Convert ZIP to TAR online
Drop a .zip and download a plain, uncompressed .tar — unpacked and re-packed entirely in your browser, no command line, no upload.
Drop your .zip anywhere on this page
The zip is unpacked and re-packed as a plain tar entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
A plain .tar is a bundle with zero compression: tar glues many files into one stream — keeping their names and folder structure — and stores the bytes verbatim. Converting a .zip to a .tar therefore unpacks the ZIP and hands you its contents un-squeezed, in the container Unix tools have consumed for decades. People want this when a specific consumer demands a raw tarball: container tooling that builds from uncompressed tar layers, backup or transfer pipelines that apply their own compression on top, interchange with scripts that simply expect something.tar. Most "zip to tar" sites run that conversion on a server — upload, convert, download. ZipTool does it entirely in your browser.
You open the page, drop the .zip onto it, and the file tree renders locally — the ZIP is read by the page's own zip reader, with no decoder module to download. Click Convert in the file-tree toolbar, pick TAR as the output, and download the rebuilt tarball. If the ZIP is password-protected, enter the password when it opens and convert as usual. Nothing is uploaded; the network is only ever used to load the page itself. For the format background, see the ZIP format page and the tar format page.
How to convert ZIP to TAR in your browser
No command line, no upload. The browser decodes the .zip and writes the .tar locally.
- Go to ZipTool and drag the
.ziponto the page (or use the file picker, or paste a URL). The archive is decoded in your browser and the file tree opens. - Click Convert in the file-tree toolbar (next to Extract-all). The converter reads the ZIP entries that are already in memory.
- Choose TAR as the output format. The entries are re-packed into a standard
.tarin USTAR format - Download the
.tar. The rebuilt archive is produced locally and handed to you as a download — your original ZIP and its contents are never transmitted anywhere.
Is it really private?
Yes. "Online" here describes where the tool runs — a web page — not where your data goes. The .zip is decoded by an in-page zip reader running inside your tab, the entries are re-packed into a TAR in memory, and the result is offered as a download. No server ever receives your file, its contents, or the converted archive.
You can prove it to yourself in a few seconds. Drop a .zip onto the page, wait for the file tree to open, then disconnect from the internet. The convert-to-TAR step still works, because nothing about it depends on a network request. A tool that fails the moment you go offline was uploading your data. ZipTool does not. For the broader privacy case, see why client-side is safer than uploading.
Why convert ZIP to TAR?
Know this before converting: the `.tar` will be bigger than the `.zip` — often several times bigger for text-heavy contents. You are deliberately undoing the Deflate compression; a source tree that fits in 2 MB as a ZIP can easily be 8–10 MB as a plain tar. Nobody converts ZIP to TAR for size; they convert because something downstream wants an uncompressed tarball and would otherwise run its own unzip-and-repack step. If you need the tarball *shape* with compression kept, what you want is converting a zip to tar.gz.
Where raw tars genuinely appear: container images assemble from uncompressed tar layers; some CI artifact and backup formats ingest .tar and apply their own compression (zstd, xz, gzip) afterwards; and older Unix interchange tooling assumes it. In each case a ZIP forces a conversion step somewhere downstream — doing it here just moves that step into your tab, privately, instead of onto someone's conversion server. For the wider picture of these formats, see archive file formats.
Honest limits
Conversion is a real capability here, with a few real boundaries worth knowing.
- You cannot convert TO RAR or 7Z. RAR encoding is proprietary to WinRAR — no browser (and no honest free tool) can *create* a
.rar. ZipTool's converter takes ZIP, RAR, 7z, tar.gz, tar, or gz as input and writes ZIP, TAR, or TAR.GZ — RAR and 7z are never targets. See creating a zip online. - Expect the output to be bigger. A plain tar stores bytes verbatim while your ZIP was Deflate-compressed, so converting trades size for shape. If that trade does not work for you, choose TAR.GZ output instead.
- Permissions are defaults, not data. A tar *can* record Unix permissions and symbolic links, but the ZIP never stored them, so the rebuilt entries carry normalized defaults.
- Browser memory is the ceiling. The tab holds the decoded entries and the rebuilt TAR in memory, so a very large
.zipcan get slow. For multi-gigabyte archives a desktop tool is more reliable.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert a ZIP to a tar online?
Open the page and drop your .zip onto it. The archive is unpacked in your browser, the file tree opens, and you click Convert in the toolbar, choose TAR, and download the rebuilt tarball. No command line, no install, no upload.
Why is the tar bigger than my zip?
Because a plain tar is uncompressed — converting undoes the ZIP's Deflate compression and stores the bytes verbatim. Text-heavy contents (source code, documents, logs) commonly expand several-fold; already-compressed media barely changes. If you want the tarball with compression kept, convert to tar.gz instead.
Should I convert to tar or tar.gz?
Tar.gz, unless something specifically demands a raw tar. A plain .tar is just the bundle; a .tar.gz is the same bundle gzip-compressed, so it restores roughly the size your ZIP had. Reach for plain tar only when a consumer builds from uncompressed layers or applies its own compression on top.
Do you upload my zip to convert it?
No. The ZIP is read by the page's own zip reader, the entries are packed into a tar in memory, and the result is downloaded locally. Your file is never sent to a server, stored, or handed to a third party. Confirm it in DevTools (the Network tab shows no upload of your file) and by converting with the internet disconnected, which still works.
Can it convert a password-protected zip?
Yes, when you know the password. Enter it when the archive opens — ZipTool decrypts password-protected ZIPs in the browser, including AES-encrypted ones the built-in Windows and macOS tools often reject — and the convert step then works as usual. It cannot convert an encrypted archive without the key.
Can I convert a tar back to a ZIP?
Yes — open any tar and convert to ZIP, or use the dedicated tar to ZIP page. That direction also re-adds compression, since a plain tar never had any.