MKV Player Online

Open an .mkv file from your computer or phone, or paste a direct link to one, and play it in the browser. This MKV player online reads the file where it already is — nothing is uploaded, so there is no waiting and no size limit. Whether it plays depends on what is inside the MKV, and the page tells you when it cannot, and what to do instead.

If the file will not play, the MKV to MP4 converter makes a copy that plays on everything. For an MP4 or MOV, use the MP4 player; for a streaming link, the M3U8 player.

What decides whether an MKV plays in a browser

MKV (Matroska) is a container: a box that holds one video track, one or more audio tracks and often subtitles, in whatever codecs the person who made the file chose. A browser has to be able to open the box and decode each track inside it, and the two questions have different answers.

• The containerChrome, Edge, Brave and Opera open MKV. Firefox and Safari do not, and no setting changes that.
• Video that playsH.264 (AVC), VP8, VP9 and AV1 decode in every browser that opens the container.
• Video that usually failsHEVC / H.265 — the codec of most 4K rips and many phone recordings — decodes only where the operating system supplies a hardware decoder. MPEG-2, VC-1 and XviD never do.
• Audio that playsAAC, MP3, Opus, Vorbis and FLAC.
• Audio that failsAC3, E-AC3, DTS, DTS-HD and TrueHD — the surround formats from Blu-ray and DVD. The picture plays silently.
• SubtitlesTracks inside the MKV are ignored. Only a separate WebVTT file can be shown by a browser, and this page does not take one.

So a typical web download — H.264 video, AAC audio — plays here at once in Chrome. A typical disc rip — HEVC video, DTS audio — shows nothing or plays silently, and that is the browser’s limit, not the file’s. The player above reports which of the two happened.

Playing an MKV from your own device, without uploading it

Most people looking for an online MKV player have the file already and no player installed — a work laptop that will not allow VLC, a Chromebook, a phone. The file picker above hands the file to the browser directly. It is read from your disk as it plays, exactly as a desktop player would read it, and it is never copied to us or to anyone. Close the tab and there is no trace of it.

Because nothing is uploaded, size is irrelevant: a 20 GB file starts as fast as a 20 MB one, and seeking is instant because the browser reads straight from the file. On a phone, pick the file from the Files app (iPhone) or the file manager (Android); the caveats about codecs and about Safari refusing the container apply there too.

Playing an MKV from a link

A link works when it points at the file itself — an address ending in .mkv that, opened on its own, starts a download. A Google Drive, Dropbox, MEGA or Telegram share link is a web page that contains the file, and a browser video element cannot reach through the page. For those, the link to file converter fetches the file on our side and hands you a copy; the Google Drive link to MP4 page covers Drive specifically.

Seeking inside a linked file depends on the server supporting byte-range requests. Most do; if dragging the timeline restarts the video from the beginning, that server does not, and the only fix is to download the file and play it locally.

If it will not play: convert it to MP4

MP4 with H.264 video and AAC audio is the one combination every browser, phone, TV and editing app opens. The MKV to MP4 converter takes the file you upload and produces that. When the MKV already holds H.264 and AAC, the tracks are moved into an MP4 box without re-encoding, which takes seconds and loses nothing. When it holds HEVC or DTS, those tracks are re-encoded, which takes longer and is the step that actually makes the file playable. Uploads go up to 2 GB, or 4 GB signed in; a link to an .mkv can be converted without uploading anything, through the URL to MP4 converter.

How to play an MKV in your browser

1. 1

   Open the file, or paste a link

   Use “Open a file from this device” to pick the .mkv, or paste a direct link that ends in .mkv. A file picked from the device is read in place — it is not uploaded anywhere.

2. 2

   Let the browser try

   Playback starts if the video and audio inside the MKV are ones the browser can decode. That is decided in a second or two; a black frame with a running clock means the video codec failed, sound with no picture means the same, picture with no sound means the audio codec.

3. 3

   Convert if it does not play

   If the file fails, the MKV to MP4 converter turns it into an MP4 that plays everywhere. When the codecs were already fine it is a quick remux; when they were not, the file is re-encoded.

MKV player — frequently asked questions