LZ4 vs LZMA
A detailed comparison of LZ4 Compressed and LZMA Compressed — file size, quality, compatibility, and which format to choose for your workflow.
LZ4 Compressed
Archives & CompressedLZ4 is an extremely fast lossless compression algorithm focused on speed over compression ratio. It can compress at over 500 MB/s per core and decompress at multiple GB/s, making it the standard choice for real-time and in-memory compression.
About LZ4 filesLZMA Compressed
Archives & CompressedLZMA (Lempel-Ziv-Markov chain Algorithm) is a high-ratio compression algorithm developed by Igor Pavlov for the 7-Zip archiver. It achieves significantly better compression than gzip or bzip2, especially on text and binary data, at the cost of higher memory usage.
About LZMA filesStrengths Comparison
LZ4 Strengths
- Decompression speed — approaches memcpy throughput.
- Very fast compression — can keep up with SSD write speeds.
- Stable format — reference implementation unchanged for years.
- Widely deployed in databases, filesystems, and kernels.
- BSD-licensed library.
LZMA Strengths
- Highest-ratio mainstream compression (beats gzip by 30%).
- Public domain SDK — royalty-free.
- Mature since 1998 with no breaking changes.
- Core of 7z, xz, .tar.xz workflows.
- Multi-threaded LZMA2 scales across CPU cores.
Limitations
LZ4 Limitations
- Compression ratio lags gzip by 20-30%.
- Not designed for long-term archival where ratio matters.
- Older than zstd, which beats LZ4 at comparable speed at slightly better ratio.
- Rare as a user-facing format — lives mostly inside databases and filesystems.
LZMA Limitations
- Slow compression at highest settings.
- Memory-hungry — 1 GB+ for extreme compression levels.
- Zstandard matches its ratios at less memory cost.
- Raw .lzma files are rare — usually wrapped in .7z, .xz, or .tar.xz.
Technical Specifications
| Specification | LZ4 | LZMA |
|---|---|---|
| MIME type | application/x-lz4 | application/x-lzma |
| Extensions | .lz4 | .lzma, .lz |
| Algorithm | LZ77 variant with fast byte-level parsing | Lempel-Ziv-Markov chain + range coding |
| License | BSD 2-Clause (library), GPL v2 (CLI) | — |
| Typical integrations | Linux kernel, ZFS, Kafka, RocksDB, Cassandra | — |
| Public domain SDK | — | Yes (since 2001) |
| Variants | — | LZMA (original), LZMA2 (multi-threaded, used in xz) |
Typical File Sizes
LZ4
- Text file 40-60% of original
- Already-compressed data (JPEG, MP4) 99%+ (no gain)
- Database page (typical) 55-70% of original
LZMA
- Text/source archive 15-25% of original
- Linux kernel source (.tar.xz = LZMA2) ~125 MB
- Windows system backup (.lzma) 25-40% of original
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Frequently Asked Questions
LZ4 (LZ4 Compressed) is an archive format used to bundle multiple files and folders into a single compressed file. The archive preserves the directory structure and typically reduces total size via compression. LZ4 sits in the archives & compressed family and has specific strengths around compression ratio, speed, or platform support.
LZ4 (LZ4 comprimido) is an archive formato used to bundle multiple arquivos e folders em a single comprimido file. The archive preserves the directory structure e tipicamente reduces total size via compressão. LZ4 sits no archives & comprimido family e has specific strengths around compressão ratio, speed, ou plataforma support.
7-Zip, WinRAR, The Unarchiver (macOS), and the built-in archive utilities on Windows and macOS open most LZ4 files. For command-line extraction, 7z, unar, or the format-specific tool handles LZ4 cleanly. If your extractor does not recognise LZ4, convert to ZIP first — ZIP opens on every operating system without extra software.
7-Zip, WinRAR, The Unarchiver (macOS), e the built-in archive utilities no Windows e macOS abrir most LZ4 files. para command-line extraction, 7z, unar, ou the formato-specific tool handles LZ4 cleanly. If your extractor does not recognise LZ4, converter to ZIP first — ZIP opens on every operating system sem extra software.
Upload the LZ4 to KaijuConverter and pick ZIP, 7Z, TAR.GZ, or RAR as the target. Our pipeline extracts the original archive and re-compresses the contents into the target format. File permissions, timestamps, and directory structure are preserved where both formats support them.
Depends on the goal. ZIP is the universal baseline — every OS extracts it out of the box. Formats like 7Z or TAR.GZ compress better but require specific tools. LZ4 may win on compression ratio, password support, or OS integration for specific workflows; ZIP wins on raw compatibility.