Archives

About these tools

Create ZIP archives, inspect what is inside one before extracting it, and extract the entries you want, all without installing an archive tool or uploading anything. Archives are streamed rather than loaded whole, which is why the size limit here is far higher than for other formats.

Extraction lists the contents first on purpose. An archive from an unknown source can contain entries whose paths point outside the folder you extract into, and those are shown and blocked rather than quietly written.

A ZIP is an index followed by compressed files, which is why these tools can show you what is inside one without unpacking it. The listing is read from the index alone, so opening a large archive to see its contents costs almost nothing, and extracting only what you need costs only what you chose. That is the difference between a browser tool built on the format and one that unpacks everything into memory first.

Archives are also the one file type here that can attack the machine reading them. An entry can be named to climb out of its folder and overwrite something else, and an archive can be crafted to expand to far more than it claims. Entry names are checked and normalised before anything is written, and the size limit is a limit on what is extracted rather than on what the file says it holds.

Frequently asked questions

Can I open a ZIP file in my browser?

Yes. Choose the archive and its contents are listed immediately, with file names and sizes, before anything is extracted. You then pick which entries you want. This is often quicker than extracting a large archive just to retrieve one file from it.

Can I extract RAR or 7z files?

No. Neither has a reliable, appropriately licensed implementation that runs in a browser, so they are left out rather than half-supported. ZIP is handled fully, including archives that other tools produce.

Does it support password-protected ZIP files?

Not currently. An encrypted archive is reported as such rather than failing with an obscure error. Removing the password with the tool that applied it and re-archiving is the workaround.

How large an archive can I handle?

Up to 250 MB, which is much higher than the other limits because entries are streamed one at a time rather than parsed into a document in memory. Phones are warned earlier, since they have far less headroom.

Does creating a ZIP keep my folder structure?

Yes. You can choose a whole folder and the paths inside the archive match what you selected, so unzipping it elsewhere reproduces the same layout.

Are the files I archive uploaded?

No. The ZIP is built in your browser's memory and handed to you as a download. Nothing is sent, which also means there is no upload time: the limit on speed is your own device.

Can I extract just one file without unpacking the whole archive?

Yes, and that is what the extract tool is built around. It reads the archive's index first and lists what is inside with sizes and dates, and you tick the entries you want. Only those are decompressed, which on a large archive is the difference between a moment and a long wait.

Is a ZIP made here compatible with Windows and macOS?

Yes. It is a standard ZIP, written with the deflate compression every unpacker has understood for thirty years, so Explorer, Finder, and the unzip command all open it without a plugin. Filenames are stored as UTF-8, which is what keeps accented and non-Latin names intact on the other side.

What stops a malicious archive from writing outside the folder?

A ZIP can name an entry ../../something, which is the path traversal trick that has been used to overwrite files outside the destination for decades. Entry names here are checked and normalised before anything is written, and an entry that tries to climb out of the intended structure is refused rather than followed.

Can I see what is inside a ZIP without extracting anything?

Yes, and it is a tool of its own. It reads only the archive's index, so nothing is decompressed and nothing is written anywhere, and it lists every entry with its size, its compressed size and its date. The listing can be downloaded as CSV, which is handy for auditing a backup you did not make.