Guide

How to export Gmail and open the .mbox file

Google lets you download a copy of all your Gmail as a single .mbox file. Here is how to get it and read it, without installing any software.

Export your mail with Google Takeout

Go to takeout.google.com and sign in to the Google account you want to export.
Click Deselect all, then scroll down and tick only Mail.
Optional: click All Mail data included to pick specific labels. The format is always MBOX.
Click Next step. Choose to receive a download link by email, export once, file type .zip and the largest file size.
Click Create export. Google prepares it in the background, which takes from a few minutes to a few days for very large mailboxes. You will get an email when it is ready.
Download the .zip and unzip it. In the Takeout/Mail folder you will find a file like All mail Including Spam and Trash.mbox.
Open MBOX Browser and drag that file into the window. That’s it.

Have your .mbox file? Open it now, nothing to install.

Open MBOX Browser for free

Other places .mbox files come from

Google Vault

Google Workspace admins can export a user’s mail from Vault as .mbox, for example when someone leaves the company. MBOX Browser opens these exports too.

Thunderbird

Thunderbird keeps every folder as an mbox file without an extension in its profile folder. Open those files directly, or export folders with the ImportExportTools NG add-on.

Apple Mail

Choose Mailbox › Export Mailbox. You get a folder ending in .mbox with a file called mbox inside. Open that file.

Good to know

Takeout split your mail into several files? Select them all at once and they open together.
Very large file? That’s fine. It is read in pieces, so it does not need to fit in memory.
Want to keep a single email? Use Save as .eml and open it in any mail app.