Create or open zip files without installing anything
A zip file bundles one or many files into a single, usually smaller package. It is the format most people reach for when an email service limits the number of attachments, when a client needs a whole project folder, or when a download page offers its files as an archive. Modern operating systems can open zips, but you do not always have a normal computer in front of you: a shared PC at a library, a locked-down work laptop, a Chromebook or a phone often has no archive tool at all. This page gives you both directions of the job, creating and extracting, right inside the browser.
The privacy side matters just as much. Most online zip services make you upload your files, wait, and download the result from their server, which is a poor idea for contracts, tax papers, medical letters or client work. Here the archive is built by a small compression library running on your own device. Your files are read from disk by the browser, compressed in memory and handed back as a download. Nothing is sent over the network, and you can switch off Wi-Fi after the page has loaded to prove it.
How to create a zip file
- Stay on the Create zip tab. Drag files onto the drop area, click it to pick files, or press Choose folder to add an entire folder with its subfolders.
- Check the list. You can remove any file with the ✕ button, and the summary shows the number of files and the total size.
- Type an archive name (the .zip ending is added for you) and choose a compression level. Balanced is a good default.
- Press Create zip. A progress bar shows which file is being processed. When it finishes, press Download zip to save the archive.
How to extract a zip file
- Open the Extract zip tab and drop your .zip file on the drop area, or click it to choose the file.
- The tool lists every file with its size and date, and shows how big everything will be once extracted. That is a handy safety check before you save anything.
- Press Download next to a single file, or use Download all to save everything one file after another. In Chrome and Edge you also get Extract to folder…, which recreates the original folder structure on your disk.
- If accented letters in file names look garbled, which can happen with archives made on older systems, open the File name encoding menu and try another option.
Which compression level should you choose?
Zip uses the Deflate method, which finds repeated patterns in data. Text files, spreadsheets, source code, logs and uncompressed images such as BMP shrink dramatically, often to a quarter of their size or less. Files that are already compressed, including JPG and PNG photos, MP3 and MP4 media, PDF documents and modern Office files (which are zip archives internally), barely shrink at all, and the extra effort is wasted. The levels in the tool reflect that trade-off.
| Level | Best for | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| None | Photos, videos, PDFs, music, other zips | Fastest; the archive is about as big as the originals |
| Fast | Mixed folders when speed matters | Light compression with little waiting |
| Balanced | Documents, code, spreadsheets, everyday use | Good size reduction at a comfortable speed |
| Smallest file | Large text or data sets you will send once | Slowest, with only a small extra saving over Balanced |
Folders, file names and special characters
When you choose a folder, every file keeps its relative path inside the archive, so the recipient sees the same structure you did. File names are stored as UTF-8 with the proper flag, which means accents, emoji and non-Latin alphabets survive on current versions of Windows, macOS and Linux. If you add two files that would end up with the same path, the second one automatically becomes "name (2).ext" rather than overwriting the first.
Old archives are the tricky part. Before UTF-8 became common, many programs wrote file names in a regional DOS or Windows code page and did not say which. Opened on another system, those names turn into strange symbols. The extraction tab detects this, shows an encoding menu, and lets you pick Western European, Central European, Cyrillic, Greek, Turkish, Japanese, Chinese or Korean until the names read correctly.
What this tool cannot do
It is honest to list the limits. The tool reads and writes the standard zip format, but it holds the data in your device memory while it works. A laptop with plenty of RAM will typically manage archives of a few hundred megabytes and sometimes more, whereas a phone may struggle with files above a hundred megabytes or so, and the page warns you at 50 MB. Very large jobs are better handled by an archive program installed on your computer. Password-protected zip files cannot be opened here, and the tool does not create them either. RAR, 7z, tar and gzip archives are not supported, and unusual compression methods such as Deflate64, BZip2 and LZMA are reported with a clear message so you can switch to a desktop program such as 7-Zip. Zip also does not preserve every file system detail such as ownership or symbolic links, so use a different format for system backups.
A password on a zip is not a strong protection in many cases, because the traditional zip encryption is weak. If you need to protect sensitive files, use a modern encryption tool in addition to, or instead of, a zip password.
Safe handling of archives from other people
Opening a zip never runs anything on its own, and this tool only extracts data into downloads; it cannot start the files it contains. Still, be careful with archives from unknown senders, especially when they contain programs or documents with macros. Look at the list of names and sizes before you download. An archive that expands to many gigabytes from a tiny file (a so-called zip bomb) is easy to spot, because the summary line states the extracted size up front. When you use the folder extraction option, path segments such as ".." are ignored so nothing can be written outside the folder you picked.
Works offline as an app
After your first visit, the page can be installed from the browser menu and used without a connection. That is useful for archiving on the road, on a plane or in an office where file uploads are not allowed by policy.
Frequently asked questions
Are my files uploaded to a server?
No. Files are read, compressed and extracted entirely inside your browser using a JavaScript library that is bundled with the page. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored, and the tool still works when you disconnect from the internet after loading it.
Can I zip a whole folder, and will the structure be kept?
Yes. Press Choose folder, select a folder, and every file is added with its relative path, including subfolders. When someone opens your zip they see exactly the same tree. Dragging individual files works too.
Which compression level is best?
Balanced is right for most uses. Choose None or Fast for photos, videos, PDFs and music, because those formats are already compressed and will not shrink much. Choose Smallest file only for large text or data files that you will send once.
Can this tool open RAR, 7z or password-protected zip files?
No. It only handles standard .zip archives without passwords. For RAR, 7z, tar.gz and encrypted zips, use a desktop program such as 7-Zip, which is free, and the tool will tell you this if you try.
Why do the file names inside an old zip look garbled?
Archives created long ago often store names in a regional DOS or Windows code page without saying which one. After you open such a zip, an encoding menu appears. Try Western European, Central European, Cyrillic, Greek, Turkish, Japanese, Chinese or Korean until the names look right.
Is there a file size limit?
There is no fixed limit, but the browser must keep the data in memory, so very large archives can fail on phones and older computers. A warning appears above 50 MB. If the page runs out of memory, split the work into several smaller archives.
Why is my zip almost as big as the original files?
Because the files are probably already compressed. JPG, PNG, MP4, MP3, PDF and Office documents contain compressed data, so zip cannot squeeze them much further. The benefit in that case is convenience: many files travel as one.
Will the zip open on Windows, macOS, Android and iPhone?
Yes. The output is a standard zip file with UTF-8 names. Windows and macOS open it natively, iOS and Android file managers can usually unpack it, and any archive program understands it.
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