BALZ File

What are BALZ files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening a BALZ file or are you simply curious about its contents? We're here to explain the properties of these files and provide you with software that can open or handle your BALZ files.

What is a BALZ file?

A .BALZ file is a BALZ Compressed Data file.

BALZ compressed data files store data that has been compressed by the BALZ utility, a standalone command-line compressor written by Ilia Muraviev. BALZ serves to reduce file size using advanced lossless compression techniques, giving high compression ratios while maintaining relatively fast decompression.

The BALZ tool produces these files. During compression it analyses input data to find repeating substrings using LZ-style matches, then encodes matches and literal data using either arithmetic coding or a ROLZ-based method (depending on version and mode). There are "normal" and "ex" (extended) modes: "ex" sacrifices processing time for stronger compression. The resulting file can later be decompressed back to its original contents using BALZ's decompression routine.

Files begin with specific magic numbers: the first byte is 0xBA, and bytes at offset 4 are all zero.

How to open BALZ files

Important: Different programs may use files with the BALZ file extension for different purposes, so unless you are sure which format your BALZ file is, you may need to try a few different programs.

While we have not verified the app ourselves yet, our users have suggested a single BALZ opener which you will find listed below.

Last updated: August 23, 2026

Various apps that use files with this extension

These apps are known to open certain types of BALZ files. Remember, different programs may use BALZ files for different purposes, so you may need to try out a few of them to be able to open your specific file.

Help us help others

File.org helps thousands of users every day, and we would love to hear from you if you have additional information about BALZ file formats, example files, or compatible programs. Please use the links below or email us at submit@file.org to discuss further.