Free CT Scan Viewer — Open in <accent>any browser</accent>
View CT scans from any hospital. No upload, no installation, no account needed.
- Free forever
- No upload, no install
- Works on any computer
What is a CT scan?
CT stands for Computed Tomography. A CT scanner uses X-rays from many angles to build a stack of cross-sectional images — like cutting a body into thin slices and photographing each one.
CT is fast (a chest CT takes seconds), great at showing bones, lungs, and dense structures, and standard for emergency imaging — head injuries, abdominal pain, suspected fractures. Unlike MRI, CT uses ionising radiation, which is why doctors weigh it carefully.
A typical CT study has 100–1000 slices. Like MRI, you can't open it in Photos or Preview — the format is DICOM. OpenMyScan reads CT studies the same way it reads MRIs: drop the folder, scroll the stack.
Viewing a CT correctly: window and level
CT scans display differently depending on what you're looking at. The same scan can show lung detail, bone detail, or soft-tissue detail just by changing the brightness/contrast settings — called "window" and "level" in radiology.
-
Lung window
Dark background, white airways and structures. Used to inspect lung tissue.
-
Bone window
Bones bright white, everything else faded. Used for fracture detection and skeletal anatomy.
-
Soft tissue window
Balanced view of organs, muscles, vessels. The default for most clinical reading.
When you might want to view your own CT
Common reasons patients open their own CT scans:
Before a follow-up appointment, so you know what you're looking at when your doctor explains. For a second opinion — sending the full study to another specialist. Tracking changes over time — comparing today's scan to one from six months ago. Curiosity — wanting to understand your own body.
OpenMyScan supports all of these. We don't replace your radiologist — we just give you the same view they're working from.
Questions people actually ask
What body parts can OpenMyScan show?
Any CT — head, chest, abdomen, pelvis, extremities. Whatever your hospital scanned.
What's the difference between a CT and a CAT scan?
They're the same thing. "CAT" (Computed Axial Tomography) is the older name; "CT" is current.
My CT was done with contrast. Will that show?
Yes. Contrast-enhanced CTs display normally — the contrast appears as bright areas in vessels and certain tissues.
The scan is huge — over a gigabyte. Will my computer handle it?
OpenMyScan loads slices on demand and decompresses in the browser. A modern computer with 4–8 GB of RAM should handle even very large studies.
Can I see 3D reconstructions?
The free viewer shows 2D slices. 3D reconstruction is a more advanced feature on our roadmap.
How do I know which slice I'm looking at?
The slice number and position appear in the sidebar. Some CT studies also show body-location indicators.