GZ/TAR.GZ Extractor (Free, Online)

Free tool to extract .gz, .tar.gz, .tgz, and .tar files entirely in your browser. Handy for opening FTP backups (tar.gz) or log files (.gz) from a rental server. Files are never sent to a server.

Last updated: 2026-09-10

What Is This GZ/TAR.GZ Extractor?

This is a free tool for extracting, inspecting, and downloading the contents of .gz, .tar.gz, .tgz, and .tar files entirely inside your browser. Log files from Linux servers and FTP backups from rental hosting are frequently distributed in gzip or tar format, and Windows' built-in tools can't open them directly — which usually means installing dedicated software just to look inside. With this tool, you simply drop the file and see the extracted contents right in the browser, with no software to install or configure.

All processing happens locally on your device, and the file you upload is never transmitted to a server. Even for data that may contain sensitive information, such as server logs, you can open it without worrying about it leaking anywhere.

How to Use the GZ/TAR.GZ Extractor

Drop your file Drag and drop the .gz, .tar.gz, .tgz, or .tar file you want to extract into the drop zone, or click to choose one.
The format is detected automatically The tool reads the file's contents and automatically determines whether it is a single-file gzip archive or a tar archive containing multiple files.
Review the contents For multiple files, check the name, size, and modification date in the listing, and preview supported formats directly.
Download individually or all at once Download only the files you need one by one, or use "Extract All" to download everything in a single batch.
Extract straight into a folder on supported browsers In Chrome or Edge, choosing a destination folder writes everything out at once while preserving the original folder structure.

Tips for getting more out of it

.gz compresses a single file only. .tar.gz (the same as .tgz) is a tar archive — multiple files and folders bundled together with tar and then compressed with gzip — and it's commonly used for FTP backups from rental servers. This tool automatically detects which format you have, so you can just drop the file without worrying about the extension.
If the contents turn out to be a single file (e.g. access.log.gz), a download button appears right away. If there are multiple files (tar format), you'll see a file listing just like the ZIP Extractor tool, with individual downloads and batch extraction.
In Chrome or Edge, choosing a folder with "Extract All" writes everything out directly while preserving the original folder structure. In other browsers, files are downloaded individually and the folder structure cannot be preserved.
Special entries such as symbolic links appear in the list, but since they don't carry actual file data, they can't be downloaded (this is a Linux-specific entry type, so it almost never shows up in ZIP files created on Windows).

Ways to Use the GZ/TAR.GZ Extractor

Investigating server logs

Open daily-rotated logs such as access.log.gz or error.log.gz on the spot, with no dedicated software required.

Restoring rental hosting backups

Pick out just the files you need from a .tar.gz backup downloaded over FTP.

Unpacking tar.gz assets from npm or GitHub

When source code or a package is distributed as a tar.gz, inspect the contents first and extract only the files you actually need.

Working on a device away from your usual setup

On a shared computer or workplace PC without extraction software installed, you can still check the contents on the spot as long as you have a browser.

Checking a .gz file attached to an email

Open a log or configuration file sent as a .gz attachment right away, without installing any software.

GZ/TAR.GZ Extraction Glossary

gzip: A format and command for compressing a single file, using the extension .gz. It uses the DEFLATE algorithm, which achieves higher compression ratios on data with lots of repeating patterns, such as text files.
compression ratio: The ratio between the size before and after compression. Text and log files tend to compress well because they repeat often, while already-compressed data such as images or video shrinks very little.
DEFLATE: The algorithm used by gzip, ZIP, and many other compression formats. It reduces size by replacing repeated byte sequences with shorter references.
tar: A format and command for bundling multiple files and folders into a single file, without compressing them. The name comes from Tape ARchive, its original purpose of writing to magnetic tape drives.
tar.gz / tgz: A tar bundle that has been further compressed with gzip. The content is identical either way; .tgz is simply a shorter form used on older operating systems that limited filenames to 8 characters.
Compression Streams API: A compression and decompression feature built into modern browsers. This tool uses it to complete extraction entirely inside the browser, without any external library.
symbolic link: A special entry that only points to another file or folder and carries no actual file data of its own. It is a Linux-specific entry type that can sometimes appear inside a tar archive.

Frequently Asked Questions

No. Extraction happens entirely inside your browser, and the file's contents are never sent to a server.

They're identical in content. .tgz is a holdover from older operating systems that required filenames of 8 characters or fewer — it's simply a shorter alias for .tar.gz. Both can be extracted with this tool exactly the same way.

The gzip and tar formats don't have any password-protection mechanism like ZIP does, so this situation normally doesn't come up. If you're being asked for a password, the file may actually be in a different format, such as ZIP. In that case, try our sister tool, the ZIP Extractor.

This tool does not look at the extension at all — it examines the file's contents (the first few bytes) to automatically determine whether it is gzip or tar. Even if the extension is missing or different, it can be extracted as long as the actual data is in gzip or tar format.

Yes, but since everything is processed in the browser's memory, files over a few gigabytes may run slowly or fail depending on your device.

Side Note — Why Compressing and Bundling Are Separate Tools

ZIP, familiar from Windows, combines "bundling multiple files together" and "compressing them" into a single format. In the Linux/Unix world, though, there is a long-standing design philosophy — the Unix philosophy — of combining small tools that each do one thing well. That's why tar (which only bundles files, without compressing them) and gzip (which only compresses, without being able to bundle multiple files) developed as separate commands.

That's why taking a backup on a Linux server is a two-step process: first bundle everything into a single file with tar -cf backup.tar folder/, then compress it with gzip backup.tar — resulting in a file with the double extension .tar.gz. The name "tar" itself comes from its original purpose: writing backups out to a magnetic tape drive (Tape ARchive).

This is why so many people are puzzled to find that extracting a .gz file just leaves them with another .tar file inside. This tool automatically handles both the gzip decompression and the tar content listing, so you never have to think about the two-step process yourself.

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