How to open a .SHP file online
From file to map in seconds.
Open your .SHP file
Drag it onto the box or click to choose it from your device. It opens on your computer.
See it on the map
Points, lines and areas from your .SHP file appear on an interactive map. Click any feature to read its details.
Read the stats
Check distance, elevation gain and loss, the bounding box and a height profile linked to the map.
What is a .SHP file?
The common language of GPS devices.
A .shp file is almost always an Esri Shapefile, geospatial vector data (points, lines, polygons) used by GIS software. It is one piece of a set: it needs its sibling files (.shx, .dbf, and usually .prj) in the same folder to open correctly. The free standard tool is QGIS; ArcGIS Pro is the commercial option.
Programs that open .SHP files
| Full name | Esri Shapefile (geospatial vector data) |
|---|---|
| Developer | Esri (Environmental Systems Research Institute) |
| First released | 1998 (Esri published the Shapefile technical description; format in use from the early 1990s ArcView era) |
| Category | Maps & GIS |
| MIME type | application/x-esri-shape |
| Signature | 00 00 27 0A (File code 9994 stored big-endian in the first 4 bytes) |
Related viewers
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Is my .SHP file uploaded anywhere?
No. Your .SHP file is read by your browser and never sent to us. Only the background map tiles are loaded from OpenStreetMap, which sees which map area you're looking at, not your data.
How is the elevation gain calculated?
We add up every climb between track points, ignoring tiny wiggles of less than 3 metres that come from GPS noise. That's close to what Strava and Garmin report; barometric devices may differ slightly.
How do I open a Shapefile?
A Shapefile is several files. Drop the whole .zip, or select the .shp, .dbf and .prj files together. With only the .shp you'll see the shapes but no attributes.
Can I convert GPX to KML or GeoJSON?
Use Export GeoJSON to save everything you see. GPX ↔ KML conversion is part of our upcoming converter.
My CSV has coordinates. Will it work?
Yes, if it has columns named like lat/latitude/y and lon/lng/longitude/x. Every row becomes a point with the other columns as properties.
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