TAR to ZIP Converter
Open a TAR or TAR.GZ on Windows or macOS. See everything inside first, including anything worth a second look, then convert it to a ZIP that opens by double-clicking. Nothing inside is run or unpacked on your computer.
TAR to ZIP
Add your files. Recommended settings are ready, so you can process in one click.
PDF, Word, images, audio, video, archives and more
Up to 100 files · 250 MB · No account- 1Add files
- 2Choose an action
- 3Download or keep going
What happens to your file.
The archive is read in your browser. Every member name is reduced to a relative path that cannot climb out of its folder, so a member stored as ../../etc/passwd is written as etc/passwd and marked. Symbolic links, hard links and device entries are listed with what they point at but are not written into the ZIP, because ZIP has no safe equivalent. Sizes are checked before anything is decompressed, and gzip is decompressed with a hard ceiling so a compression bomb stops rather than filling memory.
Where it stops: Symbolic links do not survive the move to ZIP, because ZIP has no safe equivalent. The visual editor also leaves out Unix permissions and hard links; Process file keeps the executable bit on scripts and writes a hard link as a copy of its file. Keep the original TAR if links matter. In the visual editor, very large archives are limited by what your browser can hold in memory.
What the warnings mean
| Warning | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Points outside the folder (../) | On extraction, this member would be written somewhere else entirely — a classic way to overwrite a system file |
| Stored as an absolute path | The archive asks to be written to a fixed location rather than where you extract it |
| A symbolic link | Not a file but a pointer, often at something outside the archive |
| Expands more than 200× | The signature of a compression bomb built to exhaust memory |
| Another member writes to the same name | One will silently overwrite the other |
| Two extensions, e.g. invoice.pdf.exe | Made to look like a document while being a program |
Which compression level?
Level 6 is the default and is right for almost everything: the gain from 7 to 9 is small and the time cost is not. Choose Store (0) when the contents are already compressed — photos, video, or another archive — since compressing them again only wastes time. Text, code and logs compress well at any level.
What people use it for.
Everything you need, without a paywall.
Common questions.
How do I open a .tar.gz on Windows?
Drop it here and convert it to a ZIP, which Windows opens by double-clicking. Recent Windows versions have some built-in support, but older and managed builds still do not.
Is anything lost in conversion?
The files themselves are identical, byte for byte, and file dates and empty folders are kept. Symbolic links have no ZIP equivalent and are left out. With Process file the executable bit on scripts is kept too, and a hard link comes out as a copy of its file; the visual editor leaves permissions and links out and says how many.
Is it safe to convert an archive from someone else?
Reading it here is safe: nothing is extracted to your computer and nothing is run. Member names that point outside their folder are made safe and flagged, and links and device files are never written into the output. You should still check what the contents are before opening them.
What if the download was cut short?
A .tar.gz that ends early is reported as incomplete, rather than turned into a ZIP that is missing files without saying so. Download it again and retry.
Is my archive uploaded?
Not with the visual editor, which reads and converts it in your browser. Process file sends it to our server, where it is written to a temporary folder for that request and deleted as soon as the job finishes.
What is a zip bomb, and would I be told?
A small archive built to expand to an enormous size. Any member expanding more than 200 times is flagged in the list, and decompression stops rather than filling memory.
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