what a downloaded model looks like.
My file has several models but they are lined up in a row. Why?
MagicaVoxel stores each model's voxels separately and their positions in a scene graph. This viewer reads the voxels and not the scene graph, so it cannot know where each model belongs; it sets them side by side so that none hides another. The panel tells you how many models were found.
Why do glass and glowing voxels look plain?
Glass, metal, emission and the other material types are settings for MagicaVoxel's own path-traced renderer and are stored apart from the voxels. They are not read here. You see the palette colour of each voxel and nothing more.
The colours look wrong. What happened?
If the file carries its own palette, it is used. A file saved without one falls back to MagicaVoxel's default palette, and the panel says which case applies. Colours that still look off are usually material effects — emission or glass — that this page does not draw.
How big can a model be?
One model is at most 256 voxels along each side; larger scenes are built from several models. A fully filled 256-cube has millions of exposed faces at the surface and still opens, though it takes a moment to build.
Is my file uploaded?
No. It is read from your disk and drawn in your browser.
Can I use a voxel character as a VTuber avatar?
Yes, with work in between. Export it from MagicaVoxel as OBJ or glTF, rig it — Mixamo's auto-rigger accepts blocky characters — and then convert the rigged FBX or GLB to VRM. A voxel face has no blendshapes, so expressions have to be added by hand or done without.
From voxels to a rigged avatar
Once the model is exported and rigged, the FBX to VRM converter maps the skeleton to the VRM humanoid, and the VRM viewer shows the result. An exported OBJ can be checked in the OBJ viewer first.