How to read your AncestryDNA raw data, privately, in your browser

AncestryDNA is built for family trees, but the raw file it gives you holds far more than matches. You can read it yourself, without uploading your genome to another company’s server. Here is how.

Download your raw file from AncestryDNA

Sign in at Ancestry, go to your DNA results, open Settings, and find the option to download your raw DNA data. Ancestry emails you a confirmation link, then a downloadable file. You get a compressed text file of genotype calls: an rsID (or Ancestry marker id), a chromosome and position, and your two alleles at each site, hundreds of thousands of markers in total. Keep your own copy somewhere you control. It does not expire, and it is the one thing you cannot get reissued later.

The same file does more than ancestry

Ancestry uses this file to build ethnicity estimates and match relatives. The exact same genotype calls also cover pharmacogenomics (how your body processes certain medications, per CPIC guidelines) and a range of well-studied traits, completely separate from the ancestry side, with no new test required. Most people never realize the file they already downloaded contains this second half.

Where the file goes is the real question

Any interpretation tool either uploads your entire raw file to its servers to parse it there, or reads it locally in your browser and never sends the file itself. Raw DNA is closer to a fingerprint than a password: it cannot be rotated if it leaks, and it exposes relatives who never opted in. After the 23andMe bankruptcy, in which a genetic database became a sellable asset, "where does my file sit and who owns the company holding it" stopped being hypothetical, and it applies to AncestryDNA data just the same.

The 30-second check on any tool

Before uploading anything, press F12 to open developer tools, go to the Network tab, and select your file in whatever tool you are testing. A large outbound request roughly the size of your file (often 15 to 30 MB) means it is uploading. If your file size never appears in outbound traffic, it is being parsed locally on your machine. That check takes less time than reading a privacy policy and does not depend on trusting anyone’s marketing.

Reading it with Verinome

Verinome parses your AncestryDNA (or 23andMe) raw file entirely in your browser; you can watch the Network tab and confirm the file never uploads. To build the full $49 report, your browser sends only about 200 specific marker readouts, a few kilobytes with no file and no name attached, and nothing is stored afterward. Every finding carries an A to D evidence grade, so a CPIC-backed pharmacogenomic result reads differently from a single-study trait claim, and the weak ones are labeled rather than hidden. A free preview, no account and no card, runs the file-quality check and shows a starter set of graded results before you decide.

See what leaves your browser on our privacy page, watch your file not upload, or compare the options side by side.

Educational, not medical advice. Pharmacogenomic and trait information should be discussed with a qualified clinician before any health decision.