Create TGZ Archive Online Free

Create a TGZ (.tar.gz) Archive Online

This tool packs any set of files into a single .tgz archive — a TAR bundle compressed with gzip, the default way the Unix and Linux world ships and stores file collections. TGZ and .tar.gz are the same format under two names: first your files are concatenated into one TAR stream (names, folders, and permissions preserved), then the whole stream is gzip-compressed. That two-layer design is why the format has survived since the era of tape drives — and why it beats plain TAR whenever the archive has to travel or sit in storage. Files upload over an encrypted connection, are processed on our servers, and are deleted automatically after a few hours — no sign-up, no watermark.

How to Create a TGZ Archive

1. Upload Your Files: Drag and drop the files — or a folder's worth — onto the page, or click "+ Add Files" to browse. Any mix of types works.
2. Confirm TGZ as the Output: The archive format is set to TGZ; folder structure is preserved inside the archive.
3. Archive: Click "Archive" — the files are bundled into a TAR stream and gzip-compressed in one pass.
4. Download: Save the single .tgz file. Extract with tar -xzf on Linux/macOS, or 7-Zip / WinRAR / Windows 11's File Explorer on Windows.

TGZ Format at a Glance

What Compresses Well — and What Doesn't

Common Problems and Quick Fixes

• "It barely compressed" — check the contents against the table above: media and existing archives are already compressed, and gzip can't shrink them further.
• "My old Windows machine won't open it" — pre-Windows 11 systems need a free tool like 7-Zip; or make a ZIP instead when the recipient can't install anything.
• "Double extraction on Windows" — some tools unpack the gzip layer first, leaving a .tar to open in a second step; 7-Zip's "Extract Here (smart)" or Windows 11 do both at once.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between .tgz and .tar.gz?

Nothing but the spelling — .tgz is a compact alias for .tar.gz, dating from systems that disliked double extensions. Every tool that opens one opens the other; renaming between them changes nothing about the contents. This page writes .tgz, and any Unix pipeline expecting .tar.gz will consume it happily.

Why TGZ instead of ZIP?

Two structural reasons. TGZ compresses the whole bundle as one stream, so redundancy across files gets squeezed out — a folder of similar log files compresses far better than ZIP's file-by-file approach. And the TAR layer preserves Unix permissions and ownership that ZIP historically mangles. Choose ZIP instead when the recipient is a non-technical Windows or macOS user who just wants to double-click.

Why didn't my archive get much smaller?

Because gzip can't re-compress what's already compressed. Photos, videos, music, and existing archives are near-incompressible, so a TGZ of media files is essentially a bundle at the sum of their sizes. The dramatic shrinkage happens on text-like content — code, logs, exports — where cutting to a fraction of the original is normal.

How do I extract a TGZ on each platform?

Linux/macOS: tar -xzf archive.tgz in a terminal, or double-click in the file manager. Windows: 7-Zip and WinRAR handle it, and Windows 11's File Explorer extracts .tgz natively — older Windows versions need one of those free tools. The format is among the most universally supported archives in existence.

Do folders and permissions survive?

Yes — the TAR layer stores directory structure, Unix permission bits, and timestamps, and extraction recreates them. One caveat mirrors plain TAR: files uploaded from Windows don't carry meaningful Unix permission bits in the first place, so deployment-critical modes should be set with chmod after extraction on the Linux side.

When should I use plain TAR instead?

When the next step decompresses anyway or the contents won't shrink: some build pipelines want uncompressed input they can stream, and a folder of already-compressed media gains nothing from gzip but CPU time. Create a TAR for those; TGZ for everything that travels or gets stored.

Is there a tighter option than gzip?

Within this family, yes — tar.xz (LZMA2) and tar.bz2 compress harder than gzip at the cost of speed, and 7Z plays the same role outside the TAR world. Gzip's virtue is the sweet spot: respectable compression, very fast, and readable literally everywhere. For routine sharing and storage it remains the sane default.

How are my files handled?

Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, packed and compressed on our servers, and deleted automatically a few hours after archiving — never shared or made public, no sign-up, no watermark. In our testing, a folder of source code and logs compressed to a small fraction of its original size, while a folder of JPGs came out barely smaller than the inputs — exactly the split the table above predicts.