Convert GZIP to TAR.GZ
Free online converter for GZIP files. Gzip-compressed TAR archive. Nothing to install, no watermark, and every file is deleted automatically.
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About GZ and TGZ
GZIP .gz
A single-stream compressor, not an archive. Gzip compresses one file; bundling many requires tar first, which is why tar.gz is so common.
Good for
- Fast to compress and very fast to decompress
- Universal on Unix systems and across the web
- Streams cleanly through pipes
Trade-offs
- One file only — it cannot hold a directory
- Compresses less than LZMA
- No integrity protection beyond a basic checksum
application/gzip
TAR.GZ .tgz
A tar archive passed through gzip. The tar preserves the file tree and its permissions; gzip compresses the whole stream in one pass.
Good for
- Compresses better than ZIP by finding redundancy across files
- Keeps Unix permissions and links
- The default for source code releases
Trade-offs
- No random access — one file means decompressing everything before it
- Needs extra software on Windows
application/gzip
GZ and TGZ side by side
| GZ | TGZ | |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | Single stream (DEFLATE) | Solid stream (gzip) |
| Typically used for | Compressing one file, web transfer encoding | Source releases, Unix backups |
What changes when you convert GZ to TGZ
The archive is rebuilt, not renamed
Your GZ is unpacked in full and its contents are written into a new TGZ. Nothing is passed through untouched, so the compression is done again from scratch at the level you choose, and the resulting size depends on that setting rather than on how the GZ was originally made. The folder structure inside is preserved exactly.
These two store files differently
GZ compresses a single stream and has no concept of multiple files, so must be decompressed from the start. TGZ concatenates with tar, then compresses the whole stream in one pass, so reading one file means decompressing everything before it. That difference is the real reason to pick one over the other: per-file compression lets a tool pull out a single entry cheaply, while compressing everything as one stream finds patterns across files and usually ends up smaller.
Unix file modes have somewhere to go
TGZ records Unix permissions and symbolic links as a matter of course, which is why it is the format of choice for anything destined for a server. Note that it can only record what it is given: metadata the GZ never stored cannot be recovered by converting.
Why GZ is read-only here
Plain gzip compresses a single stream and has no concept of files or folders — which is why it is nearly always paired with tar. We accept it as a source and write open multi-file formats instead.
You choose how hard it compresses
Because the archive is built again from scratch, the compression level is yours to set rather than inherited from the GZ. It defaults to 6 — the setting that has been the sensible middle ground for deflate for thirty years. Raising it buys a few percent for a disproportionate amount of time; lowering it is worth doing for large archives of already-compressed material such as photographs or video, where there is nothing left to squeeze.