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KMZ to GPX Converter
Turn .kmz files — those zipped Google Earth packages people share — into universal .gpx tracks without installing an unzip tool. The archive is opened, the KML inside is found and converted, and every step happens locally in your browser.
How to convert to GPX
- 1
Drop your file
Drag a FIT, GPX, TCX, KML, KMZ or GeoJSON file onto the box above, or click it to browse. The source format is detected automatically from the file contents.
- 2
Wait a beat
The conversion runs in a background worker on your device. Typical activities finish in well under a second; even 50 MB files process without freezing the page.
- 3
Check the preview
Distance, duration, ascent and average heart rate are shown alongside a map of the converted track, so you can confirm nothing was lost before downloading.
- 4
Download
Click the download button and the .gpx file is saved straight from memory. Nothing was uploaded, so there is nothing to clean up.
What is a KMZ file?
A KMZ file is a KML file zipped: a standard ZIP archive containing a doc.kml plus whatever resources the map references — custom icons, photos, terrain overlays. Zipping is what Google Earth does by default when it exports a map, because a folder of linked files is awkward to email and a single self-contained package is not. Everything Earth can express in KML travels inside the one .kmz file.
Most tools that say they read KML also read KMZ, but plenty of workflows stumble on the zip layer: text editors, diff tools, scripts that expect XML, and web uploaders that only accept a plain .kml. Unpacking a KMZ — or packing one for distribution — is a two-step chore this site does in the browser: the archive is opened and the KML inside is parsed on your device, with no unzip utility required.
What is a GPX file?
GPX (GPS Exchange Format) is the universal, open XML format for GPS data, standardized by TopoGrafix and supported by essentially every mapping application on earth — Strava, Google Earth, Komoot, RideWithGPS, Garmin BaseCamp, QGIS and hundreds of others. A GPX file stores waypoints, routes and tracks as latitude/longitude pairs, optionally with elevation and timestamps, and Garmin's TrackPointExtension carries heart rate, cadence and power alongside each point.
Because GPX is plain text XML, it is readable, diffable, scriptable and trivially editable — which makes it the lingua franca when a track needs to move between ecosystems. The cost is size: the same activity as GPX is typically 5-10× larger than FIT, and consumer-oriented apps sometimes ignore the extension channels. For archiving, editing and cross-platform sharing, though, GPX remains the safest long-term bet.
Why convert a KMZ to GPX?
The classic scenario: someone emails you a route as a .kmz — a race course, a guided-tour track, a club itinerary. Google Earth opens it beautifully, but the moment you want to load it onto a device, edit it in a planning app, or use it anywhere outside the Google ecosystem, the zip layer becomes an obstacle: navigation apps and most track editors want GPX, not a zipped map package.
This page removes both obstacles at once. It unpacks the KMZ (preferring the doc.kml entry Earth writes, falling back to any .kml inside), converts the track geometry with elevation and any timestamps, and hands you a clean .gpx. Icons, photos and styling resources inside the package are map decoration with no track equivalent — they're skipped, and the route is what remains.
What you get out of a well-formed package
LineStrings become GPX track segments; gx:Tracks carry their timestamps through; multiple placemarks become multiple segments in order. The GPX output is standard 1.1 that Komoot, RideWithGPS, Strava-route planners, Garmin workflows via planning tools and every GPX viewer accept.
One practical note: KMZ files written with compression (most are) are decompressed in the browser using the native streaming API — recent Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari all support it. On an unusually old browser the tool says so plainly instead of failing halfway, and unzipping the KMZ manually and dropping the inner .kml on this same page works too.
Your files never leave this browser
This tool — like every tool on this site — runs entirely as client-side JavaScript. The file you drop is parsed in a Web Worker on your own device, converted in memory and handed straight back to you as a download. There is no upload endpoint, no server-side conversion service and no temporary storage: you can watch the network tab in your browser's developer tools and confirm that no file bytes are transmitted anywhere.
That matters more with fitness data than with most files. A GPS track is a precise log of where you were, at what time, and how hard your heart was working — home address, training habits, favorite routes and race schedule all in one file. Keeping conversion on-device means third-party converters never get a copy of that log, and the tool keeps working identically on a plane, in a basement, or anywhere else without signal.
KMZ vs GPX at a glance
| Aspect | KMZ | GPX |
|---|---|---|
| Format type | ZIP package of KML (+resources) | GPS exchange XML (universal) |
| Typical use | Google Earth sharing | Navigation apps, watches, editors |
| Contains | Track + icons/photos/styles | Track geometry, pure and simple |
| Timestamps | gx:Track inside | Per point when present |
| Best for | Rich Earth display | Device-ready routes |
Frequently asked questions
No — that's the point of this page. Drop the .kmz as-is; the archive is opened in the browser and the KML inside is located automatically. If you already unzipped it, drop the .kml instead; that works identically.