TGZ to 7Z Converter

How to Convert TGZ to 7Z Online

1. Upload Your TGZ File: Drag and drop or click "+ Add Files" to select .tgz / .tar.gz archives from your computer. Batch upload is supported — queue several archives in one go.
2. Pick Single Archive or Individual Archives: The defaults work for most cases. Choose Single Archive to merge every input into one combined .7z, or Individual Archives to produce one .7z per input file (handy when you want to keep nightly backups separate).
3. Confirm Output Format (Optional): The output extension is already set to 7z. If you change your mind, the same upload can be redirected to zip, rar, or tar.xz instead.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert. The TGZ is first decompressed (gzip → tar), then the underlying files are repacked with 7-Zip's LZMA2 codec. Download the smaller .7z when the job finishes — no sign-up, no watermark.

Why Convert TGZ to 7Z?

TGZ is the de-facto Unix bundle: a tar archive piped through gzip. It's universal on Linux and macOS but its compression is DEFLATE, the same algorithm ZIP has used since 1989. 7Z, created by Igor Pavlov in 1999, ships with LZMA2 — a modern dictionary coder that routinely produces noticeably smaller archives on source code, logs, JSON dumps, and uncompressed media. Converting TGZ → 7Z trades a small one-time CPU cost for a permanently smaller file on disk and over the wire.

• Shrink long-term backups — Source trees, log directories, and database dumps usually shrink an additional 20-40% when re-packed from gzip into LZMA2, freeing space on S3, Backblaze B2, or local NAS storage.
• Lock archives with AES-256 — tar.gz has no native encryption; you have to layer on GPG or openssl. The 7z container supports AES-256 directly, with optional encrypted headers so even filenames aren't leaked.
• Per-file extraction — Pulling a single 4 KB config out of a 2 GB .tar.gz requires streaming through the entire gzip pipe. 7Z stores a per-file index, so 7-Zip / p7zip can seek directly to one entry.
• Cross-platform handoff — Windows users can open .7z directly with the free 7-Zip GUI, while Mac users can use Keka or The Unarchiver. .tar.gz works there too, but .7z is friendlier when the recipient isn't on the command line.
• Reduce upload time — A smaller .7z finishes uploading faster on tight links and stays under per-attachment limits on services like Gmail (25 MB per message) more often than the same payload as .tgz.
• Single-file container of many files — Like TGZ, 7Z preserves directory structure, timestamps, and Unicode filenames; unlike TGZ, it also stores a central directory so listing contents is instant instead of linear.

TGZ vs 7Z — Format Comparison

Compression Level Quick Guide (when you re-pack with 7-Zip locally)

Per the official 7-Zip site, LZMA compresses at roughly 2-8 MB/s and decompresses at 30-100 MB/s on a 4 GHz CPU, so most users sit at level 5.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is my 7Z smaller than the original TGZ?

LZMA2 uses a larger sliding-window dictionary (up to 64 MB) than gzip's 32 KB window, so it can spot repeated patterns across far more of the archive. On source code, JSON, CSV, and log files, that typically yields archives 20-40% smaller than the gzip-based .tgz. Already-compressed payloads (JPEG, MP4, PDF) won't shrink much because the redundancy was already removed.

How do I open the resulting 7Z file?

On Windows install 7-Zip (free, open source) or NanaZip from the Microsoft Store. On macOS use Keka or The Unarchiver. On Linux install p7zip-full (Debian/Ubuntu) or p7zip (Fedora/Arch) and run 7z x archive.7z. The 7-Zip team's reference command-line is also distributed as 7zz on Linux/macOS since version 21.x.

Does this preserve folder structure, timestamps, and permissions?

Folder structure and modification times are preserved. POSIX permissions and ownership stored in the tar header are not round-tripped through 7Z by default — 7Z stores Windows-style file attributes. If you need to preserve Unix mode bits exactly, keep the file as .tar.xz or .tar.zst instead, or re-tar inside the 7z. See our TGZ to TAR tool if you only need to drop gzip without changing the container.

Can I password-protect the 7Z on this page?

The server-side conversion uses 7-Zip's default settings without a password. If you need AES-256 encryption with encrypted filenames, do the conversion here to get the LZMA2-compressed .7z, then re-pack it locally with 7z a -p -mhe=on encrypted.7z file.7z — that step needs the password and can't be done without it ever leaving your machine.

Will the 7Z work on older versions of 7-Zip?

7-Zip 9.20 (2010) and later read and write LZMA2 transparently, so the output works with any 7-Zip released in the last 15 years, plus p7zip on Linux/macOS and PeaZip / NanaZip on Windows. The current 7-Zip release (26.x, April 2026) is fully backward compatible.

Why not just keep using TGZ?

TGZ is the right choice when you're streaming over a Unix pipe or when the recipient runs tar -xzf from muscle memory — gzip's decompression is faster (30-100+ MB/s) and the format is everywhere. Switch to 7Z when storage size matters (long-term archives, big email attachments), when you need encryption inside the container, or when the recipient is on Windows.

How is this different from converting TGZ to TAR.XZ?

Both LZMA2-encode the data, so the compression ratio is similar. The difference is the container: .tar.xz keeps the POSIX tar structure (preserving Unix permissions/ownership), while .7z uses 7-Zip's own format with per-file indexing, optional AES-256, and built-in volume splitting. Pick .tar.xz for Linux-to-Linux backups, .7z for cross-platform delivery. We also offer direct TGZ to TAR.XZ and TAR.GZ to 7Z — same engine.

Is there a file size limit?

Each input file is capped by your browser session's upload budget; very large multi-GB archives are better handled by installing 7-Zip locally and running 7z a -mx=5 out.7z extracted-folder/ after a one-time tar -xzf in.tgz. For typical source drops, log bundles, and document archives under a couple of gigabytes, the online converter handles the whole pipeline (extract → repack) in one step.