Convert between GPX and KML — in your browser.

KML is Google's map format. A line in KML can carry colours, icons, folders, descriptions, and photos alongside the coordinates, which is why My Maps and Google Earth use it. GPX is the exchange format GPS devices read: a track, its points, and optionally an elevation for each point.

Turning a GPX into KML mainly adds that Google wrapper; turning KML into GPX strips it back to the line. Both describe a line the same way underneath — a list of positions in order. KML writes each position as longitude, latitude, and altitude separated by commas:

That shared shape is what makes a converter possible without a server: the line is re-written, and the fields that only exist on one side are left behind.

• Heights. When every point of the line carries a height, it is kept in both directions. A line written without heights stays without them, so no point comes back as sea level.
• No altitudes in the file. A GPX or KML with no height still draws, because the map samples terrain to estimate one for every point. Those estimates come from a terrain model, not from a barometer, and a file written from them carries the estimates.
• Left behind. KML colours, line widths, icons, folders, descriptions, and embedded photos have no GPX equivalent and are dropped on the way to GPX. Nothing is invented to replace them.
• Ignored. Points, polygons, and anything that is not a line. This converts one track at a time.
• Several lines in one KML. If the pieces meet end to end, they are joined into one track. If they are far apart, the longest line is converted and the map says so — separate lines are never stitched together with invented segments.

Google's own flow has an asymmetry: My Maps imports GPX, KML, and KMZ, but it exports KML or KMZ — and a CSV of a single layer — never GPX. So a GPX file that has to come out of Google Maps is really a KML file waiting for a conversion, and a GPX file that has to go into Google Maps can be imported as it is.

Practically: export the map from My Maps, drop the resulting KML or KMZ here, and download a GPX track for a Garmin or a phone app. In the other direction, download KML from this page and import that file into My Maps. The GPX guide covers both directions with Google's steps.

Reading a KML, KMZ, or GPX file, drawing it on the map, and writing the converted file all happen in your browser. No file, coordinate, or route name is sent to Map to GPS. Map tiles and place search still need their own network requests; the route data does not.

KMZ support exists because a Google export can arrive zipped: the archive is unpacked in the browser to reach the KML inside it.

Element names, the coordinate order quoted above, and the file types each product accepts are taken from the specifications and help pages below, checked on 23 September 2026.