Convert TAR to 7Z
Free online converter for TAR files. High-ratio archive from the 7-Zip project. Nothing to install, no watermark, and every file is deleted automatically.
Drag and drop your files
or
Upload a TAR file to convert it to 7Z. Up to 3 files at once, 100 MB each.
Free · up to 3 files · 100 MB each · files deleted automatically after 1 hour.
About TAR and 7Z
TAR .tar
Not a compressor at all — a way of concatenating many files into one while preserving Unix permissions, ownership and symbolic links. Compression is applied afterwards, if at all.
Good for
- Preserves Unix permissions, ownership and links exactly
- The standard for backups and software distribution
- Streams, so it works down a pipe
Trade-offs
- No compression by itself — a tar is as big as its contents
- No random access without reading through the file
- Awkward on Windows without extra software
application/x-tar
7Z .7z
The high-compression archive format, using LZMA. It routinely produces the smallest file of anything here, at the cost of time and memory.
Good for
- The best compression ratios available here
- Strong AES-256 encryption
- Solid mode compresses similar files together very effectively
Trade-offs
- Needs software installed on Windows and macOS
- Slow to compress, and memory-hungry
- Less universal than ZIP for sending to other people
application/x-7z-compressed
TAR and 7Z side by side
| TAR | 7Z | |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | None — container only | Solid (LZMA) |
| Typically used for | Unix backups, software packaging | Maximum compression, long-term storage |
What changes when you convert TAR to 7Z
The archive is rebuilt, not renamed
Your TAR is unpacked in full and its contents are written into a new 7Z. 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from scratch at the level you choose, and the resulting size depends on that setting rather than on how the TAR was originally made. The folder structure inside is preserved exactly.
These two store files differently
TAR applies no compression whatsoever — it only concatenates, so reading one file means reading through everything before it. 7Z compresses with LZMA, usually the tightest of these formats, so supports random access, though at a higher cost to decompress. 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 do not travel
TAR can record Unix permissions and symbolic links; 7Z has no dependable place to put them. Executable bits in particular are the thing that goes missing — a script that ran before extraction may need its permissions set again afterwards. If the archive is destined for a server, a tar-based format is the safer choice.
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 TAR. 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.