A .gp5 file is a binary Guitar Pro document, and macOS has no built-in reader for it: Finder shows a generic icon, Quick Look does not render the tab, Preview refuses it. You have three honest options — Guitar Pro itself (paid, plays the file back), a free tab editor such as TuxGuitar or MuseScore (also plays it back, but is a separate program), or JamCrate (free, renders Guitar Pro 3–5 as real tab in the same window as your backing track, but does not play the file).
What a .gp5 file actually is
Guitar Pro 3, 4 and 5 (extensions .gp3, .gp4, .gp5) store a whole score in a compact binary format: tracks, tunings, bars, beats, notes, frets, techniques, lyrics and tempo changes. It is not XML and not plain text, which is why no generic tool can guess its way through it. Guitar Pro 6 and 7+ moved to a different container (.gpx and .gp), so a reader written for 3–5 will not open those, and a modern Guitar Pro opens everything.
The three options, compared honestly
| Tool | Opens 3–5 | Plays the tab | Best when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guitar Pro | yes | yes | you edit, write or need exact playback and sound. |
| TuxGuitar / MuseScore | yes | yes | you want free playback and do not mind a second application. |
| JamCrate | yes (.gp3/.gp4/.gp5) | no | you want to read the tab while the backing track plays. |
If you want to read the tab while you practise
Most people who search for a .gp5 reader are not trying to edit the file. They are trying to learn the song: the tab is open in one window, the backing track in another, and they are alt-tabbing between them. That is the case JamCrate is built for. Drop the Guitar Pro file and the audio into the same song and the tab renders inside the app, fitted to the window, right next to the player.
- Real tab, not a picture. The file is parsed and drawn as a monospaced grid: strings as lines (high string on top), frets on the beat, bar lines, four bars per row. Title, artist and tempo sit on top.
- One track at a time. A picker in the sheet header switches between guitar, bass and the rest. Showing every track at once made real arrangements unreadable, so it shows the one you choose. Drum tracks are marked and not drawn as tab.
- Windows text handled. Old tab files store Cyrillic and Western text in legacy encodings, not UTF-8. JamCrate detects the encoding and shows the title and lyrics correctly instead of a row of question marks.
- Tested on a real collection. The reader was checked against 1037 Guitar Pro files collected over the years; 1036 parse and render. The one miss is a Guitar Pro 2 file wearing a .gp3 extension, which gets an honest “open in Guitar Pro” card instead of a wrong rendering.
What JamCrate does not do
- It does not play the tab back. Playback of Guitar Pro files is out of scope permanently — if you need to hear the score, use Guitar Pro, TuxGuitar or MuseScore.
- It does not open .gpx or .gp6+ files, and it does not open damaged ones. Both get a card that hands the file to Guitar Pro.
- It does not edit or write Guitar Pro files. It is a reader.
Try it on your own files
JamCrate is a free beta for macOS 14+. Import a folder of backing tracks and tabs, and the Guitar Pro files pair with the audio automatically.
Download for Mac Try the player in your browser
About 6 MB · Universal build · signed and notarized by Apple · no account, nothing leaves your Mac.
Prefer Homebrew? brew install --cask vitas/jamcrate/jamcrate
Questions
Why will Quick Look not preview my .gp5?
Quick Look only previews formats macOS knows. Guitar Pro is a proprietary binary format, so there is no system preview and no Finder thumbnail — the file needs an application that parses it.
I have a .gpx file. Will this work?
No. .gpx is Guitar Pro 6, a different container from .gp3/.gp4/.gp5. Open it in a current Guitar Pro, or export it from there to .gp5 first.
Can I slow the backing track down while reading the tab?
Yes — see slowing a backing track down without changing pitch. JamCrate slows audio to 0.5× and keeps the pitch, with the tab still on screen.