Language7-ZIP
7z compressed archive
File type: Archive and compressed file
Files with 7-zip extension are compressed archives in the 7-zip compression file format used by 7-ZIP tool for Microsoft Windows operating system, developed by Igor Pavlov.
What is 7-zip file?
File type category:
Archive and compressed file
Date updated: July 19, 2025
File extension 7-zip is used for native file format of 7-ZIP archiver.
7z is the new backup and archive file format, providing high compression ratio.
The main features of 7z file format:
- Open architecture
- High compression ratio
- Strong AES-256 encryption
- Ability of using any compression, conversion or encryption method
- Support for very large files with sizes up to 16000000000 GB
- Unicode file name support
- Solid compression ratio
- Archive headers compression
7z file format has an open architecture, so it can support any new compression methods. LZMA is the default and general compression method of 7z file format.
The main features of LZMA are:
- Variable dictionary size (up to 4 GB)
- Compression speed: about 1 MB/s on 2 GHz CPU
- Decompression speed: about 10-20 MB/s on 2 GHz CPU
- Small memory requirement for decompression (depend from dictionary size)
- Small code size for decompression: about 5 KB
- Supports multi-threading and P4's hyper-threading
The LZMA compression algorithm is very suitable for embedded applications. LZMA is released under the terms of the GNU LGPL.
7-Zip supports encryption with the AES-256 algorithm. This algorithm uses a cipher key with a length of 256 bits. To create that key, 7-Zip runs a derivation function based on a SHA-256 hash algorithm. A key derivation function produces a derived key from the text password entered by the user. To increase the cost of an exhaustive search to crack a password, 7-Zip uses a large number of iterations when it produces a cipher key from a password.
7z file format was developed as as part of the 7-Zip compression utility distributed under the GNU LGPL.
MIME types:
application/x-lzma
How to open 7-zip file?
Use 7-zip, or applications that support 7z archives include WinRAR, PowerArchiver, TUGZip, and IZArc.
How to convert 7-zip file?
Extract an archive and then use files from archive or backup files into another archive file format (eg. rar, zip etc.).
Suggested software to open 7-zip file:
Associated software actions with the 7-zip file
Software applications that can open 7-zip files:
7-zip (Microsoft Windows)
WinRAR (Microsoft Windows)
PowerArchiver (Microsoft Windows)
ALZip (Microsoft Windows)
PeaZip (Microsoft Windows)
Zipeg (Microsoft Windows)
sArchiver (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Zipeg for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Decompressor (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Software applications that can edit 7-zip files:
7-zip (Microsoft Windows)
Software capable of saving 7-zip files:
7-zip (Microsoft Windows)
Software apps that create 7-zip files:
7-zip (Microsoft Windows)
PeaZip (Microsoft Windows)
Software apps that convert 7-zip files:
7-zip (Microsoft Windows)
ALZip (Microsoft Windows)
Software apps that export 7-zip files:
PeaZip (Microsoft Windows)
Software apps that extract 7-zip files:
7-zip (Microsoft Windows)
WinRAR (Microsoft Windows)
PowerArchiver (Microsoft Windows)
ALZip (Microsoft Windows)
PeaZip (Microsoft Windows)
Zipeg (Microsoft Windows)
The Unarchiver (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
sArchiver (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Zipeg for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Decompressor (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Software apps that backup 7-zip files:
7-zip (Microsoft Windows)
Software applications that handle other tasks involving 7-zip files:
7-zip (Microsoft Windows)