TAR to 7Z Converter

How to Convert TAR to 7Z Online

1. Upload Your TAR File: Drag and drop your .tar archive or click "+ Add Files" to browse. Multiple TAR files can be queued at once for batch conversion.
2. Pick Single Archive or Individual Archives: The default "Single Archive" repacks every uploaded TAR into one combined .7z file. Choose "Individual Archives" to produce a separate .7z per source TAR — useful when you want to keep each archive's contents distinct.
3. Review Defaults (Optional): xconvert's server-side conversion uses 7z's LZMA2 method on default settings, which targets a strong compression-vs-speed balance. Most users should leave defaults alone unless they have a specific need.
4. Convert and Download: Click "Convert". Files process on our servers and download links appear when each output is ready — no sign-up, no watermarks, no email required.

Why Convert TAR to 7Z?

Plain TAR is a Unix tape-archive format standardized in POSIX.1-1988 (UStar). It bundles files together but performs no compression on its own — a 500 MB .tar of text logs is still ~500 MB on disk. 7z, introduced by Igor Pavlov in 1999, is a modern archive container whose default LZMA2 method delivers some of the strongest general-purpose compression available, often shrinking the same payload to a third or less of its original size. Repacking TAR to 7Z is the simplest way to take an uncompressed bundle and turn it into a compact, encryptable, Windows- and Linux-friendly archive.

• Cut storage and transfer size — LZMA2 typically compresses mixed text/binary payloads to roughly 30-50% of the source size, and pure text or source code often shrinks further. A 1 GB plain TAR routinely becomes a 200-400 MB 7Z.
• Send big bundles by email or chat — Gmail and Outlook cap attachments at 25 MB and 20 MB respectively, and Discord's free tier dropped to 10 MB in September 2024. Repacking an uncompressed TAR to 7Z is often what tips a payload under those caps.
• Pick up native AES-256 encryption — 7z supports AES-256 password protection on both data and filenames, something plain TAR cannot do without an external tool like gpg.
• Share with Windows users without WSL or Cygwin — 7-Zip, NanaZip, and PeaZip open .7z natively on Windows; plain .tar requires extra software or a command-line tool. Most modern Linux distros ship p7zip or can install it via apt/dnf.
• Long-term archival — 7z files use a 64-bit container, supporting archive sizes up to 2^64 bytes (~16 exbibytes) and per-file metadata, so a future you can still pull a single file back out of a multi-gigabyte archive without rebuilding it.

TAR vs 7Z — Format Comparison

7z Compression Methods Quick Guide

Frequently Asked Questions

Will the file structure inside the TAR be preserved?

Yes. The conversion extracts the contents of your TAR (directory tree, filenames, relative paths) and repacks them into a 7Z container. Folder hierarchy, filenames, and modification dates are kept. Note that strict Unix permission bits (chmod, owner/group) and symbolic-link targets are not always preserved across the TAR-to-7Z transition — if those matter for system restores, keep the original TAR alongside the 7Z.

How much smaller will my 7Z be than the original TAR?

For mixed text and source code, expect roughly 30-50% of the original TAR size with LZMA2. Pure-text payloads (logs, CSV, JSON) often compress to 10-20%. Already-compressed media (JPEG photos, MP4 videos, MP3 audio) will only shrink a few percent because the data is already entropy-coded — TAR-of-JPEGs to 7Z-of-JPEGs is mostly an exercise in container efficiency, not compression.

Is the resulting 7Z file password-protected?

Not by default. The current xconvert TAR-to-7Z option produces an unencrypted .7z. If you need AES-256 encryption on the data or filename list, open the resulting .7z in 7-Zip on desktop and re-save it with a password, or use the command line: 7z a -p"YourPassword" -mhe=on encrypted.7z extracted_contents/.

Can I open the resulting 7Z file on macOS or Linux?

Yes, with a small install step. On macOS, brew install p7zip gets you the 7z command, or use The Unarchiver from the App Store for a GUI. On Debian/Ubuntu, sudo apt install p7zip-full; on Fedora/RHEL, sudo dnf install p7zip p7zip-plugins. Extract with 7z x archive.7z. Windows 11 has supported .7z extraction natively since the 2023 update; earlier Windows needs 7-Zip, NanaZip, or PeaZip.

My TAR is a .tar.gz (or .tgz) — should I use this page?

No. .tar.gz/.tgz is a gzip-compressed TAR, which is a different file from a plain .tar. Use TGZ to 7Z or TAR.GZ to 7Z for those instead. This page accepts only uncompressed .tar files (the bare POSIX bundle).

Why convert TAR to 7Z instead of TAR.XZ?

Both use LZMA2 under the hood and produce similar compression ratios. Pick 7Z when you want a single file containing per-file metadata, AES-256 encryption support, and Windows-native opening with 7-Zip. Pick .tar.xz (TAR to TAR.XZ handles the reverse here too via TAR.XZ to 7Z) when you're sticking to Unix tooling and want a simple, streamable, standard-Unix workflow. 7Z gives you better random-access to individual files inside the archive; .tar.xz requires decompressing the whole stream to pull one file.

Will the conversion run in my browser, or are files uploaded to a server?

This conversion uploads your TAR to xconvert's servers, processes it with the 7z engine, and serves the result back. Files are deleted automatically after the session expires. If you'd rather keep everything local, install 7-Zip (Windows) or p7zip (macOS/Linux) and run 7z a archive.7z file1 file2 ... on your own machine.

What's the maximum TAR file size I can convert here?

xconvert handles archives up to several GB per file in a session; very large multi-GB archives may take longer to upload and process. For truly massive payloads (tens of GB), running 7-Zip locally will be faster than any browser-based round trip, since you skip the upload.

Can I batch-convert several TAR files at once?

Yes. Upload multiple .tar files and choose "Individual Archives" to get a separate .7z for each, or "Single Archive" to merge all their contents into one combined .7z. Related: extract a 7Z once you've made one, or convert in the other direction with 7Z to TAR.