What is the difference between gzip and ZIP?

ZIP is an archive: many files, each with a name and a path, compressed one by one. gzip is a compressor: one stream of bytes, no names, no structure. That is why a .gz holds exactly one file and a folder becomes a .tar.gz, the tar doing the bundling and gzip the shrinking.

Why does my .tar.gz come out as a .tar?

Because that is what is inside it: unpacking the gzip gives the tar, and the tar is itself an archive of the files. Drop the .tar on Extract Archive to get the files out, or drop the .tar.gz there directly and skip this step.

Gzip Compress / Decompress

Gzip one file, or open a .gz, .bz2 or .xz, in your browser. One file in, one file out; nothing is uploaded.

Drop a file to gzip, or a .gz to unpack

Any file becomes a .gz, .bz2 or .xz; a .gz, .bz2, .xz or tarball becomes the file inside. Up to 500 MB.

About this tool

Gzips a single file, or unpacks a .gz, .bz2 or .xz to the file inside, in your browser. It is the tool for the one-file case the archive tools are not: a log that has to go somewhere as a .gz, a .csv.gz from a data export, a database dump that arrived as .sql.gz, a .tar.xz you want as a plain tar. The engine is 7-Zip compiled to WebAssembly, the file is read on your device, and the direction is decided by the file you drop: a compressed one is unpacked, anything else is compressed with the stream you choose.

How to use it

1Drop a file. A .gz, .bz2 or .xz is recognised as something to unpack; any other file is something to compress.
2To compress, choose gzip, bzip2 or xz and a level. To unpack there is nothing to choose.
3Press the button and download the result, or send it on: an unpacked PDF goes to the PDF tools, a .gz to the extractor.

Good to know

gzip, bzip2 and xz

All three compress one file and one file only, which is why a folder on Unix is first bundled into a tar and then gzipped, giving the .tar.gz. gzip is fast and universal; bzip2 is a little smaller and much slower; xz uses the same LZMA as 7z and makes the smallest file of the three, at the cost of time. A web server serves .gz; a Linux package is usually .xz.

The name inside

A gzip records the name of the file it wrapped, and unpacking uses that record when there is one, so a file renamed after it was gzipped comes back under its original name. bzip2 and xz record nothing; the name is the dropped file's name without its extension. The file is read into memory by your own browser and processed there, so it is never uploaded and never reaches a server.