QCOW2 File

What are QCOW2 files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening a QCOW2 file or are you simply curious about its contents? We're here to explain the properties of these files and provide you with software that can open or handle your QCOW2 files.

What is a QCOW2 file?

A .QCOW2 file is a QCOW2 Disk Image file.

QCOW2 Disk Image format is a virtual disk container used by the QEMU virtualization system. It acts like a hard drive for a virtual machine (VM), storing everything a guest OS needs - its filesystem, operating system files, applications - just as a real disk would. Its features let VM disk files grow only as needed instead of reserving full space up front. QCOW2 supports snapshots, backing files, compression, and encryption.

These files are usually created and managed by QEMU tools such as qemu-img. A typical workflow involves using qemu-img to create a QCOW2 disk, possibly referencing a "backing file" so multiple images can share a base disk, later taking snapshots, resizing, or converting between formats.

Internally, a QCOW2 file starts with a header in the first cluster; among its fields are disk size, cluster size (with a lower limit of 512 bytes), snapshot metadata, and optional encryption format. All integer values are stored in big-endian order. It begins with the magic bytes "QFI\xfb" (hex: 0x514649FB) at offset zero.

How to open QCOW2 files

We have identified one QCOW2 opener that is compatible with this specific type of QCOW2 file.

Programs that open QCOW2 Disk Image files

Last updated: August 10, 2026

Various apps that use files with this extension

These apps are known to open certain types of QCOW2 files. Remember, different programs may use QCOW2 files for different purposes, so you may need to try out a few of them to be able to open your specific file.

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