All about PEM Files

The PEM file type is primarily associated with OpenSSL.

PEM	File extension: PEM
	File type:	public key certificate

What is a PEM file?

PEM files mostly belong to OpenSSL by OpenSSL Developers. A PEM file is a base64-encoded digital public key certificate or certificate authority information saved in Privacy-Enhanced Mail format. Such a certificate is generated using an asymmetric or symmetric cryptography algorithm. Internet servers and clients use a PEM file to authenticate entities and their data transfer operations over secure networks. OpenSSL can be used to generate and process a PEM certificate. Another type of PEM file is macro used by WordPerfect word processor. PEM is also the filename extension of a vector-based embroidery format used by Brother and Baby Lock embroidery machines.

How to open a PEM file

You need a suitable software like OpenSSL to open a PEM file. Without proper software you will receive a Windows message "How do you want to open this file?" or "Windows cannot open this file" or a similar Mac/iPhone/Android alert. If you cannot open your PEM file correctly, try to right-click or long-press the file. Then click "Open with" and choose an application. You can also display a PEM file directly in the browser:. Just drag the file onto this browser window and drop it.

Online PEM Text Viewer

Choose your .pem file to view

or drag and drop it here

Online File Viewer

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How to extract texts from PEM files or capture a screenshot to PDF, JPG, DOCX, TXT, ...

1. To do this, click the button "Choose your .pem file to view" on this page.
2. After your file is opened in browser,
3. click "Save as..." in the menu.
4. Then choose the file format (e.g. JPG, PDF, DOCX, TXT, ...) you want.
5. Your file will be converted and downloaded.

PEM file extension format:

To view or edit PEM files you need to know the file format, because it determines how the data in this file is stored. Often, the file format can be deduced from the file extension or the initial bytes (called the signature). If the file extension or signature does not match the file format, errors will occur when opening or editing the file. If there are problems opening a file, you must first determine the file format used. Our evaluation of the PEM files is as follows:

PEM is one of the most common file extensions and uses a standardized format supported by many programs. But the following two file formats are common:

• 85% of all PEM files use the popular KEY file format. A public or private key is used in Public-key cryptography to digitally sign or verify documents, software or websites, or to authentice a user. If you open these files in a text editor, you can view and read the content yourself. The average file size is 1 KB with most files being between 910 bytes and 2 KB in size. The file type was developed only in the last few years. The files contain the following words: ----BEGIN CERTIFICATE---- and ----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY----. These files are often associated with cert, certificate, private, public, root, qwiklabs, lightsail and server.
• 3% of all PEM files start with the bytes Bag Attributes crucial for this file format. These files are text files, so they contain words and text. The files are 1 KB to 8 KB in size, with a median of 4 KB. The keywords Bag Attributes, localKeyID, friendlyName and subject are typical for these files. A common filename is cert.pem or key.pem. Such files sometimes refer to client, certificates, phone, push, activation, pushcert and auth.

All other PEM files (12%) have different formats, the following 16 formats can be found: certificate, HTML, UTF-8, ZIP, JSON, RTF, subject, Issuer, ssh and BEGIN. These files are often connected to chain, sign, bundle, privatekey, origin or pair. You can get all the details of your PEM file by dragging it onto this page or by clicking the button "Choose your .pem file to view" above.