Convert TAR.GZ to ZIP Online

How to convert TAR.GZ to ZIP online

1. Drop the .tar.gz or .tgz file onto the box above, or click to choose it.
2. The gzip layer and the tar inside it are unwrapped in one go, and the files are packed into a ZIP on your device.
3. The .zip downloads when it is done. You can still browse the tarball and download single files from the list.

When a tarball needs to be a ZIP

Tarballs are the normal way to ship files on Linux and macOS: source code releases, server backups, log bundles, dataset exports. They are less welcome elsewhere. A colleague on Windows may not know what to do with a .tgz, and plenty of web forms and support portals only take ZIP attachments.

Converting gives them a file they can open with a double-click, with the same folder structure and the same file names.

What you lose in the conversion

A tar archive records Unix details that this conversion does not carry over: file permissions, including the executable bit, and symbolic links. For documents, images, data files and source code you only want to read, that makes no difference.

It does matter for a software tree that is meant to be run or built on Linux or macOS afterwards. Scripts will have lost their executable flag and symlinked libraries will be missing. In that case keep the tarball as it is and send that.

Other tarballs, large files and speed

The same page converts .tar.xz, .tar.bz2, .tar.zst and plain .tar files to ZIP. Whatever the compression, a tarball is one continuous stream, so it has to be read from start to finish.

All of that happens on your device. There is no fixed size cap, since the tarball is read from disk in pieces rather than loaded into memory, but a large one takes as long as your processor needs. The result is a plain ZIP without a password.

Frequently asked questions

Is .tgz the same as .tar.gz?

Yes. .tgz is a short spelling of .tar.gz: a tar archive compressed with gzip. Both convert the same way.

Are file permissions and symlinks kept in the ZIP?

No. Unix permissions and symbolic links are not carried over. If the files must stay executable or the links matter, keep the original tarball.

Can I convert a plain .gz file that is not a tarball?

A .gz that holds a single file, such as a compressed log or SQL dump, opens as that one file, so there is no folder structure to convert. If you only want the file itself, the Gzip decompressor on this site is the more direct route.

Is the tarball uploaded to a server?

No. The conversion runs in your browser with WebAssembly, so the contents of the tarball stay on your device.

Will the ZIP be bigger than the .tar.gz?

Often a little. Gzip compresses the whole tar as one stream, while ZIP compresses each file on its own and stores a separate entry for every file. The difference is largest for archives with thousands of small files.