Create a ZIP archive

Drop in whatever you want bundled and get a single ZIP back. It is built inside your browser, so the files never leave your device — and ZIP is the one archive format that Windows, macOS and every Linux desktop have opened without extra software for decades, which is why it is the sensible thing to send somebody.

    • Where it runs

      Any files are read in the browser. Nothing is uploaded.

    • No queue, no account

      It starts the moment you drop the file, and it never asks who you are.

    • No watermark

      What comes out is the file you made, with nothing added to it.

    How it works

    1. Drop the files onto the box above, or press it to choose them. Any type, any mixture.
    2. Check the list. Anything you have changed your mind about can be removed.
    3. Press Create ZIP. The archive is assembled on your own machine.
    4. Download it. No account, no watermark, no size cap.

    How much smaller it gets, honestly

    That depends entirely on what you put in. Text, spreadsheets, code and documents compress well — often to a third of their size or less, because they are full of repetition. Photographs, video, music and PDFs full of images barely move at all, because they are already compressed and there is no repetition left for a second pass to find.

    So a folder of JPEGs will produce a ZIP roughly as large as the JPEGs were, and that is not a failure. The archive is still doing the job you wanted: turning forty files into one that can be attached to an email or uploaded to a form that only accepts a single file.

    Why ZIP and not something that compresses harder

    7Z and RAR both squeeze more out of the same data. They also both need software the person at the other end may not have, and an archive that cannot be opened is worth considerably less than one that is slightly larger. ZIP has been built into every desktop operating system for twenty years.

    If size genuinely matters more than convenience — a large upload over a slow connection, say — converting the finished ZIP to 7Z afterwards will save more. That conversion runs on our server rather than in your browser, because no browser ships an LZMA encoder, and the page says so before you start.

    Create a ZIP archive: common questions

    Are my files uploaded?

    No. The archive is assembled in your browser and the files never leave your device. This is worth knowing because bundling is usually the last step before sending something, and the contents are often the whole point.

    Why is my ZIP barely smaller than the files?

    Because of what is in it. Photographs, video, music and PDFs are already compressed and have no repetition left to find, so they store rather than shrink. Text, code and documents typically compress to a third or less. Either way the bundling is done.

    Can I add a password?

    Not here. ZIP encryption is either the legacy scheme, which is broken and trivially cracked, or AES, which the browser cannot write into a ZIP without shipping a library for it. Offering the broken one would be worse than offering neither.

    Does it keep my folder structure?

    Files are added by name. Dropping a folder gives you its files rather than a nested archive, which for the usual purpose — bundling things to send — is what people expect.

    Is there a limit or a cost?

    Neither. No account, no watermark, no daily cap. Because nothing is uploaded there is no server capacity to ration, so the practical limit is your own memory.

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