Language7ZIP
7-Zip 7z compressed archive
File type: Archive and compressed file
A 7zip file extension is related to the 7-zip compression file format. A 7zip file stores compressed data archive.
What is 7zip file?
File type category:
Archive and compressed file
Date updated: July 19, 2025
The 7zip file extension 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 7zip file?
Use 7-zip, or applications that support 7z archives include WinRAR, PowerArchiver, TUGZip, and IZArc.
How to convert 7zip 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 7zip file:
Associated software actions with the 7zip file
Software applications that can open 7zip files:
7-zip (Microsoft Windows)
WinRAR (Microsoft Windows)
Software applications that can edit 7zip files:
7-zip (Microsoft Windows)
Software capable of saving 7zip files:
7-zip (Microsoft Windows)
Programs for viewing 7zip files:
7-zip (Microsoft Windows)
Software apps that create 7zip files:
7-zip (Microsoft Windows)
p7zip for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
p7zip for Linux (Linux/Unix)
Software apps that convert 7zip files:
7-zip (Microsoft Windows)
Software apps that extract 7zip files:
7-zip (Microsoft Windows)
WinRAR (Microsoft Windows)
PowerArchiver (Microsoft Windows)
ZIPGenius (Microsoft Windows)
IZArc (Microsoft Windows)
StuffIt Expander (Microsoft Windows)
p7zip for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
The Unarchiver (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
StuffIt Expander for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
p7zip for Linux (Linux/Unix)
Xarchiver (Linux/Unix)