TAR.GZ to RAR Converter

How to Convert TAR.GZ to RAR Online

1. Upload Your TAR.GZ File: Drag and drop .tar.gz or .tgz files into the drop zone, or click "+ Add Files" to browse. Multi-file batches are supported — you can queue several archives in one job.
2. Pick RAR as the Output Format: RAR is already selected for you on this page. The converter unpacks the gzip wrapper, then walks the inner TAR stream and repacks each entry into a single RAR5 container.
3. Choose Single Archive or Individual Archives (Optional): Under "Combine?", leave Single Archive selected to bundle every uploaded .tar.gz into one .rar, or switch to Individual Archives to emit a separate .rar per input — useful when you want to keep each backup independently extractable.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert. Files are processed on our servers over TLS and auto-deleted within 24 hours — no sign-up, no watermark, no email required.

Why Convert TAR.GZ to RAR?

TAR.GZ is the Unix world's default archive: tar glues files into a single stream, then gzip (DEFLATE) compresses the whole stream. It's universal on Linux and macOS, but it has two real-world weaknesses — it can't repair itself if a few bytes get corrupted in transit, and Windows users typically can't open it without installing 7-Zip or WinRAR. RAR fixes both: RAR5 adds Reed-Solomon recovery records and ships with native support in WinRAR (the most-installed third-party archiver on Windows).

• Recovery records survive corruption — RAR5 recovery data uses Reed-Solomon erasure codes. WinRAR's default is 3% of archive size, but you can dial it 1-10% (or even up to 100%) for archives stored on flash drives, optical media, or unreliable cloud backups where bit-rot is a real risk. TAR.GZ has nothing comparable; a single bad byte in the gzip stream can render the rest of the archive unrecoverable.
• Better compression on mixed data — In practical comparisons, RAR's solid mode and larger dictionary beat gzip's DEFLATE on text-heavy and mixed-content payloads. RAR5 supports dictionary sizes up to 1 GB (vs. gzip's 32 KB), which helps a lot on repetitive corpora like source trees, log archives, and ebooks.
• Strong, modern encryption — RAR5 encrypts with AES-256 in CBC mode and derives keys with PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256 (default 32,768 iterations, max 127-char password). Optional header encryption hides the file list too. .tar.gz itself has no encryption layer — you'd need to wrap it in gpg or openssl enc separately.
• Splittable into multi-volume archives — RAR can be split into fixed-size volumes (e.g. 100 MB chunks) for email gateways, FAT32 USB sticks, or Discord's 10 MB free-tier upload cap. Recombining is automatic on extraction.
• Native Windows tooling — RAR opens in WinRAR, 7-Zip, The Unarchiver (macOS), and the built-in Windows 11 archive support added in build 23493 (June 2023). TAR.GZ on Windows still typically needs a third-party tool for non-technical users.
• Sending Linux backups to Windows colleagues — A common scenario: convert nightly .tar.gz server dumps to .rar before shipping them to a Windows-only ops team, so they can open them without tar on PATH.

TAR.GZ vs RAR — Format Comparison

Compression & Recovery Record Quick Guide

Frequently Asked Questions

Will the inner file structure of my tar.gz be preserved inside the RAR?

Yes. The conversion fully extracts the tar stream — directories, file permissions where representable, symlinks (stored as paths), and original filenames — and then re-archives them inside RAR. The resulting .rar has the same logical tree you'd see from tar -tzf yourfile.tar.gz, just wrapped in a different container.

Can I keep the original tar.gz Unix file permissions?

Partially. RAR can record file attributes, but the RAR5 spec stores POSIX permissions as an optional extra field, and not every extractor surfaces them. If you need exact permission round-trips for Linux-to-Linux transfers, stick with .tar.gz. If you're shipping to Windows users who only care about contents, RAR is fine — they'll see the files with default NTFS ACLs.

Does this tool add a password or recovery record automatically?

No. By default the conversion produces a plain (unencrypted) RAR with no recovery record, which keeps output the most compatible across extractors. If you need AES-256 encryption or recovery records, encrypt or add them with WinRAR / rar a -rr5p -hp locally after downloading, or open the file in WinRAR and use Add to archive with the desired settings on the Advanced tab.

Why is the RAR file sometimes larger than the original tar.gz?

If the original .tar.gz was already compressed efficiently (small text files, source code), re-packing the uncompressed contents into RAR may produce a slightly different size. RAR usually wins by 2-10% on text-heavy content thanks to its larger dictionary and PPMd algorithm, but for pre-compressed payloads inside the tarball (JPEGs, videos, already-zipped files), neither format can do much — both will hover near the raw size.

How big a file can I convert?

The web tool accepts archives up to the standard upload limit shown on the page (typically a few GB for guests; signed-in users get higher caps). For multi-gigabyte server backups, batch them with Individual Archives mode or split with split -b 1G before upload so each part stays within the cap.

Will WinRAR, 7-Zip, and macOS extract the output?

Yes. The output is standard RAR5 (introduced in WinRAR 5.0, 2013). WinRAR 5.0+, 7-Zip 15.06+ (April 2015), The Unarchiver 4.0+, and Windows 11's built-in archive support (build 23493, June 2023) all open RAR5 natively. Linux users need unrar or p7zip-rar from their distro's non-free repository — tar itself can't open RAR.

Is converting tar.gz to RAR lossless?

The file contents are preserved bit-for-bit — every byte of every file inside the tar stream lands intact inside the RAR. What can shift is metadata: extended POSIX attributes, xattrs, hard-link relationships, and sparse-file holes that gzip-tar represents natively may be flattened in the RAR container. For typical document/source/media archives this doesn't matter; for system-image dumps it might.

What if I want the reverse direction or a different output format?

We have you covered: see RAR to TAR.GZ to go back, TAR.GZ to 7Z for a fully free-and-open alternative with similar features, or TAR.GZ to ZIP for the most universally supported format.

Are my files private?

Uploads travel over TLS to our servers, are processed in an isolated job, and are auto-deleted within 24 hours. We don't index contents, share files with third parties, or use them for training. If you handle regulated data (HIPAA, GDPR special categories), encrypt the archive locally before upload as defense-in-depth.