TAR File Viewer & TAR.GZ Extractor

Open .tar, .tar.gz, .tgz, .tar.xz, .tar.bz2 and .tar.zst tarballs in your browser - browse folders, check permissions and links, preview files and extract tar.gz files online without a terminal. A single compressed file? Use the GZ, BZ2 or XZ Opener. Unpacking several tarballs at once? Use the Archive Extractor, or turn one into a ZIP with TAR.GZ to ZIP.

Drop a TAR or TAR.GZ file here or browse Big backups welcome - read on your device, never uploaded. .tar.tar.gz.tgz.tar.xz.tar.bz2.tar.zst.tar.lz.tar.Z

Try a sample

Multi-GB tarballs Permissions & owners No upload

archive

Hide system junk__MACOSX, .DS_Store, Thumbs.db and desktop.ini - also left out when you extract ON

Remember recent archivesKeeps the last 6 archives up to 50 MB in this browser only - off by default OFF

How to open a TAR or TAR.GZ file online

Open your tarball. Drop a .tar, .tar.gz, .tgz, .tar.bz2 or .tar.xz file anywhere on the page, browse for it, or try a sample.
Browse the folders. Use the folder tree or the path bar, sort by size or date, and search names with wildcards such as *.conf.
Check the details. See permissions like rwxr-xr-x, owners, symlink targets and dates for every entry, plus a safety report for the whole archive.
Extract what you need. Preview and download one file, tick a few and get them as a ZIP, or extract the whole tarball - no tar command needed.

Keyboard shortcuts

Search file namesCtrl + F
Move through the list↑ ↓ Home End
Open folder or previewEnter
Up one folderBackspace
Select / unselectSpace
Previous / next preview← →
Open another archiveCtrl + O
Close the previewEsc

TAR viewer features

Big backups welcome

Plain .tar files are read in place and .tar.gz is streamed, so multi-gigabyte tarballs open without filling your memory.

Permissions and owners

Every entry shows its mode (rwxr-xr-x), owner and group, so you can check a backup before you restore it.

Links understood

Symbolic and hard links show their targets. Links that point outside the archive are flagged.

Preview without extracting

Text, code, configs, logs, images, PDFs, audio, video and fonts open in a click.

All the compressions

gzip, Zstandard, bzip2, xz, lzip, lzma and compress (.Z) tarballs, plus GNU, ustar and pax formats with long Unicode names.

Extract your way

One file, a selection or everything - as a ZIP with folders and permissions kept, or straight into a folder on your disk.

Safety report

Absolute paths, ../ tricks, duplicates and programs are flagged before you extract anything.

100% private

The tarball is read by your browser and never uploaded - safe for server backups and source code.

TAR, TAR.GZ, TGZ, TAR.XZ and TAR.ZST explained

TAR stands for tape archive - it was made in 1979 to write backups to tape.

It still bundles files the Unix way: names, dates, permissions and links stay exactly as they were.

A tarball is usually compressed as a whole, which is where the double extensions come from.

Extension	Compression	Typical use
.tar	none	Backups and Docker image layers - fast to make, large on disk.
.tar.gz / .tgz	gzip	Source code, website backups, npm and PyPI packages - the most common tarball.
.tar.bz2 / .tbz2	bzip2	Older Linux packages - smaller than gzip, slower.
.tar.xz / .txz	xz (LZMA2)	Linux kernel and distribution downloads - the smallest of the common ones.
.tar.lz / .tar.lzma	lzip / LZMA	GNU projects and archivists.
.tar.Z	compress	Very old Unix archives.
.tar.zst / .tzst	Zstandard	Arch Linux packages and newer backups - fast and small, streamed here like .tar.gz.

A file that ends only in .gz, .bz2 or .xz may hold a tarball or a single file. Drop it here and the viewer checks which one it is - single files are best opened with the GZ Opener, BZ2 Opener or XZ Opener.

Opening a tar.gz without this page

Sometimes you are on a server or need a whole tree on disk.

These are the commands people search for most.

Task	Command
List the contents	`tar -tzvf backup.tar.gz`
Extract everything	`tar -xzf backup.tar.gz`
Extract into a folder	`tar -xzf backup.tar.gz -C target/`
Extract one file	`tar -xzf backup.tar.gz path/to/file.txt`
.tar.xz or .tar.bz2	`tar -xJf file.tar.xz` or `tar -xjf file.tar.bz2`
.tar.zst	`tar --zstd -xf file.tar.zst`
Create a tar.gz	`tar -czf backup.tar.gz folder/`

These work on Linux, macOS and on Windows 10 and 11 in Command Prompt or PowerShell. Prefer clicking? Open the tarball here, or make a new archive with the Archive Creator.

Permissions, owners and links

Every file in a tarball remembers who owned it and who may run it.

The viewer shows that in the Permissions column and in each file's details.

rwxr-xr-x (755) - a program or script the owner can change and everyone can run.
rw-r--r-- (644) - a normal file: the owner writes, everyone reads.
rw------- (600) - private, like SSH keys and passwords. Worth a second look in a backup you share.
Symbolic links point to another path and show their target. Links that leave the archive are flagged in the safety report.
Hard links share the data of another entry - downloading one gives you that entry's content.

Extract as ZIP keeps the permission bits, so scripts stay runnable when you unzip them on Linux or macOS.

Check a tarball before you extract it

The tar command trusts the archive more than it should.

A crafted tarball can write outside the target folder, follow links into system folders or overwrite files you care about.

The safety report in the Archive info tab flags absolute paths such as /etc/cron.d/job, ../ paths, links that point outside and duplicate names. Extracting through this page is safe by design: paths are cleaned and nothing is run.

Got a ZIP, RAR or 7Z as well? The ZIP File Viewer, the RAR File Viewer and the Archive Viewer open them, and all file viewers are one click away.

Frequently Asked Questions

Drop the file onto this page. The tarball is unpacked in your browser and its folders appear in seconds - click a file to preview it or download it.

Nothing is uploaded and there is no command line involved.

A .tar file bundles many files into one without compressing them. A .tar.gz is that bundle compressed with gzip, and .tgz is simply a shorter name for the same thing.

.tar.bz2 and .tar.xz use the bzip2 and xz compressors, which make smaller files but take longer.

The quickest way is this page - drop the file and download what you need.

Windows 10 and 11 also include a tar command: open Command Prompt and run tar -xzf file.tar.gz. 7-Zip opens tarballs too, in two steps.

Yes. The Permissions column shows each entry's mode, like rwxr-xr-x, and the file details show the owner and group, the numeric mode, symlink targets and extra timestamps.

Extracting as a ZIP keeps the permissions.

Plain .tar, .tar.gz and .tar.zst files have no practical limit - they are streamed, so multi-gigabyte backups open fine. Previews of a compressed tarball take a moment because it has to be unpacked from the start.

.tar.bz2, .tar.xz and the rarer compressions use a WebAssembly engine that handles up to about 1.9 GB.

Open it here and press Extract all to get everything as a ZIP that keeps the folders and permissions. For one file, click the download icon next to it.

To grab several, tick them and press Extract selected - you get one ZIP, or a direct download when there are only one or two files.

The file never leaves your browser, which makes the viewer safe for server backups and private source code.

A safety report also flags absolute paths, ../ paths and links pointing outside the archive - tricks that can make the tar command overwrite system files.

If it holds a tarball, it opens here as usual. If it is a single compressed file, such as a log, the viewer says so - a single .gz still opens here.

The GZ Opener, BZ2 Opener and XZ Opener are made for those files.

Guides & Tutorials

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Guide How to Tell What Format an Image File Is (5 Easy Ways) Jul 8, 2026 · 9 min read Read

Guide How to Open ZIP, RAR, 7Z & TAR.GZ Files Online (Without Installing Anything) May 15, 2026 · 21 min read Read

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