Extract .tar.xz Files Online

How to extract a tar.xz file online (free)

1. Drop your .tar.xz or .txz file onto the box above, or click to choose it.
2. The xz layer and the tar are unwrapped together. Browse the folder tree, search, and click files to preview them.
3. Download a single file, tick several, or take everything as a .zip, .7z, .tar.gz or .tar. In Chrome and Edge you can save to a folder.

xz tarballs, without the command line

A .tar.xz bundles files with tar and squeezes them with xz (LZMA2), which usually beats gzip on size. It is common for source-code releases, kernel archives and large Linux packages. On Windows or macOS, opening one normally means the terminal (tar -xJf) or a separate archive manager. This tool does it in the browser instead. It runs on 7-Zip compiled to WebAssembly, and LZMA2 is 7-Zip’s own compression method.

One step, not two

Some desktop tools make you decompress the .xz into a .tar, then open the .tar separately. Here the tarball is unwrapped automatically and the files are listed directly. The same page opens .tar.gz, .tar.bz2 and .tar.zst.

Large xz tarballs

An xz tarball is one compressed stream, so getting at a file near the end means decompressing what comes before it, and xz takes more work to decompress than gzip. For a large release archive, give it time; the progress bar has a cancel button. Extracted data is written to your browser’s temporary storage on disk, not kept in memory.

Frequently asked questions

What is a .tar.xz file?

A .tar.xz (or .txz) is a tar archive — many files bundled into one — compressed with xz (LZMA2). xz gives a smaller file than gzip, so it is common for source releases and large Linux packages.

How do I open a tar.xz file on Windows?

Drop it on this page. The xz layer and the tar are handled together in your browser, with no command line or extra software. Because it runs in the browser, the operating system does not matter.

Does it handle .tar.gz and .tar.bz2 too?

Yes. Gzip, bzip2 and Zstandard tarballs open the same way, as do plain uncompressed .tar files.

Are my files uploaded to a server?

No. Everything runs locally in your browser with WebAssembly. Your files never leave your device, and the page keeps working offline once it has loaded.

Why is xz smaller than gzip?

Xz uses the LZMA2 algorithm, which typically compresses tighter than gzip’s Deflate at the cost of more work when compressing and decompressing.

Is there a size limit?

There is no fixed cap. The tarball is read from disk in pieces and extracted files are written to your browser’s temporary storage, so the practical limit is the free space there, normally a share of your free disk space.