Open a .tar.xz online
Open, browse, preview, or extract a .tar.xz in your browser — no command line, no upload.
Drop your .tar.xz anywhere on this page
Decoded entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
A .tar.xz (also .txz) is two formats stacked: tar bundles many files into one stream with no compression, and xz squeezes that stream with LZMA2 — the algorithm family that came out of 7-Zip. For a decade that combination was the default way free software shipped source releases, which is also why the usual way to open one is the command line — tar -xJf release.tar.xz. ZipTool does it without the terminal: you drop the file on the page and both layers are decoded in your browser, with nothing uploaded and nothing installed.
You open the page, drop the .tar.xz onto it (or paste a direct URL), and the file tree renders locally — Unix file paths preserved. Browse the contents, search by name, and preview code, images, audio, video, and PDFs without unpacking anything to disk — then extract when you are ready. The decode runs entirely in your tab.
What you can do with a tar.xz here
One archive, three workflows — pick the one that matches what you need.
- Browse and preview — look inside the tarball without writing anything to disk. Click any entry to read source code with syntax highlighting, view images, or render a PDF. Useful for auditing a release or dataset before you commit to it.
- Extract — get the real files out. Use extract-all to write the original files to a folder you choose (Chrome/Edge) or download them as a bundle (Firefox/Safari).
- Convert — re-pack the tarball as a standard ZIP for recipients on Windows or macOS. The in-page converter reads the
.tar.xzentries already in memory and writes a ZIP from them. - Search — filter the file tree by name across the whole archive to find one file without unpacking it.
tar.xz, .tar, and .xz — three different things
The extensions get conflated, but they mean different things, and ZipTool handles each honestly. A `.tar.xz` is a tar bundle of many files compressed with xz — the long-standing GNU release standard. A `.tar` is the same bundle with no compression. A `.xz` is a single file compressed with xz, not a multi-file container at all.
.txz is simply the short spelling of .tar.xz — the same relationship .tgz has to .tar.gz — and both unwrap to a .tar inside. If you have a plain .tar, see open a .tar online; a single .xz, see open an .xz file online. The sibling compressor pairs are tar.gz, tar.zst, and tar.bz2.
How to open a tar.xz in your browser
No tar -xJf, no flags, no terminal. The browser does the un-xz and untar in one local step.
- Go to ZipTool and drag the
.tar.xz(or.txz) onto the page (or use the file picker, or paste a URL). - The file tree opens on the left, with the archive's folder structure intact. Expand folders and search to jump to any entry.
- Click a file to preview it inline, or use extract-all to write everything to a folder (Chrome/Edge) or download it as a bundle (Firefox/Safari).
- Typical payloads — GNU releases, CPython source, older Arch packages, dataset dumps — all open the same way.
Honest limits
A browser-based tar.xz reader is genuinely useful, with a couple of boundaries.
- Other compressors are supported on their own pages. ZipTool decodes xz (this page), gzip (`.tar.gz`), zstd (`.tar.zst`), and bzip2 (`.tar.bz2`) natively. LZ4 is not handled; use the command line or a desktop tool for that.
- xz streams are memory-heavier than gzip or zstd. LZMA2 decompression allocates the compressor's dictionary (up to 64 MiB at the top preset), so a very large
.tar.xzunpacks heavier in a browser tab than the same payload in.tar.gzor.tar.zst. - Extract-to-folder needs Chrome or Edge. Writing a real directory tree uses the File System Access API, absent in Firefox and Safari; there you download the contents as a zip instead.
- Unix permissions are not restored on extraction. tar records file permissions and timestamps; the browser extractor writes the file contents and folder structure but does not faithfully replay Unix mode bits the way
tar -xJfwould. - xz is a source, never a target. The converter repacks a
.tar.xzas ZIP, TAR, or TAR.GZ — it never writes.xzoutput.
Frequently asked questions
How do I open a .tar.xz file online?
Open the page and drop your .tar.xz (or .txz) onto it. ZipTool decodes the xz stream and untars the bundle in your browser — no terminal, no install, no upload. The file tree appears, and you can browse, search, preview, and extract the contents.
Can I extract a tar.xz without the command line?
Yes. ZipTool decodes a .tar.xz entirely in your browser with no install — drop the file on the page and use extract-all to write the files to a folder (Chrome/Edge) or download them as a bundle (Firefox/Safari).
What is a .txz file?
.txz is the short spelling of .tar.xz — the same relationship .tgz has to .tar.gz. Both names hold a tar bundle compressed with xz, and both unwrap to a .tar. ZipTool opens them identically; it also recognizes a bare .xz (a single compressed file, not a folder) via open an .xz file online.
Why did so many projects switch from tar.xz to tar.zst?
Because xz's strong ratio came at a price: LZMA2 decompression needs dictionary-sized memory and is much slower than zstd, which gets close to xz ratios at several times the speed. Arch Linux moved its packages from .pkg.tar.xz to .pkg.tar.zst at the end of 2019, and the Linux kernel followed for its source tarballs in 2025. Both forms open here — .tar.zst on its own page.
Do you upload my tar.xz?
No. The archive is decompressed entirely in your browser; your contents are never sent to a server, never stored, and never handed to a third party. Confirm it in DevTools — the Network tab shows no upload — and by disconnecting from the internet after the page loads: browsing and previewing keep working.