This article describes how to use Kiwix to download and read offline Wikipedia.

Reading offline files to acquire knowledge is unaffected by network environment and network costs. Even without internet access, you can learn new knowledge anytime, anywhere, whether on a plane, in the high seas, or in the mountains.

In March 2025, instructions for “Downloading ZIM files using BT” were added.

Introduction

Wikipedia

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is the world’s largest free content, openly editable, and multilingual online encyclopedia collaboration project. The project utilizes Wiki technology, allowing users worldwide, including you, to modify its content simply by using a web browser. Currently, Wikipedia has become the largest and most popular reference tool on the global network, recognized as one of the top ten most popular websites in the world.

Kiwix

Kiwix

Kiwix is an offline content reader that can be used to access content such as Wikipedia.

Kiwix reader can run on almost any device (including mobile phones, computers, etc.). For end-users, its user experience is almost the same as a regular browser, because its interface is almost the same as browsing the original website, just without internet connection.

ZIM Files

The ZIM file format is a free archive format used to store Wiki content such as Wikipedia for offline browsing. This format highly compresses articles (.zim files are very small and can be easily stored on small, inexpensive devices), supports full-text search indexing and local category and image management, similar to the functionality of the MediaWiki system. Unlike the original Wikipedia XML database download, the entire ZIM file can be easily indexed and can be read by programs like Kiwix.

Steps

  1. Download and install Kiwix
  2. Download ZIM files
  3. Open ZIM files with Kiwix

Download and install Kiwix

Please click this link to enter the download page: Download Kiwix reader – Kiwix

It is recommended to install the desktop client first to download ZIM files.

(In Windows environment, Kiwix will use aria2 to accelerate the download.)

Download ZIM Files

There are several ways to download: Download via Kiwix software; Download via direct link using a downloader or browser; Download using BT.

Download ZIM Files from Kiwix

Open the Kiwix client, select Wikipedia to download,

Which is divided into three types:

  • max Includes all content, excluding video and audio content. Other versions have less content than this.
  • no pic Removes most of the pictures in the entries
  • min Simplified version, removes some entries, does not contain pictures

Download the appropriate version according to the remaining storage space of the device and your needs

Download ZIM Files Directly from the Website

Open the website Index of /zim/wikipedia

Find wikipedia_zh_all (you can use the browser’s search function), there are also three types (see Download ZIM Files from Kiwix). Please download the latest suitable version.

If the network speed is too slow, please consider using tools (direct link file download tools such as IDM, Thunder, proxy server, etc.).

Download ZIM Files Using BT

You can also choose to download via BT (you need to use qbittorrent, uTorrent, Thunder, etc.). For very large files with a large number of downloaders, this download method is the fastest. The steps are as follows:

  1. Open the website Kiwix Library and find the ZIM file you intend to download.
  2. Click the blue Download button. Be sure to click this blue button, if you click next to it, it will only open the online reader on the webpage.

Kiwix Library 蓝色的 Download 按钮

  1. This will pop up a Download dialog box, you can choose to copy the magnetic link, paste it into the download tool, and start the download, or you can choose to download the torrent file, and then open it with the download tool to start the download.

Kiwix Library 的 Download 对话框

If Kiwix Library fails to open, you can try to manually piece together the download link of the torrent file:

  1. Open the website https://download.kiwix.org/zim/wikipedia/ , find the ZIM file you intend to download, such as wikipedia_en_all_maxi_2024-01.zim , its link is https://download.kiwix.org/zim/wikipedia/wikipedia_en_all_maxi_2024-01.zim
  2. Add .torrent to the end of the link to get the download link of the torrent file of this file https://download.kiwix.org/zim/wikipedia/wikipedia_en_all_maxi_2024-01.zim.torrent
  3. Download the torrent file wikipedia_en_all_maxi_2024-01.zim.torrent
  4. Open the torrent file with the BT download tool and start downloading the oversized ZIM file

Open ZIM Files with Kiwix

Open the downloaded ZIM file.

Reference

What is Kiwix?

ZIM (file format) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wikipedia Torrent? :r/Kiwix

Other versions of this webpage

This article has versions in multiple languages.

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This article is translated from Chinese (Simplified) to English by AI.