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What is an M3U playlist?

A plain-language introduction to M3U and M3U8 playlists, what they contain, which players use them and how M3U.Click helps you keep them tidy.

Last updated 2 November 2026

An M3U playlist is a small text file that tells a media player what to play and in which order. It doesn’t contain any audio or video itself. It only lists where the media is: a file on your computer, a file on your home server, or an address on the internet.

What one looks like

Open an .m3u file in a text editor and you might see this:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:245,Artist – First song
Music/Artist/01-first-song.flac
#EXTINF:-1,Jazz radio
https://radio.example.com/jazz
  • #EXTM3U on the first line says this is an “extended” M3U file with extra information.
  • Each #EXTINF line describes the entry that follows: its length in seconds (or -1 when the length is unknown, such as a live radio stream) and the name to show.
  • The next line is the entry itself: a path to a file or a web address.

That’s the whole idea. Our M3U format reference goes through every part in detail.

M3U or M3U8?

Both are the same kind of list. The difference is the character encoding:

  • .m3u8 files are UTF-8, so names in Arabic, Chinese or any other script display correctly.
  • .m3u files were traditionally written in an older, region-specific encoding. Some players guess, and non-Latin names can come out garbled.

If your playlist has names in more than one language, save it as .m3u8.

The .m3u8 extension is also used for HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), where a “playlist” lists the small pieces of a single stream. If you have an HLS address, it is one entry in your playlist, not a list to edit.

Which players use M3U?

Almost all of them. VLC, Kodi and the media servers Jellyfin, Plex and Emby read M3U files, as do many players on phones, TVs and set-top boxes. Each player supports the basic format; the extras (logos, groups, player options) vary. See our guides for VLC, Kodi and home media servers.

What M3U.Click does

M3U.Click is an editor for the playlists you already have. It runs in your browser and keeps your playlists on your device: there is no account and nothing is uploaded. With it you can:

  • open playlists from your computer, or paste them in;
  • rename, reorder and group entries, and find duplicates and broken entries;
  • save the result as .m3u or .m3u8 for your player;
  • keep backup files, optionally locked with a password.

The editor is in early preview, and editing features arrive in the next updates. M3U.Click is a tool: it does not provide content. You add sources you are allowed to use, such as your own files, your own media server or services you subscribe to.

Next steps

Sources

We checked what this guide says about other software against these official sources. Their menus and features can change between versions.