PDFConvertersOnline.comHow to unzip a file online
- Choose the .zip file or drop it into the blue box. The list of files appears in a second or two.
- Open folders to look around. Tap the eye icon to preview a photo or text file.
- Download single files, or tick several and save them as a new, smaller ZIP.
Unzip on a Chromebook, a work laptop or a phone
Someone sends you a ZIP and the computer in front of you can't open it the way you want. Maybe it's a school Chromebook, a locked-down office PC where you're not allowed to install an extractor, or a phone that only offers to expand the whole thing into a folder you then have to hunt for. This page needs nothing but a browser. Open it, pick the archive, and you see its contents as a folder tree with the size of every file and folder.
The archive isn't sent to a server. The tool reads the table of contents stored at the end of the ZIP straight from your disk, then unpacks an individual file only when you ask for it. That is also why a large archive opens quickly: a 2 GB backup doesn't have to be read in full just to show its file list.
Look first, extract only what you need
- Folder tree: folders open and close like in a file manager, with item counts and sizes, so you can spot the big stuff right away.
- Preview: photos (JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP, SVG and more) and text-based files such as TXT, CSV, JSON, HTML or log files can be viewed before you save them.
- Single downloads: each file has its own download button and keeps its original name.
- New ZIP from a selection: tick the files or whole folders you want and save them as a fresh archive. Handy when a 900 MB project folder holds the three documents you actually need to forward.
Every file is checked against the checksum (CRC-32) stored in the archive while it is unpacked, so a damaged entry is reported instead of silently saved as a broken file.
What this unzipper can't open
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| Password-protected entries | Marked with a lock. The tool can't decrypt ZIP passwords, so use the program that created the archive. |
| RAR, 7z, .tar.gz files | Recognized and refused with a clear message. Only ZIP is supported. |
| Split archives (.z01, .z02…) | Not supported. Join the parts with the original program first. |
| Unusual compression (bzip2, LZMA, Deflate64…) | Listed but can't be unpacked. Normal ZIPs use the standard deflate method, which works. |
Files that are ZIPs under a different name, such as .jar, .apk or .epub, open fine because the tool checks the file's contents rather than trusting the extension. Office files (.docx, .xlsx) are ZIP containers too, and opening one here shows the XML parts inside.
Garbled file names
Newer ZIP programs store names in Unicode, but older Windows tools wrote them in the computer's local code page. A Russian or Chinese file name from such an archive can come out as box symbols or accented gibberish. When the tool finds names like that, it shows an encoding menu: pick Cyrillic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Greek, Turkish or Central European and the names are re-read instantly.
Need to go the other way and pack files together? Use Zip Files. If the archive contained a spreadsheet you want as plain data, Excel to CSV is the next stop.
Frequently asked questions
Is my ZIP file uploaded?
No. The archive is read from your device by code running in this page, and unpacked files are saved directly to your downloads. Nothing is transmitted.
Can it open a password-protected ZIP?
No. Encrypted entries are shown with a lock so you know what's inside, but this tool can't unlock them. Open the archive with the program that created it, using the password.
Why can't I open a .rar or .7z file?
Those are different archive formats with their own compression. This tool handles ZIP only and tells you when a file is RAR, 7z or GZIP instead.
How big can the ZIP be?
There's no fixed limit. Because only the table of contents is read at first, even multi-gigabyte archives open quickly. Very large single files inside are limited by your device's memory when you save them.
Can I unzip files on an iPhone or Android phone?
Yes. Open the page in Safari or Chrome, choose the ZIP from Files or Downloads, and tap the download icon next to the file you want.
Where do the extracted files go?
They're saved like any other download, usually to your Downloads folder. Folders are not recreated for single files; use the new ZIP option to keep a folder structure.