How to open a GPX file online
- Drag the GPX file onto the box above or tap Choose file. On a phone you can pick the file straight from your downloads, e-mail or the Files app.
- The track appears on the map instantly. Move the mouse (or your finger) over the elevation profile to see where you are on the route.
- Below you find distance, ascent, descent, highest point and the hiking time. For recorded activities also duration, moving time and speed.
- Use Download to save the track in another format, e.g. KML for Google Earth or a FIT course for your Garmin.
You can also open several files at once. Each gets its own colour – handy for comparing variants of a tour.
What is a GPX file?
GPX stands for GPS Exchange Format. It is the standard format for exchanging GPS data between devices and apps: Garmin, Komoot, Strava, Outdooractive, Wikiloc and almost every other program can read and write GPX.
A GPX file is a plain text (XML) file and can contain three things:
- Tracks – a recorded or planned line made of many points, often with elevation and timestamps.
- Routes – a sequence of a few points between which a navigation device calculates the way itself.
- Waypoints – single marked places such as summits, huts or car parks.
Read more in our guide GPX, KML, FIT, TCX: the differences.
Hiking time like on the signposts
For every track GPX-Werkstatt calculates the hiking time after the formula of the German and Austrian Alpine Clubs: 4 km per hour on the flat, 300 metres of ascent per hour and 500 metres of descent per hour. The larger of the two values counts fully, the smaller one half.
These are walking times without breaks – exactly like on signposts in the Alps. With the hiking time calculator you can work it out from distance and elevation without a GPX file.
Why basemap.at?
basemap.at is Austria's official administrative base map, published by the nine federal states and partners as open government data. It is more detailed than many other free maps – including house numbers, waterways and 30 cm aerial imagery.
Especially useful for hikers: use the layer button at the top right to show marked hiking trails from Waymarked Trails or hillshading. If a track is outside Austria – in Germany, Switzerland or anywhere else in the world – GPX-Werkstatt switches to OpenTopoMap automatically.