How to open a .docx file without Word

Someone sent you a .docx and you do not have Microsoft Word. You do not need it, and you do not need to buy anything, sign up for anything, or upload the file to a stranger's server.

Open it in your browser, in about a minute

Open officewrite.com/app. There is nothing to install and no account to create.
Choose Open and pick your .docx file.
Read or edit it, then save. It stays a .docx.

The file is opened by the page itself, on your own machine. It is never uploaded, because there is no server to upload it to — which also means it works on a slow connection and keeps private documents private.

Open a .docx now Download for Windows

Why .docx does not need Word

A .docx is not a locked Microsoft format. It is a ZIP archive of XML files, published as the open standards ECMA-376 and ISO/IEC 29500. Anyone may write software that reads and writes it, which is why so many programs can. Officewrite reads that XML directly.

Other ways to open one

Google Docs — free, but needs a Google account and uploads your file to Google's servers.
LibreOffice Writer — free and offline, but a full desktop install.
Word Online — free tier, but needs a Microsoft account and is limited against the paid app.
Officewrite — free, no account, nothing uploaded, and no install if you use the browser version.

All of them will open the file. They differ mainly in what they ask of you first. See the full comparison if you want the detail.

What about the older .doc format?

Files ending .doc — no "x" — use the much older binary format from Word 97 to 2003. The Windows version of Officewrite converts those for you. The browser version cannot, because the conversion needs a program running on your machine. If you have a .doc, either use the Windows download, or ask the sender to save it as .docx.

Will the formatting survive?

For ordinary documents — headings, styles, tables, images, lists, footnotes, track changes and comments — yes. Very heavily engineered layouts, or documents leaning on macros or mail merge, are where any non-Word program will drift. The file itself is never damaged by opening it, so there is no risk in looking.