How to Open tar.gz Files (Windows, Mac & Online)

What a tar.gz file actually is

A .tar.gz is two formats stacked together. First, tar (tape archive) bundles many files and folders into a single file, preserving the directory structure but not compressing anything. Then gzip compresses that bundle into a smaller .gz file. The result, file.tar.gz, is one compressed package that unpacks back into the original folder tree.

You meet tar.gz constantly in the developer and Linux world: source code releases, npm and Python packages, server backups, Docker layers, and datasets are almost always distributed this way. If a project on GitHub offers a download, it is usually a .tar.gz or a .zip.

4 ways to open tar.gz, compared

Method 1: Online, no upload (SammaPix tar.gz Extractor)

The SammaPix tar.gz Extractor reads the archive directly in your browser with the libarchive engine compiled to WebAssembly. It handles both layers (gzip and tar) in one step, shows you the file list, and lets you download a single file or the whole thing as a ZIP. Nothing is uploaded, so it is safe for source code and backups, and it works on Windows and Chromebooks where there is no easy native option.

1. Open sammapix.com/tools/tar-gz in any browser.
2. Drop your file. Drag a .tar.gz, .tgz, .tar or .gz onto the page.
3. Browse the contents and download what you need, or export everything as ZIP.

Method 2: Windows (tar command and 7-Zip)

Windows 11 ships with the tar command. Open Command Prompt or PowerShell in the folder with your file and run:

tar -xzf file.tar.gz

The flags mean: x extract, z gunzip, f file. To extract into a specific folder, add -C foldername.

Prefer a GUI? Install 7-Zip. Right-click the .tar.gz, choose 7-Zip then Extract here, which gives you a .tar file. Right-click that .tar and extract again to reach the actual files. It works but takes two passes, which is why the one-step browser or tar command is often simpler.

Method 3: Mac (double-click and Terminal)

On macOS this is easy: double-click the .tar.gz in Finder and Archive Utility unpacks it into a folder next to the file. No app to install. If you want to view the contents or grab one file without unpacking everything, the browser tool is the quicker route. For the command line, see Method 4.

Method 4: Terminal (Linux and Mac)

# Extract everything
tar -xzf file.tar.gz

# Extract into a specific folder
tar -xzf file.tar.gz -C ~/Desktop/extracted

# List contents without extracting
tar -tzf file.tar.gz

# Extract a plain .tar (no gzip)
tar -xf file.tar

# Decompress a single .gz file
gunzip file.gz

The same commands work on Linux and macOS. Use -tzf to peek inside before committing to a full extract.

tar vs gz vs tar.gz vs tgz

• .tar - a bundle of files, not compressed.
• .gz - a single gzip-compressed file (often one .tar, but can be any file).
• .tar.gz - a tar bundle compressed with gzip. The common case.
• .tgz - exactly the same as .tar.gz, just a shorter extension.

You will also see .tar.bz2 (bzip2) and .tar.xz (xz), which work the same way with stronger compression. The SammaPix extractor handles all of these.

Common errors and fixes

"tar is not recognized" on Windows

You are likely on Windows 10, which does not include tar. Use 7-Zip or the browser tool instead, or upgrade to Windows 11.

It only extracted a .tar, not the files

That is the two-step 7-Zip behaviour. Open the resulting .tar to reach the real files, or use a one-step method.

"Unexpected end of archive"

The download was incomplete or corrupted. Download the file again and retry.

After extracting

Got images out of the archive? Compress them with the Image Compressor, or strip location data with the EXIF Viewer. Need to bundle files back up to share? Use the ZIP Creator. And if you receive a .rar or .7z instead, the RAR opener and 7z opener work the same way.