TAR.GZ to ZIP Converter
Drop a .tar.gz or .tgz file below and get a ZIP that Windows, macOS, iPhone and Android open with a tap. The gzip layer and the tarball inside are unpacked in your browser, with no upload.
- Runs in your browser
- No upload
- No signup or watermark
- Free
Convert TAR.GZ to ZIP free and private, in your browser
To convert TAR.GZ to ZIP free and private, drag your .tar.gz or .tgz file onto the converter above (or click it to browse), keep ZIP selected and press Convert to ZIP. The gzip layer is decompressed, the TAR inside is unpacked and everything is rewritten as a ZIP in your browser, then offered as a download named after the tarball: release-1.4.2.tar.gz becomes release-1.4.2.zip. Nothing is uploaded, and the Network tab in DevTools will show you that.
A .tar.gz file is two formats stacked. TAR bundles files and folders into one stream, keeping Unix permissions, modification times and symbolic links; gzip then compresses the whole stream with Deflate, the algorithm ZIP uses too. The names .tgz and .tar.gz mean the same thing. You meet them as npm packages, Python source distributions and GitHub’s source download for every tagged release. As of October 2026, Windows 11 opens them in File Explorer (since Microsoft’s optional update KB5031455 in October 2023); Windows 10 does not.
Other tarball flavours have their own pages: TAR to ZIP, TAR.XZ to ZIP and TAR.BZ2 to ZIP. To go the other way, for a Linux server or a Docker build, use the ZIP to TAR.GZ converter.
Your files stay on this device
This converter runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded. When you add your first archive, the page fetches its engine, a WebAssembly build of libarchive of about 1 MB, from zipconvert.com. Your TAR.GZ file is then read from disk and rewritten as ZIP inside the tab. To check, open DevTools, switch to the Network tab and convert a file: apart from those engine files, no request carries it. The privacy policy covers the rest of the site.
Table of Use: TAR.GZ to ZIP for common files
| Your tarball | What to do | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| A GitHub or git archive source download | Drop it and press Convert to ZIP | A ZIP with the top-level folder (for example demo-1.0.0/) and every file inside it |
| An npm package saved as .tgz | The same steps | A ZIP whose package folder holds package.json and the published files |
| A tarball with paths longer than 100 characters | The same steps | Full paths kept; ustar prefix, pax and GNU long-name headers are all read |
| Scripts with the executable bit, and symbolic links | The same steps | Permissions and links stored as Unix attributes; macOS and Linux restore them, Windows ignores permissions |
| A single file compressed with gzip, such as notes.txt.gz | The same steps | A ZIP (notes.txt.zip) holding that one file, notes.txt |
| A download that stopped early | Download it again | A message that the archive is damaged or incomplete; no ZIP is written |
The ZIP ends up close to the .tar.gz in size, since ZIP uses the same Deflate compression: in our test on the react-dom 18.3.1 npm package, 1.12 MB as .tar.gz and 1.15 MB as ZIP. If the project publishes a checksum for the release, verify the download first with the file hash calculator.
Features
- Reads every common TAR dialect. ustar, pax, GNU tar and Version 7 headers are understood. Paths longer than 100 characters, stored in the ustar prefix field, pax extended headers or GNU long-name records, come through whole.
- Verifies the gzip data. The gzip checksum is checked while the file is read, and a tarball that stops before its end-of-archive marker is reported as damaged, so a download cut off halfway cannot become a smaller, incomplete ZIP.
- Keeps the Unix details. Permissions (the executable bit included), dates, folders, empty folders and symbolic links are written into the ZIP. Hard links become ordinary copies, because ZIP has none.
- Reports what a ZIP cannot hold. Device files, named pipes and sockets are listed in the result summary with the reason instead of being dropped silently, and this converter does not store owner and group in the ZIP.
- Tidies the extras. Tarballs made on a Mac often carry ._ AppleDouble files, and one repacked from a Mac ZIP may contain a __MACOSX folder; both are left out unless you tick “Keep macOS metadata files”. A gzip file holding one ordinary file rather than a tarball is wrapped in a ZIP as well.
Two handy next steps: tidy a package.json from an npm tarball with the JSON formatter, or compare two releases’ README files with the text diff tool.
How to convert TAR.GZ to ZIP, step by step
Add the tarball
Drag the .tar.gz or .tgz onto the box labelled “Drop TAR.GZ files here or click to browse”, or click the box and choose the file. The converter checks the file’s first bytes and starts fetching its engine, about 1 MB, at that moment.
Check the output format
A “Convert to” menu appears under the file list with ZIP preselected. Leave it, and tick “Keep macOS metadata files” only if you want __MACOSX and ._ files in the result.
Press Convert to ZIP
The button reads Convert all to ZIP when several files are queued. Each row shows its own progress bar; large tarballs take longer because the whole archive is unpacked in memory first.
Save the ZIP
Click the button that carries the new file name, such as release-1.4.2.zip. The line below counts files, folders and symbolic links and lists any entry that was renamed, skipped or cleaned.
The home page converter accepts the same file and also offers TAR or GZIP output instead of ZIP.
Who can use it
- Windows 10 users and anyone without a tar command. A .tar.gz is routine on Linux and macOS but opaque elsewhere; the ZIP opens in File Explorer, Files and Archive Utility.
- Developers inspecting a package. npm .tgz files and release tarballs become a folder you can browse in any file manager.
- Colleagues who are not developers. Designers, writers and managers handed a source bundle can open a ZIP without asking for help.
- People who keep source code private. The tarball is unpacked on your own device, so code under NDA is not copied to a conversion server.
FAQs
How do I convert .tar.gz to ZIP on Windows?
Open this page in any browser, drag the .tar.gz onto the converter, keep ZIP selected and press Convert to ZIP. The gzip layer and the TAR inside are unpacked in the tab and rewritten as a ZIP, which you save with the download button. Nothing is installed and no command prompt is needed, whichever Windows version you use.
Is .tgz the same as .tar.gz?
Yes. Both names mean a TAR archive compressed with gzip; .tgz is simply the short form from the days of three-letter extensions. Drop either one into the converter. The format is detected from the file’s contents, not its name, so a tarball with a misleading extension converts as well.
Will long file paths survive the conversion?
Yes. The original TAR header has room for only 100 characters of name, so longer paths are stored in a prefix field, a pax extended header or a GNU long-name record, depending on the tool that made the archive. All three are read, and ZIP has no such limit, so the full path is written into the ZIP unchanged.
Are executable permissions and symlinks kept?
Yes. Unix permissions, including the executable bit on scripts, and symbolic links are written into the ZIP’s external attributes, the place Info-ZIP and macOS use. macOS, Linux and 7-Zip restore them on extraction. Windows File Explorer ignores permissions and saves each symbolic link as a small text file holding the link target.
Is it safe to convert a tarball online, and is it uploaded?
Nothing is uploaded. The converter runs in your browser: the page fetches its engine files from zipconvert.com when you add the first file, then unpacks your tarball in the tab. Open the Network tab in DevTools during a conversion and you will find no request that contains your archive, which matters for source code under NDA.
Can it open a .gz file that is not a tarball?
Yes. A gzip file that holds one ordinary file, such as notes.txt.gz, is detected and wrapped in a ZIP that contains that single file, here notes.txt.zip holding notes.txt. If the gzip data is damaged or cut short, the gzip checksum fails and you get a message instead of a ZIP.
Related Tools
More archive conversions that run the same way, entirely in your browser.