How can I open Illustrator files without illustrator?

The most well-known free Illustrator alternative is the open-source Inkscape. It’s available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. You can open AI files directly in Inkscape. It doesn’t support drag-and-drop, so you need to go to File > Open and then select the document from your hard drive.

How do I open an Illustrator file on my PC?

AI file types can typically only be opened and edited with Adobe Illustrator. If you want to open AI files without editing them, you can change the file format from AI to PDF and view it as flat a image (PC only), preview the AI file in Preview (Mac only) or upload the file to a Cloud Service like Google Drive.