Files: GPX, FIT and TCX 5 MIN READ
What is a GPX file, and how do you open it?
A GPX file is a plain-text list of GPS points: where you were, how high, and when. What is inside one, how to open it on a computer, an iPhone or Android, what apps read it, and what it cannot hold.
A GPX file is a list of GPS points written as plain text. Open one in a text editor and you can read it: a latitude, a longitude, a height above sea level and a time, repeated once a second for as long as the watch was running. That is the whole thing. Every watch, phone app and mapping tool can read one, which is why it is the file people send each other.
What is inside
The format is XML, standardised by Topografix in 2004 as *GPS Exchange Format*, and a recorded run looks like this:
```xml <gpx version="1.1" creator="Garmin Connect"> <trk> <name>Morning Run</name> <trkseg> <trkpt lat="55.6761" lon="12.5683"> <ele>14.2</ele> <time>2026-05-03T07:12:04Z</time> </trkpt> <!-- one trkpt per second … --> </trkseg> </trk> </gpx> ```
Three kinds of thing can live in a GPX:
- A track (`trk`) — what was recorded: the points in order, with times. A run or a ride is a track.
- A route (`rte`) — a plan: points in order, usually without times. What a route planner exports.
- Waypoints (`wpt`) — single marked places: a summit, a café.
Sensor data is not part of the standard, but Garmin's extension puts heart rate, cadence and temperature on each point, and most apps read it. Power, laps and the watch's own totals are not in a GPX. GPX, FIT or TCX compares what each carries.
How to open one
To look at the route: drop it into the GPX viewer — it draws the route with distance, time and elevation in your browser, nothing installed, nothing uploaded. Google Earth opens GPX directly; Google My Maps imports it as a layer; Komoot, Ride with GPS and Garmin Connect all take an import.
To read it as data: a text editor. Or Excel via a converter, if you want the points as rows.
On an iPhone: iOS has no map of its own for GPX, so the file opens in whichever app you pick from the share sheet — Komoot, Strava, Garmin Connect, WorkOutDoors. Save it to Files first if it arrived by mail. Android is the same, minus the share sheet's opinions.
What people do with one
- Follow it. Load it as a course on a watch or a bike computer: get a GPX onto a Garmin.
- Upload it. As an activity to Strava or Garmin Connect: upload a GPX to Strava, and why it sometimes will not.
- Convert it. To KML for Google Earth, to a FIT course, to an image or a PDF: turn a GPX into an image, or the tools.
- Print it. The route as one line on paper, with the numbers from the file: drop it into the editor.
Where a GPX comes from
Strava exports one from any activity — website only, free on every plan, here is where. Garmin Connect, Apple Watch (through an app), Wahoo, Coros, Suunto and Komoot all give you one; the device guides show each button. If the file you have ends in `.fit` or `.tcx` instead, it is a different container for the same kind of data: what a FIT file is, what a TCX file is.
Questions people actually ask
- What is a GPX file?
- A text file in XML that lists GPS points — latitude, longitude, usually elevation and a timestamp — as a track, a route or waypoints. Every watch, app and map tool can read or write one; it is the common language of GPS.
- How do I open a GPX file?
- Any text editor opens it as text. To see it as a map, drop it into the free GPX viewer here, open it in Google Earth, import it into Google My Maps, or load it in Komoot, Garmin Connect or Strava. Nothing needs installing for the viewer.
- What is a GPX file on iPhone?
- The same file. iOS has no built-in map for it, so it opens in whatever app you choose — Komoot, Garmin Connect, Strava, WorkOutDoors — via the share sheet. Files saved to the Files app can be sent to any of them.
- What is the difference between GPX and FIT?
- GPX is text and universal; FIT is the binary file a Garmin or Wahoo writes, smaller and carrying every sensor. GPX holds position, elevation and time, plus heart rate and cadence in an extension. For a route or a print, GPX is enough; for power and laps, keep the FIT.
- How do I use a GPX file?
- Send it to a device as a course to follow, upload it to Strava or Garmin Connect as an activity, import it into a map to look at, or drop it into the editor to print the route.
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