What is the EDI file format?
The .edi file extension is used by files conforming to the EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) standard. .edi files store structured business transaction data in plain-text format.
.edi files are used for exchanging electronic business documents - such as purchase orders, invoices, and shipping notices - between trading partners. The EDI format emerged as a standardized means of replacing paper-based commerce documents with digital equivalents. There exist many different EDI standard implementations, and no single program supports them all. Therefore, trading partners exchanging .edi files should agree in advance on which EDI standard they use.
The two dominant standard families are ANSI X12 (North America, maintained by ASC X12 since 1979) and EDIFACT (international, since 1987). An X12 document begins with an ISA interchange envelope segment; an EDIFACT document begins with an optional UNA service-string advice segment followed by a UNB interchange header. Within both families, data elements are separated by configurable delimiters and segments end with a terminator character (commonly ~ in X12).
Popular EDI standard implementations include:
TRADACOMS- UK retail sectorODETTE/VDA- automotive industryIDOC(SAP) - SAP-native intermediate documents used with EDI workflowsEDIFICE- electronics and IT sectorcXML/xCBL- XML-based B2B variantsOAGIS- Open Applications Group Integration Specification
Security & safety
RISK: LOWEDI files are plain text with no executable content, so opening one is safe. The real concern is confidentiality: EDI documents carry sensitive business and sometimes personal data (orders, prices, addresses, and in healthcare EDI, patient/claim information governed by HIPAA). Don't paste real EDI into random online 'EDI viewer' sites - use offline tools (Notepad++, a desktop EDI viewer) for anything containing real partner or patient data.
Format details
in a nutshellPrograms that open EDI files
Windows5 apps
Microsoft Excel
Paid Import the .edi as delimited text to eyeball values - but EDI isn't tabular, so this is a rough view, not a real decode. 
Stylus Studio
Paid EDI-to-XML conversion and a visual EDI editor that decodes X12/EDIFACT segments to labeled fields. 
Notepad
Open-source Open the .edi to read the raw segments. Free; shows the text exactly but not field meanings. 
Notepad++ with EDI plugins / NotepadEDI
Open-source Use an EDI-formatting plugin to add line breaks per segment and make X12/EDIFACT readable.
EDI Notepad (Liaison/OpenText)
Freemium Dedicated EDI viewer/editor that parses X12/EDIFACT into readable, validated transaction trees. 
macOS1 app
Visual Studio Code
Free Open the .edi to read it; add an EDI/X12 syntax extension to split and color segments. 
Linux1 app
SPS Commerce (managed EDI)
Paid A managed EDI service/network that translates documents between you and trading partners (not a quick file viewer).
Online EDI viewers (e.g. EDI inspectors)
Free Paste/upload an X12 or EDIFACT file to parse it into readable segments in the browser. Use only non-sensitive samples. Technical details
deep spec| File type | Plain-text structured business document; no binary signature |
| Primary standard families | ANSI X12 (North America) and UN/EDIFACT (international) |
| X12 interchange start | ISA segment at byte offset 0 (Interchange Control Header) |
| EDIFACT interchange start | Optional UNA service-string advice segment, then UNB interchange header |
| X12 segment terminator | User-defined; tilde (~) is the de-facto default, declared in ISA16 |
| X12 element delimiter | User-defined; asterisk (*) is the de-facto default, declared in ISA03 |
| Envelope hierarchy (X12) | ISA/IEA (interchange) → GS/GE (functional group) → ST/SE (transaction set) |
| Envelope hierarchy (EDIFACT) | UNB/UNZ (interchange) → UNG/UNE (functional group) → UNH/UNT (message) |
| Common X12 transaction sets | 850 Purchase Order, 810 Invoice, 856 Advance Ship Notice, 997 Functional Acknowledgment |
| Common EDIFACT message types | ORDERS, INVOIC, DESADV, CONTRL |
| MIME type | application/edi-x12 (X12); application/edifact (EDIFACT) |
| Character encoding | 7-bit ASCII by default; EDIFACT extends to ISO 8859 or UTF-8 via UNA service string |
| HIPAA mandate | X12 version 5010 required for all US healthcare EDI transactions since January 2012 |
| Typical file size | A few hundred bytes for a single transaction to several MB for large batch files |
| Industry sectors | Retail, healthcare, automotive, logistics, finance, government procurement |
| Released | ANSI X12 since 1979; UN/EDIFACT since 1987 |
| Open standard | Yes · royalty-free |
| Specification | www.x12.org |
EDI conversions
Community Q&A
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