# Zip files with a password on Mac (AES-256), no Terminal needed > Zip files and folders with an AES-256 password on your Mac by typing "zip with password". Finder can't, and Terminal's zip -e is weak. Source: https://whizra.com/zip-with-password-mac [Home](https://whizra.com/) › Zip and unzip # Zip files with a password on Mac Finder can't add a password to a zip, and Terminal's zip -e uses weak encryption. Type "zip with password 1234" and Whizra makes an AES-256 zip next to your files. [Get Whizra for Mac ](https://stats.whizra.com/buy) Pay once · 7-day refunds · macOS 15+, Apple silicon [Zip files with a password on Mac](#zip-with-password-mac)[Unzip zip, RAR and 7z files on Mac](#unzip-mac)[Zip for Windows: no .DS_Store, no __MACOSX](#zip-for-windows)[Zip without a password, and whole folders](#zip-folders) Real runs of the Mac app, recorded 1 and 2 Nov 2026. [Try it yourself in the sandbox →](https://whizra.com/sandbox) ## Zip files with a password on Mac On a real Mac**“compress tax 2026` (a folder: compress makes a zip, like Finder's Compress)”**Screen recording coming ### Type - compress tax 2026` (a folder: compress makes a zip, like Finder's Compress) - zip these - zip with password 1234 - zip the last subdl.com folder with password 1234 - zip this folder and email it ### What you get One .zip. With a password it uses AES-256 (WinZip AE-2); Finder's Archive Utility opens it and asks for the password. The original is never changed or overwritten. Undo trashes what the job made. Type the password in your sentence or in a hidden field. History shows it as dots only. ### The free Mac way Finder's Compress has no password. Terminal's zip -e uses ZipCrypto, which is weak. ### Limits - Zips over 4 GB are refused (no Zip64 yet). ## Unzip zip, RAR and 7z files on Mac On a real Mac**“unzip it”**Screen recording coming ### Type - unzip it - unzip it with password 1234 - extract the rar - open the 7z - unzip my last download ### What you get Like Finder's Archive Utility: one thing inside lands next to the archive as itself ("Tax 2026.zip" becomes the folder "Tax 2026"); several things go in a folder named after the archive. Nothing is overwritten: if the name is taken, you get "Tax 2026 2". Opens .zip (password zips too, ZipCrypto and AES-256), .rar (RAR4 and RAR5), .7z, .tar and .tar.gz. It uses the archive reader built into macOS, so nothing else is installed. Safe by default: nothing inside can be written outside the new folder, links inside the archive are left out, and so are the Mac's extras (__MACOSX folders, ._ files, .DS_Store). Files from a download keep macOS's "downloaded from the internet" mark, so an app inside is still checked before it opens. No password said for a locked zip: Whizra says so and asks you to say it. A wrong password: it says the password didn't open it. For a password zip, say the password in your sentence: “unzip it with password 1234”. ### The free Mac way Finder opens a plain .zip with a double-click (Archive Utility). It can't open .rar or .7z, so people install The Unarchiver or Keka (both free). In Terminal, tar -xf file.rar also works for many archives. ### Limits - Password-protected RAR and 7z files can't be opened yet; Whizra says so and names The Unarchiver, which can. - Stops if what's inside would be over 64 GB. ## Zip for Windows: no .DS_Store, no __MACOSX Finder’s Compress adds a `__MACOSX` folder and the Mac’s hidden `.DS_Store` files, which show up as clutter on Windows. Whizra’s zips leave hidden files out, add no `__MACOSX` folder, and save names so Windows reads them, Sinhala and other non-English names too. Type zip this folder or compress tax 2026 (compressing a folder makes a zip, as in Finder). ## Zip without a password, and whole folders Type zip these for a plain zip. Folders go in with everything inside them. Recorded on the app: the Tax 2026 folder (3 files) became Tax 2026.zip, locked with AES-256, in under 0.1 s. ## More tools[PDF tools](https://whizra.com/pdf-tools-mac)[Convert to PDF](https://whizra.com/convert-to-pdf-mac)[Image tools](https://whizra.com/image-tools-mac)[Find and organize](https://whizra.com/find-and-organize-files-mac)[Mac shortcuts](https://whizra.com/mac-shortcuts)[For students](https://whizra.com/for/students)