Extract Archive

How to Extract an Archive Online

1. Upload Your Archive: Drag and drop or click "+ Add Files" to select your archive. Supports ZIP, RAR, 7Z, TAR, TAR.GZ (TGZ), TAR.BZ2 (TZ2/TB2), and TAR.XZ. Batch extraction across multiple archives is supported in a single session.
2. Confirm Format and Defaults: xconvert detects the archive type from its container header, not the file extension, so a mislabeled .zip that is really a 7z still extracts. Defaults are tuned to recover the original directory tree, file timestamps, and Unicode filenames.
3. Enter a Password (if Required): If the archive is encrypted (ZIP ZipCrypto/AES, RAR 5 AES-256, 7z AES-256), enter the password when prompted. Without the correct password, AES-encrypted archives cannot be opened — there is no "bypass" for properly encrypted content.
4. Extract and Download: Click "Extract." Browse the unpacked tree, download individual files, or grab the whole set as a fresh ZIP. Files process in your session — no installer, no watermark, no sign-up.

Why Extract Archives Online?

Archives bundle and compress directories so they can be emailed, downloaded, or distributed as a single payload. The download you grabbed for a font, a Linux package, a Stable Diffusion model, or a vendor SDK is almost always a .zip, .rar, .7z, or .tar.gz. Extracting them used to mean installing WinRAR, 7-Zip, The Unarchiver, or wrestling with tar -xJf on a server. A browser extractor removes the install step entirely.

• You're on a locked-down or borrowed device — School laptops, library kiosks, work machines without admin rights, and ChromeOS devices can't install 7-Zip or WinRAR. Drop the archive into a browser tab instead.
• macOS hands you an unfamiliar format — macOS Archive Utility reliably handles ZIP, but RAR and 7z are not natively supported and 7z extractions can produce corrupted output. The Unarchiver works, but it's another install for a one-off file.
• You're on Windows 10 or older Windows 11 — Native RAR / 7z / TAR support landed only with Windows 11 24H2 (build 26100) via the libarchive integration. Windows 10 still needs third-party software for anything but ZIP.
• You need to peek before extracting — Browse the archive listing, check filenames and sizes, and pull only the one font or one config file you actually need. No need to dump 4 GB onto disk to grab a 12 KB readme.
• You received split or password-protected archives — Multi-part downloads (.part1.rar, .zip.001) and AES-encrypted archives are common from open-source mirrors and shared drives. xconvert handles both with the password prompt in step 3.
• Cross-platform handoff — Linux developers ship .tar.xz, Windows users send .zip, and Mac users get .rar from a friend with WinRAR. One browser tool covers every direction.

Archive Format Comparison

tar.gz vs tar.bz2 vs tar.xz — When Each Wins

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does my archive say "ZIP" but won't open in a regular ZIP tool?

Two common causes. First, the file may actually be a 7z, RAR, or TAR.GZ that was renamed to .zip — extension lies, container header doesn't. xconvert reads the header, so it usually opens anyway. Second, the ZIP may use ZIP64 (for archives over 4 GB or more than 65,535 files), Zstandard compression, or AES encryption that older Windows / macOS built-in extractors don't handle.

Can xconvert extract password-protected archives?

Yes, if you provide the password. Enter it when prompted in step 3. ZIP ZipCrypto, ZIP AES (128/192/256), RAR 5 AES-256, and 7z AES-256 are all supported. Without the correct password, AES-encrypted archives cannot be decrypted — that's the entire point of the encryption. There is no online "remove RAR password" service that works on a properly AES-encrypted archive; only password recovery (dictionary or brute-force on a separate machine) can help, and only if the password is weak.

How is this different from /extract-zip or /extract-rar?

The format-specific pages — extract ZIP, extract RAR, extract 7z, extract tar.gz, extract tar.xz, extract tar.bz2 — are tuned for one container at a time. This generic extractor accepts any of them in the same upload widget, which is useful when you have a folder of mixed archives or when you don't know what's inside (mystery.file from a sketchy email).

Doesn't Windows 11 already extract RAR and 7z?

Native RAR, 7z, and TAR extraction landed in Windows 11 with the libarchive integration starting in 23H2 / 24H2 (build 26100, late 2024). It works for basic extraction but does not handle password-protected archives or split / multi-volume archives (.part1.rar, .zip.001) — Microsoft's docs explicitly call out these limitations. Windows 10 has no native support beyond ZIP. xconvert handles encrypted and split archives in the browser regardless of OS version.

What's the difference between tar, tar.gz, tar.xz, and tar.bz2?

tar is just a bundling format — it concatenates files and metadata, no compression. The .gz, .bz2, and .xz suffixes mean a tar archive that was then compressed with gzip, bzip2, or xz respectively. Compression ratio: xz > bzip2 > gzip (xz can be 10-30% smaller than gzip on text). Speed: gzip > bzip2 > xz for compression, while gzip and xz both decompress quickly and bzip2 is the slow one. Pick gzip for npm/CI, xz for distro images, and bzip2 mostly when you're handed a legacy source tarball.

Will Mac-created ZIPs lose their special files (__MACOSX, .DS_Store)?

No, but those metadata folders are usually noise on Windows / Linux. The __MACOSX/ folder and .DS_Store files are macOS finder metadata that show up in any ZIP created via Finder's "Compress" menu. They extract fine but you can safely delete them after — they're not part of the original content.

Can I extract a corrupted or partially downloaded archive?

Sometimes. xconvert will read whatever the container header lets it parse. ZIP and 7z store a central directory at the end, so a truncated download often fails entirely. RAR with the recovery record (created with WinRAR's "Add recovery record" option) can survive small amounts of corruption. For chronically broken archives, dedicated repair tools (DiskInternals ZIP Repair, WinRAR's "Repair archive" function) outperform any online extractor.

Does extracting expose the file content to your servers?

Files are uploaded over HTTPS for processing and removed shortly after the session ends. The extracted contents are returned to your browser, not indexed or shared. For highly sensitive archives (legal documents, source code under NDA, medical records), prefer a fully offline tool — install 7-Zip on Windows or use tar -xJf / The Unarchiver locally — because no online service can be more private than a local extraction.

What about ISO, DMG, CAB, or other "archive-like" formats?

This page covers the common compressed-archive formats: ZIP, RAR, 7z, and the TAR family. Disk image formats (ISO, DMG, IMG, VHD), installer containers (MSI, CAB, NSIS, RPM, DEB), and exotic formats (ARJ, LZH, ACE, ZOO) are out of scope here. For an ISO or DMG, the simplest path is to mount the image with built-in OS tools — Windows File Explorer treats ISOs as drives since Windows 8, macOS Disk Utility opens DMGs natively, and Linux mounts both with mount -o loop.