Multi-gigabyte files
Open huge files through windowed access instead of waiting for the entire file to fit in RAM.
Native editor for Windows
Large files.
Light footprint.
BigPad opens and edits multi-gigabyte text and binary files without loading everything into memory. Fast, focused, and completely open source.
Coming soon to the Microsoft Store
- Open source
- Native Windows app
- No telemetry
BigPad — windowed_file.cpp
Small editor, serious files
Built for files ordinary editors struggle with.
A piece-table architecture references unchanged file ranges and keeps only small read windows and new bytes in memory.
Text and hex
Move between a focused text editor and an editable hexadecimal view in the same application.
Safe saving
Streaming, atomic saves keep memory usage predictable and protect the original during writes.
Syntax highlighting
Readable colors for C/C++, C#, Assembly, JSON, Python, XML/HTML, and log files.
Your preferred view
Choose light or dark mode, word wrap, line numbers, font family, and font size.
Encoding control
Work with UTF-8, optional UTF-8 BOM, and Windows ANSI in English or German.
One tool, two perspectives
Readable text. Precise bytes.
Stay comfortable in long text sessions, then inspect or edit the exact underlying data when needed.
Ready without ceremony
From download to editing in three steps.
Download BigPad
Get the latest Windows release from GitHub and start the native application.
Open any file
Use the file picker or drag a file directly from Windows Explorer.
Edit your way
Choose text or hex mode, encoding, theme, wrapping, and syntax highlighting.
Local by design
Your files stay on your PC.
BigPad is a traditional native desktop application. It needs no account, sends no telemetry, and keeps its settings locally.
- No upload: files are opened and edited locally.
- No analytics: no tracking or usage reporting.
- Transparent: the complete source code is public.
- Permissive: released under the MIT License.
BigPad
Open the file, not a memory problem.
Download BigPad for Windows or explore the implementation on GitHub.