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ZIP tools

Create a ZIP file online

Pick individual files or a whole folder and get one finished archive. The compression runs in your own browser, and your files are never sent to a server.

  • No upload
  • No sign-up
  • No watermarks

Files are handled locally. We measured the network traffic during a compression run: not one request carrying file content left the browser.

How it works

Three steps from loose files to one archive

  1. 1

    Choose your files

    Drag and drop files or a whole folder into the field, or use the file picker. Subfolders are kept exactly as they are.

  2. 2

    Name the archive

    Type what the archive should be called, and choose whether it should be quick or packed as small as possible.

  3. 3

    Download

    Press «Create ZIP file». You can point out where the archive should be saved, or let it go straight to your downloads folder.

Benefits

What you can use it for

Send several files at once

One attachment instead of twelve. The recipient unpacks it with the tools already built into Windows and macOS.

Collect a project before archiving

The whole folder structure follows the files into the archive, so you find your way back to them in the same order later.

Accented characters and emoji

File names are stored as UTF-8. Accented letters, non-Latin scripts and emoji come out correctly, also when the archive is opened in Windows’ own ZIP reader.

Large archives without filling memory

In browsers that support it, the archive is written to disk as it is built. Free disk space is then the limit, not your memory.

No account and no queue

You do not have to register, and you are not waiting in line behind other people’s files. The work is done on your own machine.

Windows, Mac, Android and iPhone

The tool only needs an up-to-date browser. Writing straight to a folder you choose is so far available on the desktop only.

Questions and answers

What people ask

Are my files uploaded?
No. The compression is run by your browser’s own engine on your machine. We inspected the network traffic while an archive was being built, and no request carrying file content left the browser.
How large an archive can I make?
If your browser lets you point out where the file should be saved, the archive is written to disk as it is built, and free disk space is the limit. Otherwise the archive is held in memory until it is finished, and your machine’s memory sets the limit.
Does the archive keep my folders?
Yes. If you choose a whole folder, the subfolders come along, and they come back out in the same structure when the archive is extracted.
Do accented characters and emoji work in file names?
Yes. We tested an archive with accented letters and emoji in the file names, downloaded it and opened it again with the extraction built into Windows. The names and the contents came out unchanged.
What do the compression levels mean?
«Fast» stores the files without compressing them, and is therefore the quickest. «Balanced» and «Smallest file» use the browser’s deflate. The browser offers no choice between those two today, so they give the same result. We will change this text the day that changes.
Can I put a password on the archive?
Not yet. Password protection is planned, but we will publish it only when we can show exactly which programs manage to open the result.
Why do my photos and videos not get smaller?
JPEG, PNG, MP4 and similar formats are already compressed. Running them through deflate once more costs time and often makes them marginally larger, so the tool stores them untouched.

Related

Other pages

Opening and extracting archives, viewing the contents before extraction, password protection and converting between formats are all in progress. We publish a page only once the tool behind it works.