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rgaudin edited this page Jun 26, 2026 · 5 revisions
Files Location Server
Kiwix releases https://mirror.download.kiwix.org/release/ SRV-M
Kiwix nightly https://mirror.download.kiwix.org/nightly/ SRV-M
Kiwix archives https://archive.download.kiwix.org/ SRV-B
openZIM releases https://download.openzim.org/release/ SRV-M
openZIM nightly https://download.openzim.org/nightly/ SRV-M
openZIM wp1 https://wp1.download.openzim.org/ SRV-B
ZIM files https://lb.download.kiwix.org/zim/ SRV-S (load-balancer, no files)
ZIM files https://mirror.download.kiwix.org/zim/ SRV-M (our mirror)

Except for the ZIM Catalog (see below), all those download services are simple nginx HTTP servers running on said server.

Important

Use BitTorrent to download ZIM files!

It's the best solution for everybody: ensures data integrity, fastest and doesn't impose bandwith and resources stress our servers and mirrors. ⬇️

Releases

There are permalinks for all releases, in the form of /release/{folder}/{versionless-filename} redirecting to the last version of the matching file.

❯ curl -s -I https://mirror.download.kiwix.org/release/kiwix-desktop-macos/kiwix-macos.dmg |grep location
location: https://mirror.download.kiwix.org/release/kiwix-macos/kiwix-macos_3.15.1.dmg

Warning

From time to time, one release might change its output filename. In this case, the old permalink needs to be manually tweaked to point to the new file pattern. Let us know if you find that we've forgotten one such file.

For instance, up to Kiwix Android 3.13.0, the APK filename was kiwix-{version}.apk. It currently is org.kiwix.kiwixmobile.standalone-{version}.apk

# prior to manual fix
❯ curl -s -I https://mirror.download.kiwix.org/release/kiwix-android/kiwix.apk |grep location
location: https://mirror.download.kiwix.org/release/kiwix-android/kiwix-3.13.0.apk

# after the manual fix
❯ curl -s -I https://mirror.download.kiwix.org/release/kiwix-android/kiwix.apk |grep location
location: https://mirror.download.kiwix.org/release/kiwix-android/org.kiwix.kiwixmobile.standalone-v3.14.1.apk

Both Kiwix and openZIM releases includes statically generated md5 files (at {filename}.md5) from time of upload.

❯ curl -s $(curl -I -Ls -o /dev/null -w %{url_effective} https://mirror.download.kiwix.org/release/kiwix-desktop-macos/kiwix-macos.dmg).md5
d8b5a7b9116088ece27a0e66d51ac704  kiwix-macos_3.15.1.dmg

All releases are also available via FTP and rsync (see Catalog below).

Nightly builds

Both Kiwix and openZIM softwares offers nightly builds.

Nightly builds are per-day folders containing a flat list of all built-that-day files. There are folders for the last 30 days.

There are permalinks for all nightly files for both projects in the form of /nightly/{versionless-filename} redirecting to the last nightly of the matching file.

❯ curl -s -I https://download.openzim.org/nightly/libzim_linux-armv6.tar.gz |grep location
location: https://download.openzim.org/nightly/2026-06-24/libzim_linux-armv6-2026-06-24.tar.gz

All nightlies are also available via FTP and rsync (see Catalog below).

WP1

WP1 support files (TSV files of collections and top articles from Wikipedia) are available in per-language (source Wiki code), per-month folders named as {lang}wiki_{version}.

The version is the month the files were created. We keep only the last 2 versions.

There are permalinks to the last version in the form of /{lang}wiki/* redirecting to the last version of the matching folder.

❯ curl -s -I https://wp1.download.openzim.org/enwiki/customs/computer.tsv |grep location
location: https://wp1.download.openzim.org/enwiki_2026-06/customs/computer.tsv

ZIM Catalog

The Kiwix Catalog is the collection of ZIM files that are publicly available and integrated into Kiwix readers.

Browsing

Our recommended way for end-users to browse the catalog is either in-app or via the Browse Library web service.

If you prefer to explore the file tree, you can do so via:

Note

Both FTP and Rsync give access to Kiwix and openZIM releases and nightlies in addition to ZIM files.

  • FTP: ftp://master.download.kiwix.org/
  • Rsync: rsync://master.download.kiwix.org/download.kiwix.org/

Rsync server limits the number of concurrent anonymous connections (1 at the moment) so you might have to wait for a slot to free up.

Integrating

If you want to integrate the Catalog, then you should be looking at the OPDS API. That's what Kiwix readers (including kiwix-serve) uses.

Please read the OPDS API Documentation.

The fastest way to hack on the Catalog is to retrieve it completely:

❯ curl --compressed 'https://opds.library.kiwix.org/catalog/v2/entries?count=-1' -o catalog.xml
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100  451k  100  451k    0     0   473k      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  473k

Caution

The OPDS API is a critical piece in Kiwix's infrastructure in that it is called by every Kiwix reader user at launch and relied upon by the apps to download files.

Be mindful in how and how-frequently you query it. Make sure you always request compression (it's cached) and use the various features of the API to request only what you need.

If your usage seems unusual or excessive, contact us.

Load-balancer and mirrors

lb.download.kiwix.org/zim/ is a load-balancer. The server itself does not have access to the ZIM files but redirects each request to the most appropriate mirror.

The are currently 10 active mirrors but when requesting a file all of them may not be candidates to serve you. The code considers which mirror has the file you request of course, if it is currently online and then checks if your IP+Location are within their serving list. Some mirrors are dedicated to specific countries, some to continents, etc. In general, if there's a mirror in your country, it will serve your requests.

The current list of mirrors is available at mirrors.json.

Mirrors that could serve you are then sorted by their score. The score is based on how fast it usually is (median) to download from this mirror from all the countries it is serving. mirrors-qa provides this data.

Note

We're always looking for additional mirrors, especially in Asia. Learn more about joining-up.

Each file served by the load-balancer is accompanied by metadata.

Endpoint Value
.mirrorlist Web page showing all metadata and the list of mirrors that could serve you
.meta4 Metalink v4 file that contains metadata, pieces digests and mirror links
.metalink Metalink v3 file that contains metadata, pieces digests and mirror links
.md5 MD5 checksum digest (hex)
.sha1 SHA-1 checksum digest (hex)
.sha256 SHA-256 checksum digest (hex)
.btih BitTorrent info hash (hex)
.torrent BitTorrent file, including metadata and pieces digests
.magnet BitTorrent magnet link including BTIH, load-balancer URL as webseed and all available mirrors as webseed

BitTorrent

BitTorrent is the preferred download method for it ensures downloaded file integrity, is generally faster and spreads the bandwidth requirement amongst all BitTorrent peers instead of consuming the mirrors' precious bandwidth and resources.

We are in the process (June 2026) of integrating BitTorrent directly into Kiwix readers to become torrent-first.

Tracker

Our torrents are all announced on udp://tracker.openzim.org:6969/announce. This tracker uses a whitelist which only accepts torrents from the Kiwix Catalog (it queries the OPDS API then the .btih endpoints to build the list).

Torrents also registers to the following DHT Nodes:

  • dht.libtorrent.org:25401
  • dht.transmissionbt.com:6881
  • router.bittorrent.com:6881
  • router.utorrent.com:6881
  • dht.aelitis.com:6881

Seeder

We also have a BitTorrent seeder that keeps an always up-to-date copy of the Catalog with decent bandwidth. This ensures you'll always be able to start your torrent download 💯.

You can become a seeder too by using Kiwix Seeder which lets you configure what to mirror with precision.

Permalinks

The load-balancer also provides permalinks for ZIM files in the form of /zim/{versionless-filename} redirecting to the last version of the matching ZIM.

❯ curl -s -I https://lb.download.kiwix.org/zim/mali-pour-les-nuls_fr_all.zim |grep location
location: https://lb.download.kiwix.org/zim/videos/mali-pour-les-nuls_fr_all_2025-09.zim

All of this is Open and Public and we encourage anyone to use and hack on this.

That said, it's documentation, not a contract so if you rely on any of this, let us know so we can discuss before breaking things 😅

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