128 WINS / 0 LOSSES

Best CSV Compression Tool

Up to 99% smaller than LZMA. 128 wins, 0 losses across real-world CSV files. Lossless, verified, free to try.

Compress CSV Free Full Benchmarks
99%
Best Saving vs LZMA
84.4%
Median Saving
128W / 0T
Win / Tie Record
0
Losses

How PZIP Compresses CSV

PZIP rotates your table 90 degrees — compressing each column independently with a type-specific strategy. Timestamps, numbers, categorical fields, and strings each get specialized treatment. The result: structure that generic compressors miss is captured and compressed far more efficiently.

Codec: Columnar codec
Lossless
Byte-exact round-trip verified on every file
Never-Worse
Falls back to LZMA if it can't beat it
Automatic
Type detection + codec selection is automatic

History of CSV

Est. 1972Created by IBM

CSV (Comma-Separated Values) originated in early IBM mainframe systems for data interchange. It became the universal tabular data exchange format, standardized as RFC 4180 in 2005. Today CSV remains the #1 format for open data portals, scientific datasets, and financial data exports.

Compression Timeline

1972

CSV format emerges on IBM mainframes

1987

Lotus 1-2-3 popularizes CSV for spreadsheets

2005

RFC 4180 standardizes CSV format

2013

zstd created at Facebook (general-purpose)

2016

Brotli released by Google (web-focused)

2026

PZIP achieves 71.5% better than LZMA on CSV with columnar codec

Real-World Benchmark Results

Every file tested with LZMA-9 (maximum compression) as baseline. Round-trip correctness verified on every file.

FileSizePZIP vs LZMAResultDownload
Classifications.csv427.7 KB
-99%
WIN Source
Constituents.csv1.9 MB
-96.7%
WIN Source
Media_primary.csv1.8 MB
-96.3%
WIN Source
mushrooms.csv365.2 KB
-96.1%
WIN Source
covid_us_counties.csv1.9 MB
-95.4%
WIN Source
quant.csv729.8 KB
-95.1%
WIN Source
bob_ross.csv207.4 KB
-94.7%
WIN Source
families.csv671.8 KB
-94.7%
WIN Source
consumer_complaints_26k.csv4.5 MB
-94.6%
WIN Source
nyc_baby_names.csv1.9 MB
-94.6%
WIN Source
Medium.csv451.2 KB
-94.4%
WIN Source
Geography.csv545.8 KB
-94.3%
WIN Source
census_income.csv3.7 MB
-93.9%
WIN Source
fivethirtyeight_steak_survey.csv61.2 KB
-93.9%
WIN Source
jsonl2csv_ecb_exchange_rates.csv1.4 MB
-93.5%
WIN Source
exchange_rates.csv1.9 MB
-93.4%
WIN Source
titanic_seaborn.csv55.7 KB
-93.4%
WIN Source
adult_income.csv1.9 MB
-93.3%
WIN Source
ssa_names_national.csv1.9 MB
-93.1%
WIN Source
lemurs.csv1.9 MB
-92.6%
WIN Source
jsonl2csv_fivethirtyeight_bob_ross.csv65.2 KB
-92.5%
WIN Source
bob_ross_538.csv64.8 KB
-92.4%
WIN Source
olympics.csv1.9 MB
-92.3%
WIN Source
jsonl2csv_hadley_baby_names.csv1.2 MB
-92.2%
WIN Source
natural_gas_prices.csv120.5 KB
-92.2%
WIN Source
jsonl2csv_fivethirtyeight_congress_age.csv1.3 MB
-92.1%
WIN Source
fivethirtyeight_congress.csv1.3 MB
-92%
WIN Source
jhu_covid_deaths_global.csv1.2 MB
-92%
WIN Source
nytimes_covid_states.csv2.1 MB
-92%
WIN Source
covid_us_states.csv1.9 MB
-91.7%
WIN Source
stress_10k.csv1.3 MB
-91.2%
WIN Source
jsonl2csv_gold_prices.csv36.9 KB
-90.6%
WIN Source
taxis.csv849.0 KB
-90.6%
WIN Source
global_temp_monthly.csv82.0 KB
-90.5%
WIN Source
gold_prices_monthly.csv34.7 KB
-90.5%
WIN Source
coffee_ratings.csv589.5 KB
-90.3%
WIN Source
penguins_raw.csv51.9 KB
-89.8%
WIN Source
population.csv526.0 KB
-89.6%
WIN Source
nba_players.csv162.5 KB
-89.5%
WIN Source
inflation_us.csv28.0 KB
-89.4%
WIN Source
daily-temperatures.csv66.3 KB
-89.3%
WIN Source
Titles.csv1.2 MB
-89.2%
WIN Source
comic_characters.csv1.1 MB
-89.2%
WIN Source
tornados.csv1.9 MB
-88.8%
WIN Source
uber_rides_raw.csv1.9 MB
-88.6%
WIN Source
jsonl2csv_fivethirtyeight_comic_marvel.csv2.3 MB
-88.4%
WIN Source
slaughter_house.csv1.9 MB
-88.4%
WIN Source
diamonds.csv1.9 MB
-88.3%
WIN Source
fivethirtyeight_marvel_wikia.csv2.3 MB
-88.3%
WIN Source
volcano_eruptions.csv1.2 MB
-87.9%
WIN Source
us_zip_codes.csv1.2 MB
-87.5%
WIN Source
drugs_fda.csv1.7 MB
-87.4%
WIN Source
Cxx17Issues.csv63.0 KB
-87.3%
WIN Source
pset_definitions.csv117.6 KB
-87.3%
WIN Source
numbats.csv182.7 KB
-87.1%
WIN Source
Cxx23Issues.csv63.0 KB
-87%
WIN Source
plastic_pollution.csv724.6 KB
-86.8%
WIN Source
water_access.csv1.9 MB
-86.8%
WIN Source
astronauts.csv213.9 KB
-86.5%
WIN Source
Cxx20Issues.csv62.3 KB
-86.4%
WIN Source
jsonl2csv_jhu_covid_confirmed_global.csv1.7 MB
-85.8%
WIN Source
jhu_covid_confirmed.csv1.7 MB
-85.7%
WIN Source
Cxx2cIssues.csv51.8 KB
-85.6%
WIN Source
Cxx2cPapers.csv32.0 KB
-84.9%
WIN Source
fips_codes.csv77.5 KB
-83.9%
WIN Source
gps_track_10k.csv546.2 KB
-83.9%
WIN Source
ufo_sightings.csv1.9 MB
-83.8%
WIN Source
wapo_police_shootings.csv1.8 MB
-83.6%
WIN Source
co2_emissions.csv1.9 MB
-83.1%
WIN Source
us_broadband.csv104.1 KB
-83.1%
WIN Source
wine_quality_red.csv98.6 KB
-82.9%
WIN Source
cpuid.csv86.2 KB
-82.8%
WIN Source
carseats.csv20.8 KB
-82.6%
WIN Source
snakes_count_10000.csv86.9 KB
-82.6%
WIN Source
gdp.csv563.2 KB
-82.3%
WIN Source
mlb_players.csv55.6 KB
-82.3%
WIN Source
world_cities.csv1.2 MB
-81.4%
WIN Source
jsonl2csv_fivethirtyeight_daily_show.csv126.3 KB
-81.3%
WIN Source
energy_data.csv1.9 MB
-81.2%
WIN Source
runways.csv3.8 MB
-81.1%
WIN Source
nasdaq_listing.csv246.8 KB
-81%
WIN Source
uci_abalone.csv187.4 KB
-80.4%
WIN Source
imdb_top250.csv1.3 MB
-80.1%
WIN Source
beer_reviews.csv155.8 KB
-80%
WIN Source
usgs_earthquakes.csv1.9 MB
-80%
WIN Source
iso3166_countries.csv20.2 KB
-79.9%
WIN Source
tesla_stock.csv54.1 KB
-79.9%
WIN Source
wine-quality-red.csv82.2 KB
-79.9%
WIN Source
senators_twitter.csv1.9 MB
-79.8%
WIN Source
usgs_quakes_2024h1.csv2.3 MB
-79.7%
WIN Source
animal_crossing.csv53.1 KB
-79.2%
WIN Source
pokemon.csv72.3 KB
-78.7%
WIN Source
jsonl2csv_fivethirtyeight_riddler.csv384.9 KB
-78.1%
WIN Source
earthquake_data.csv814.0 KB
-77.9%
WIN Source
california_housing.csv1.4 MB
-77.8%
WIN Source
airport_codes.csv1.9 MB
-77.7%
WIN Source
cars.csv20.7 KB
-77.7%
WIN Source
life_expectancy.csv157.4 KB
-77.4%
WIN Source
sp500.csv52.4 KB
-77.4%
WIN Source
jsonl2csv_fivethirtyeight_avengers.csv27.2 KB
-77.3%
WIN Source
fivethirtyeight_avengers.csv27.0 KB
-77.2%
WIN Source
vega_zipcodes.csv1.9 MB
-75.9%
WIN Source
bechdel.csv1.0 MB
-75.7%
WIN Source
country_codes.csv131.2 KB
-74.9%
WIN Source
jsonl2csv_country_codes.csv131.4 KB
-74.9%
WIN Source
kaggle_titanic.csv58.9 KB
-74.7%
WIN Source
languages.csv1.9 MB
-74.6%
WIN Source
transit_cost.csv102.2 KB
-74.4%
WIN Source
childcare_costs.csv1.9 MB
-74.3%
WIN Source
sp500_data.csv115.3 KB
-74.1%
WIN Source
scientific_measurements.csv272.2 KB
-73.9%
WIN Source
finance_google.csv58.8 KB
-73.7%
WIN Source
spam.csv466.7 KB
-73%
WIN Source
netflix_titles.csv1.9 MB
-72.6%
WIN Source
jsonl2csv_fivethirtyeight_bechdel.csv204.6 KB
-72.2%
WIN Source
plotly_precipitation.csv388.5 KB
-72.2%
WIN Source
spotify_songs.csv1.9 MB
-72.1%
WIN Source
fivethirtyeight_police_killings.csv125.9 KB
-69.9%
WIN Source
vega_airports.csv205.4 KB
-69.1%
WIN Source
hw_25000.csv618.5 KB
-69%
WIN Source
stock_data.csv148.1 KB
-68.9%
WIN Source
breast_cancer.csv117.1 KB
-68.8%
WIN Source
board_games.csv1.9 MB
-68.5%
WIN Source
big_mac_index.csv301.6 KB
-68.1%
WIN Source
movies.csv91.1 KB
-68%
WIN Source
brain_networks.csv1.0 MB
-65.4%
WIN Source
fivethirtyeight_recent_grads.csv26.2 KB
-64.8%
WIN Source
jsonl2csv_fivethirtyeight_nba_raptor.csv1.2 MB
-60.9%
WIN Source

Frequently Asked Questions

How much smaller does PZIP make CSV files?

+

On our 124-file benchmark of real-world datasets (US Census, OWID, NOAA, NYC TLC), PZIP achieves 14.8% median savings and up to 68.9% savings vs LZMA-9.

Is PZIP CSV compression lossless?

+

Yes — every compressed file is byte-exact verified. decode(encode(X)) = X, always. PZIP runs round-trip correctness verification on every file.

How is PZIP different from gzip or zstd for CSV?

+

Gzip and zstd treat CSV as generic bytes. PZIP understands columns, data types, and patterns — compressing each column with the best strategy for its type. That's why PZIP beats LZMA by up to 71.5% on structured data.

Can PZIP compress very large CSV files?

+

Yes. The CLI can compress very large CSV files. The free web demo currently supports uploads up to 30 MB per file due to the hosting request-size limit.

PZIP vs Other Compressors for CSV

FeaturePZIPLZMA / xzgzipzstd
Type-AwareYesNoNoNo
LosslessYesYesYesYes
Never-Worse GuaranteeYesN/AN/AN/A
Best CSV Saving99%BaselineWorse~Similar
Round-Trip VerifiedEvery fileManualManualManual

Try PZIP on Your CSV Files

Upload any CSV file up to 30 MB. Free during beta — no signup required. See how much smaller PZIP makes it.

Compress CSV Now All File Types
Baseline:     LZMA-9 (maximum compression)
Competitors:  gzip-9, bz2-9, brotli-11, zstd-19, PPMd 2-24
Verification: Byte-exact round-trip on every file
Guarantee:    Never-worse (PZIP <= LZMA, always)
Test files:   128 real-world CSV files
Updated:      2026-02-15