Turning a ZIP into a RAR
This is the one conversion we will not pretend to do. RAR compression is proprietary, and the licence on the only code that creates it forbids using it to build another archiver — so no browser tool can make a real RAR, whatever it claims.
- Never stored
- No queue, no waiting
- No signup, no watermark
A real RAR cannot be made by any website, including this one — the format is proprietary and its licence forbids other tools from writing it. What you get here is a ZIP, which opens on every computer with nothing installed. If you were sent a RAR and need to open it, that we can do.
How it works
The short answer
No website can make a genuine RAR without licensing WinRAR's own compressor. Tools that claim to either hand you a renamed ZIP, or upload your files to a server running WinRAR.
What you probably wanted
An archive that is small and that the person you are sending it to can open. ZIP does both, on every computer, with nothing installed — RAR needs software your recipient may not have.
Make one here
Add your files below and take away a ZIP. Nothing is stored, and it opens everywhere.
Why no free tool can make a RAR
RAR is owned. Eugene Roshal wrote it, RarLab licenses it, and WinRAR is paid software — none of which would matter except for one specific term. The licence on the only source that can create a RAR explicitly forbids using it to build a compatible compressor. Not "discourages"; forbids, in writing, as the central condition of being allowed to read the code at all.
Decompression is a different matter, and the asymmetry is deliberate. RarLab publishes an unrar source that anyone may use to read the format, which is why 7-Zip, The Unarchiver, VLC and this site can all open a RAR quite legitimately. Opening is permitted; creating is not. That is why every archiver you have ever used can extract a RAR and only WinRAR can make one.
So when a website offers ZIP to RAR, one of three things is happening. It renames your .zip to .rar, which fools a file listing and nothing else — the first archiver that opens it reports a ZIP. It runs a licensed copy of WinRAR on a server, which means your files were sent to a stranger's machine and sat on their disk. Or it is doing nothing at all and serving you advertisements while a progress bar runs. There is no fourth possibility, because the licence leaves no room for one.
The practical answer is that you almost certainly do not need a RAR. If you were asked for one, ZIP opens on every computer made this century with nothing installed, where RAR needs software the recipient may not have. If you want the compression, 7z beats RAR on most material and is free and open. The only genuine case is a system that specifically demands the extension — and that needs WinRAR, bought from RarLab.
When you want something else
WinRAR is the only program that can create a RAR, and it is not expensive. If a system genuinely requires the format, buying it is the honest route and the only one that produces a real RAR. Its famously permanent trial will keep creating archives indefinitely; paying for it is a matter of licence compliance rather than capability.
For every other reason people reach for RAR, something free does it better. 7-Zip compresses harder than RAR on most material, splits archives into volumes, encrypts with AES-256 including the file names, and adds recovery records — all the features RAR is chosen for, in a format anyone can open without buying anything. Making a ZIP remains the right answer when the recipient simply has to be able to open it.
Frequently asked questions
Why can other sites do it?
Two possibilities, and both are worth knowing. Some send your files to their own server, where a licensed copy of WinRAR does the work — so your files sit on someone else's disk. Others simply rename the file, handing you a ZIP called ".rar", which opens in WinRAR only because WinRAR also reads ZIPs. Neither is a RAR that you made.
What exactly is the licensing problem?
RAR is Alexander Roshal's proprietary format. The UnRAR source he publishes lets anyone READ a RAR, but its licence says it "cannot be used to develop RAR (WinRAR) compatible archiver and to re-create RAR compression algorithm, which is proprietary". That is a restriction on what you may build, so it is not open-source by any definition, and this site uses permissively-licensed engines only. Reading RAR is possible because libarchive implemented the reader independently; writing has no such path.
Is ZIP as good as RAR?
For almost every real use, yes. RAR compresses a few per cent harder on some kinds of file, and has recovery records that ZIP lacks. ZIP opens on literally every computer without installing anything, which for sending someone a file is worth far more than a few per cent. If you need maximum compression and your recipient is technical, 7z beats both — and we can open one, though not yet make one.
Can you at least open my RAR?
Yes. Reading RAR is entirely possible and free of that licensing problem — RAR4 and RAR5 both open here, and there is a page for turning one into a ZIP.
Are my files stored anywhere?
No. The archive is built and saved straight to your downloads, and nothing is kept afterwards. That matters here: the things people most often need to zip — documents, photographs, a folder of work — are exactly the things that should not be handed to a stranger's server first.
Good to know: There is no RAR builder here and there cannot be one. RAR compression is proprietary and its licence explicitly forbids writing a compatible compressor, so every site promising ZIP to RAR either renames the file or is running licensed software on a server with your data on it.