TGZ to TAR converter
Drop in a TGZ and get a TAR back. A .tar.gz packs a whole folder into one compressed file, and it is the standard way software and backups are shared on Mac and Linux. Your file never leaves your computer.
Need the other direction? Convert TAR to TGZ
How to convert TGZ to TAR
- 1 Drop your TGZ .tgz or .tar.gz file onto the page, or click to browse for it.
- 2 Check the options. Nothing is thrown away on the way to TAR, so there is no quality dial to set.
- 3 Convert. The work happens on your own machine, so how long it takes depends on your computer and the file.
- 4 Download the TAR, or add more files and do the whole set in one go.
Why convert TGZ to TAR
- Preserves Unix permissions, ownership, links and timestamps exactly.
- Streams cleanly, so it can be piped without ever touching disk.
- Piping a directory tree over a network or into another command.
- TGZ: corruption partway through can render the remainder unrecoverable.
TGZ compared with TAR
How the two formats differ on the things that decide whether a conversion is worth making.
| Property | TGZ | TAR |
|---|---|---|
| File extension | .tgz | .tar |
| Compression | Lossless | Uncompressed |
| Colour depth | Tar stream compressed end to end with gzip DEFLATE | 512-byte headers, no compression, POSIX ustar and GNU variants |
| Typical file size | Larger | Largest |
| Introduced | 1992 | 1979 |
| Developed by | GNU project convention | AT&T Bell Labs, later POSIX |
Quality and what changes
Both sides are lossless, so every pixel survives the trip intact and converting back returns the same image. What changes is the size and what the file can carry: TAR stores the data without compression, so expect a much larger file.
- One TAR limitation to keep in mind: extracting one file from a compressed tar requires decompressing up to it.
Questions about TGZ to TAR
Can I open a TAR in a browser?
No. No mainstream browser renders TAR natively, so it will download rather than display. That is fine when the file is heading into desktop software or an archive, and a problem if it is going on a web page.
Is my TGZ file uploaded anywhere?
No. The whole thing runs inside the browser tab you already have open. Your TGZ is read straight from your own disk, converted on your machine and handed back as a TAR. Nothing is sent anywhere, nothing is stored and there is no account.
Is there a file size limit?
There is no server-side limit because no server sees the file. The real ceiling is your device memory, since the input and the output both have to fit in the tab. A few hundred megabytes is usually fine on a desktop machine and considerably less on a phone.
Can I convert several TGZ files at once?
Yes. Add as many as you like and they are processed one after another, then offered as separate TAR downloads or as a single ZIP. Speed depends on your own processor rather than on a queue.
Does the converter work offline?
Yes, after the page has loaded once. The engine is cached by the browser, so you can disconnect, reload and keep converting. That falls out of doing the work locally rather than being a separate mode you switch on.