Convert RAR to ZIP
Free online converter for RAR files. The default archive format across all platforms. Nothing to install, no watermark, and every file is deleted automatically.
Drag and drop your files
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Upload a RAR file to convert it to ZIP. Up to 3 files at once, 100 MB each.
Free · up to 3 files · 100 MB each · files deleted automatically after 1 hour.
About RAR and ZIP
RAR .rar
A proprietary archive format from WinRAR. Its compression is good and its recovery records are genuinely useful, but only its owner licenses the ability to create one.
Good for
- Strong compression with optional recovery records
- Handles multi-volume splitting well
- Common in older download archives
Trade-offs
- Proprietary — creating RAR files requires licensed software
- We can extract from RAR but cannot produce it
- Needs extra software on most systems
application/vnd.rar
ZIP .zip
The archive format every operating system opens without extra software. Each file inside is compressed separately, so any one of them can be read without unpacking the rest.
Good for
- Built into Windows, macOS and Linux — nothing to install
- Random access: extract one file without expanding everything
- Supports password protection
Trade-offs
- Compresses less than 7z or tar.gz
- Per-file compression misses redundancy between files
- Its legacy encryption is weak — only AES is worth using
application/zip
RAR and ZIP side by side
| RAR | ZIP | |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | Proprietary | Per-file (Deflate) |
| Typically used for | Opening archives someone else sent you | Sending several files as one, universal exchange |
What changes when you convert RAR to ZIP
The archive is rebuilt, not renamed
Your RAR is unpacked in full and its contents are written into a new ZIP. 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from scratch at the level you choose, and the resulting size depends on that setting rather than on how the RAR was originally made. The folder structure inside is preserved exactly.
These two store files differently
RAR uses a proprietary algorithm no open tool may write, so random access within the archive. ZIP compresses each file separately with deflate, so any single file can be read without touching the rest. 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.
Why RAR is read-only here
RAR's compression is proprietary: it may be read freely but not written by open tools, so we can unpack a RAR and give you the contents in an open format, and cannot produce one. That is a licensing boundary rather than a technical one.
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 RAR. 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.