Encrypted ZIP maker

How to make a password-protected ZIP

1. Add your files. Drop files or a whole folder anywhere on the page, or click the box. Add more files and Add a folder work at any time, and the ✕ on a row takes a file out. Files of any type work: documents, pictures, videos and more.
2. Choose a password. Type one twice, or press Make a strong password to get a random one, then copy it and keep it safe.
3. Choose the protection. AES-256 is the strong choice and the default. Compatible (ZipCrypto) is for people whose tools cannot open AES, and it is weak.
4. Press Create the encrypted ZIP. The ZIP is saved by your browser under the name you chose.
5. Check it. Open the ZIP and make sure it asks for the password before you delete anything.

The files go into the ZIP exactly as they are: nothing is resized, converted or cleaned. A dropped folder keeps its folders inside the ZIP, and common clutter such as .DS_Store and Thumbs.db is left out.

AES-256 or ZipCrypto?

Some built-in extractors cannot open AES-encrypted ZIPs. For example, the unzip command that comes with macOS answers that the compression method is not supported. If someone cannot open your file, tell them to install a free tool such as 7-Zip or Keka rather than weakening the protection.

Choosing a good password

• Length matters most. Use at least 12 characters. The page says so while you type.
• Let the page make it. Make a strong password picks 16 random letters and digits, in four groups (for example kD7p-Wm3x-Qn9c-Th4v), using the secure random source built into your browser. It leaves out look-alike characters such as 0, O, 1 and l, so it is easy to read out loud or type.
• Do not reuse a password from an account. Keep this one in a password manager or another safe place.
• We cannot recover it. The password is not sent anywhere or saved. If it is lost, nobody, including us, can open the ZIP.
• Send the password separately. If you share the ZIP, give the password through a different channel from the file, for example by phone or in another app. A password sent in the same email as the ZIP protects very little.

What is protected, and what is not

• The contents of every file are encrypted. Without the password, they cannot be read.
• The file names, the folder structure, the file sizes and the dates are not hidden. This is how the ZIP format works: anyone can list what is inside a ZIP and see how big each file is, without the password. If a file name is itself sensitive, rename the file first, or put everything inside one folder with a neutral name. Formats such as 7z can hide names as well, but they are not as widely supported.
• The key stretching in ZIP's AES format is fixed and small. The ZIP standard turns a password into a key using 1,000 rounds, far fewer than modern password-protection schemes use. That makes a short or common password much easier to guess by trying many candidates, which is another reason to use a long random password.
• Anyone with the password can read everything, and a copy of the ZIP can be attacked offline for as long as it exists.
• The files inside are unchanged, so a photo keeps its camera details and location data once it is decrypted. Our metadata remover cleans pictures first if you want that.

Opening the ZIP

• Windows: 7-Zip (free) or WinZip. Right-click the ZIP, extract, and type the password when asked.
• Mac: Keka or The Unarchiver (both free), or BetterZip. For a ZipCrypto ZIP the built-in tools usually work.
• Linux: 7z x file.zip from the 7-Zip or p7zip package asks for the password. For a ZipCrypto ZIP, unzip file.zip works too.
• Phones: an archive app that supports encrypted ZIP files. Many do, and the built-in file managers vary.

Options

• ZIP file name. Type the name you want, without .zip. Characters that file systems do not allow are replaced with an underscore.
• Compress the files is on by default. Documents and text shrink well. Pictures, videos and files that are already compressed barely shrink, so turn it off if you only want to wrap them up quickly.
• Two files with the same path get a number added, name (2), so one never overwrites the other.

Limits

• Size. The ZIP is built in your browser's memory before it is saved, so a very large set can fail. A few hundred megabytes is fine on most computers. Above about one or two gigabytes, split the files into two ZIPs.
• Speed. Encryption and compression run in this tab, so large sets take a while. A progress bar shows where it is.
• One password per ZIP. Every file in a ZIP uses the same password.

When to use something else

A password-protected ZIP is a good, quick lock for sharing files with another person. For long-term storage of very sensitive data, consider a tool built for it, such as an encrypted disk image or a vault (VeraCrypt, for example), or a modern file encryption tool. They hide file names and use stronger key stretching than the ZIP format allows.

Privacy

The ZIP is built inside this tab. Your password is not sent anywhere or stored, and the original files on your disk are never changed or deleted. Picture files added to any tool on this site are handled as described in our privacy policy, and other kinds of files are not uploaded.