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GPX track vs route: which one to send
A GPX can hold a track, which is a recording with times, or a route, which is a plan without them. Which is which inside the file, why an upload or a print wants the track, and how to tell them apart.
A GPX file can hold two things that look identical on a map and are not: a track, which is a recording, and a route, which is a plan. Most confusion about GPX files — no pace on the print, Strava refusing the upload, a device showing a course as a straight line — comes down to which of the two you have.
Inside the file
```xml <trk> <!-- a TRACK: what happened --> <trkseg> <trkpt lat="55.67" lon="12.56"><ele>14</ele><time>2026-05-03T07:12:04Z</time></trkpt> </trkseg> </trk>
<rte> <!-- a ROUTE: what was planned --> <rtept lat="55.67" lon="12.56"><ele>14</ele></rtept> </rte> ```
A track has `trkpt` points in segments, each with a time. A route has `rtept` points, and almost never a time. Open the file in a text editor and search for `<trk` or `<rte`; that is all it takes to know.
Which one you have
- From a watch, or exported from an activity on Strava or Garmin Connect: a track.
- From a route planner — Komoot, Ride with GPS, Strava's route builder, Google My Maps: a route, or sometimes a track without times. Either way, no times. Export a Strava route covers the Strava case.
- A race organiser's GPX: a route, drawn on a desk.
Which one to send
For a print: a track. The numbers under the line — time, pace, the date — come from the timestamps, and a route has none. The shape prints either way, but the print of a plan is the print of a line nobody has run yet. Why a route print has no time.
For an upload as an activity: a track. Strava needs time data to make an activity, and a route has none; it will be refused. GPX not uploading to Strava lists the errors.
For a device to follow: either. Garmin, Wahoo, Coros and Suunto read both as a course, and a route is the natural thing to load before you go. Get a GPX onto a Garmin.
Converting one to the other
An editor can relabel route points as track points, and gpx.studio or the GPX editor will write either. That fixes a tool that insists on `trk`. It does not add what a route never had: the times. The only way to turn a plan into a recording is to go and do it.
A route point can carry a name and a description, and some tools use routes for turn-by-turn cues. That is what the distinction was for; the rest is history.
Questions people actually ask
- What is the difference between a GPX track and a GPX route?
- A track (trk) is a recording: points in order with timestamps, what actually happened. A route (rte) is a plan: points in order, usually without times, what you meant to do. Both are lists of coordinates; only the track knows when.
- Should a GPX be a track or a route?
- For an activity upload or a print, a track. For loading onto a device to follow, either — most devices read both as a course. A planner exports a route; a watch records a track.
- Why does my GPX route have no time or pace?
- Because it is a route. No timestamps, so nothing to compute a time or pace from. Ride or run it and export the activity: that is the track, with the times.
- Can I convert a GPX route to a track?
- The points can be relabelled from rte to trk in an editor, but that does not add times. A converted route still has no pace, and Strava will not accept it as an activity without time data.
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