# File Compressor (Zip / Unzip)

> Create a zip archive from any files, or extract one — entirely in your browser. No upload, no signup, no file-size limits beyond what your browser can hold.

URL: https://uttir.com/file-compressor
Categories: file-tools, developer-tools
Privacy: Your files never leave your device. The zip is built and extracted locally in your browser.

## About

Create a zip archive from a list of files, or extract a zip you already have. The zip is built and extracted locally in your browser — your files never leave your device.

Useful for bundling a few files to send over email, opening a zip you just received, or making a small archive before sharing. The privacy angle is the differentiator: most online zip tools upload your files to a server to do the work. This one does not.

## How to use

1. **To zip: drop files in the left panel** — Add as many as you want. The list updates with each file's size. Click "Compress" to build the zip; the download starts immediately.
2. **To unzip: drop a .zip in the right panel** — The list of contents appears. Click "Download" next to any file, or "Download all" to extract everything as individual files.
3. **No file-size limit (other than your browser)** — Streaming zip — handles a 1 GB file as comfortably as a 1 KB file. The browser may slow down with very large files; use a real desktop tool for anything over a few hundred MB.

## Examples

### Bundle a project for email

Add 10 files (a few KB each) to the left, click Compress, attach the resulting zip to an email.

Input:

```
A folder of small text files: README.md, package.json, src/index.js, src/utils.js, …
```

Output:

```
A single .zip file with all the original files, compressed.
```

### Open a zip you received

Drop a zip into the right panel. The contents are listed. Click Download next to the ones you need.

Input:

```
A zip you received via email or chat containing photos, documents, or source code.
```

Output:

```
A list of every file in the zip with its size. Click each to download it, or use "Download all".
```

## FAQ

### Are my files uploaded?

No. The zip is built and extracted entirely in your browser. The bytes never leave your device — no server-side processing, no analytics, no upload step.

### Is there a file-size limit?

No fixed limit, but the practical limit is your browser's memory. A 1 GB single file works in modern browsers. A 1 GB zip with thousands of small files is also fine because the operation is streaming. If your browser slows down or runs out of memory, that is the limit, not the tool.

### What compression level is used?

Level 6, which is the default for most desktop zip tools (WinZip, macOS Archive Utility, 7-Zip). The trade-off between speed and size is near-optimal at level 6; higher levels (7-9) save a few percent at the cost of much longer compression time.

### Can I unzip password-protected zips?

Not in this version. Password-protected zips use a different cipher (ZipCrypto or AES) that this tool does not currently handle. Most desktop tools do; for password-protected archives, use them.

## Related tools

- [PDF Compressor](https://uttir.com/pdf-compressor) — Repack a PDF with compressed object streams to reduce its file size.
- [Image Compressor](https://uttir.com/image-compressor) — Shrink image file size with quality and format control, and see the savings before you download.
- [Image Compressor to Size](https://uttir.com/image-compressor-to-size) — Compress a JPG, PNG, or WebP image to an exact target file size in KB. Iteratively re-encodes until the result fits.
- [Base64 Encoder](https://uttir.com/base64-encoder) — Encode any text — including emoji and non-Latin scripts — into standard Base64.
- [Image to Base64](https://uttir.com/image-to-base64) — Turn a small image into a Base64 data URL you can paste into HTML or CSS.

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For the full HTML page with the live tool, visit https://uttir.com/file-compressor.
This file is the markdown rendering at https://uttir.com/file-compressor.md. See https://uttir.com/llms.txt for a site-wide summary.