What is a GPX file — and how do you use one in Google Maps?

What is a GPX file?

A GPX file (GPS Exchange Format) is a text file for location data: waypoints, routes, and tracks. GPS devices, phone apps, and map tools read it. You can email it or open it on a phone.

A track is an ordered line of points — where you walked, or the line you drew. A route is a thinner list of turns. A waypoint is a single marked spot. Map to GPS writes a track.

How to open a GPX file

• In this browser. Open the GPX viewer and drop the .gpx file onto it. The line appears with its distance and elevation profile. No account, no upload.
• On a phone. Open or share the file in an app that reads GPX — Gaia, WorkOutDoors, OsmAnd, and many others. The same track works.
• On a Garmin. Send the file to the device or bring it in through Garmin Connect. Step by step: load the GPX on a Garmin.
• In Google Maps. Google Maps has no documented file import. My Maps is the part of Google's tooling that takes files, and the steps are directly below.

Import a GPX file into Google Maps

File import lives in Google My Maps, the map-making side of Google Maps. Once a file is imported, the line lives in My Maps, where you can style it and share the map.

1. On a computer, sign in to My Maps and open or create a map.
2. In the map legend, click Add layer and give the layer a name.
3. Under that layer, click Import.
4. Upload the .gpx file and click Select.

My Maps imports lines, shapes, and places from files, and GPX is on Google's list of accepted types alongside KML, KMZ, CSV, and spreadsheets. The documented limits are about size: unzipped KML and KMZ files up to 5 MB, other files up to 40 MB, and spreadsheet imports capped at 2,000 rows.

Google's page describes the file types and the steps. How a particular file looks after import, and how the layer can be styled or shared, is decided inside My Maps rather than by the file — so check the imported map in a browser before you rely on it in the field.

Get GPX out of Google Maps

The other direction is not symmetric. My Maps gives your map back through an entry called Export to KML/KMZ, and the only other download it offers is a CSV of a single layer. Google documents no GPX export in My Maps or in Google Maps.

So a GPX file has to come from converting the KML or KMZ you were given — the GPX ↔ KML converter reads the file in your browser and hands back either format.

The two formats are not interchangeable. KML is Google's own map format: it carries colours, icons, and folders as well as the line. GPX is the exchange format GPS devices read, and it carries the line. Convert a file and the line survives; the colours and folders stay behind with KML.

That matters for two everyday jobs: moving a line you drew in Google Maps onto a Garmin or a phone app that reads GPX, and archiving a Google map in a format other tools can open. Keep the exported KML or KMZ untouched, and treat the conversion as its own step.

Make a GPX from a map

Click the map to add points, drag a point to correct the line, then download the result as a GPX track. Plot a route.

What does Map to GPS export?

Downloads use GPX 1.1 and contain a single track. Points may include estimated elevation when terrain data is available. The file creator is Map to GPS.

The exported file has no route data and no turn-by-turn instructions.

Drop an existing file to view it, then keep moving points and download again. This is not a trim, split, or merge editor.

Where the Google Maps steps come from

The file types, limits, and menu names above are taken from Google's My Maps help pages, checked on 23 September 2026. Google changes its menus without notice, so those pages remain the authority.