How to zip and unzip files on your Mac

Zipping and unzipping are built into every Mac. Control-click a file or folder and choose Compress to make a .zip; double-click a .zip to open it. For a .tar.gz you use Terminal, or just double-click it to unpack. Koi puts all of it on one wheel: drag a folder with Shift held to pack it as ZIP, TAR or GZIP, or drag an archive to extract it, .7z and .rar included.

We make Koi, so read this with that in mind. Everything about Koi here is what version 1.13 does. Finder's and Terminal's steps come from Apple's own guides, checked October 21, 2026, and Archive Utility's settings were checked on macOS 27.

1. In Finder or on your desktop, select the file, folder or files to zip.
2. Control-click the selection and choose Compress.
3. The .zip appears beside them. One item keeps its own name, “Photos.zip”; several are called “Archive.zip”.

1. Double-click the .zip.
2. What's inside appears in the same folder as the .zip.
3. Delete the .zip afterwards if you don't need it.

If a zip won't open, Apple suggests checking you have room for what's inside, and asking the sender to zip it again if it still fails. Apple's guide covers both.

The opening is done by Archive Utility, a small app in macOS you rarely see. Find it with Spotlight and open its settings to choose where unpacked files go, what happens to the archive afterwards, and which format it packs in: Zip archive, a compressed archive, or a regular archive. A zip with a password opens there too: it asks for the password.

Finder's Compress only makes zips. For a .tar.gz, which many Linux servers and developers expect, open Terminal, go to the folder with cd, and type:

• tar -czf Photos.tgz Photos packs the Photos folder into a compressed tar archive.
• tar -xvf Photos.tgz unpacks it again, listing each file as it goes.
• zip -er Photos.zip Photos makes a zip that asks for a password, which Finder can't do. It asks you to type the password twice.

Apple's Terminal guide has the tar commands, and says to use Finder unless you really need a tar archive. Double-clicking a .tar or .tgz in Finder unpacks it too.

1. To extract: start dragging the archive, press and hold Shift, and drop it on Extract. It unpacks into a folder named after it, beside it, and shows in Finder.
2. To repack: drop the archive on ZIP, TAR or GZIP instead. The same files are packed again beside it, like “Photos.tar.gz”.
3. To pack: drag a folder, or several files, with Shift held. A wheel of ZIP, TAR and GZIP opens. Drop them on one and “Photos.zip”, or “Archive.zip” for several, lands beside them.

• It opens .zip, .tar, .tar.gz or .tgz, .gz, .tar.bz2, .tar.xz, .7z and .rar. It makes ZIP, TAR and GZIP, a .tar.gz.
• Photos.zip unpacks into a folder called Photos. If the zip already holds one folder called Photos, you don't get a folder inside a folder.
• Drag several archives at once and each one is done.
• Nothing inside is opened or run, and what's unpacked keeps a download's quarantine mark, so macOS still checks an app from it before it runs.
• An archive with a file leading out of its folder, more than 100,000 files, or more than 20 GB unpacked is refused before anything is written.
• A password-locked archive is left alone, and Koi points you to Archive Utility. Koi can't make a zip with a password either.

It all runs on your Mac with the bsdtar and gunzip that come with macOS, and nothing is uploaded. More on the Shift wheel, and on opening 7z and RAR files.

• ZIP: for sending to anyone. Macs and Windows PCs open it with a double-click, nothing to install.
• GZIP, a .tar.gz: for Linux servers, developers and many download sites, which often expect it rather than a zip.
• TAR: files bundled into one without squeezing them. Useful for photos and videos that are already compressed, since squeezing them again saves almost nothing.

• Zipping doesn't shrink everything: photos and videos are already compressed, so a zip of them is barely smaller. To make them smaller, compress the files themselves, like a video or a PDF with Koi's Compress.
• Big archives: unpacking needs room for everything inside. Check your free space first.
• Archives from strangers: Koi refuses one that tries to write outside its folder or unpacks to more than 20 GB, before writing anything. Finder and Terminal don't show you checks like that, so be careful with archives you didn't expect.

Zipping a folder to email now and then? Finder's Compress is all you need. Need a password on the zip? Use Terminal's zip -e, since neither Finder nor Koi makes one. Handling .tar.gz, .7z or .rar files often, or turning one kind into another, without typing commands? Koi's wheel does it in one drop, and the same drag compresses a PDF or merges several.

Finder, Archive Utility and Terminal are free. Koi has no free plan: Pro is $20 a month, or $192 a year, after a 3-day free trial that needs a card. Lifetime is paid once, from $59. The Shift wheel uses no AI, so it never counts against Koi's usage. See the plans.