Plotting GPX Data
GPX files allow you to bring geographic data from outside programs into GIS software. This tutorial walks through the process of importing and plotting GPX files in QGIS.
IMPORTANT NOTE: GPX data is collected in WGS84 coordinates by default, but will be projected “on-the-fly” to appear correct with the set CRS of the map canvas. After adding and plotting your GPX data, reproject the layers as necessary for your project.
Included in this tutorial:
Setting Up to Plot
Option 1: Drag from Browser Panel
Option 2: Add from Data Source Manager
Software version in examples: QGIS-LTR 3.40.5-Bratislava
Tutorial Data: The tutorial includes demonstration with sample data described below.
Credits: Sally Kaye and L. Meisterlin (2026)
Setting Up to Plot
Before importing GPX data into QGIS, it is helpful to organize your files and make sure they are in the correct format. For this tutorial, we use a sample GPX file exported from the activity tracking app Strava, which documents a brief walk taken in New York. For the purposes of demonstration, the GPX file has been named “Test_Walk” and placed in a folder called “0_GPXData.”
Adding GPX Data to Map
Option 1: Drag from Browser Panel
Locate your GPX file in the browser panel, then click and drag the layer into the map canvas or Layers Panel.
A dialogue box appears with a list of layers from your GPX file to select and add. For your purposes, you may only need one or a few of the layer types. Click individual layers or the Select All and Deselect All buttons to choose the layers you want. This window also describes the vector type and the number of features in each layer. The layer types in a GPX file are:
Click Add Layers to finalize.
In the example below, we keep add all layer types to the QGIS project. Only the “track_points” and “tracks” layers contain features in this GPX file. (The “track_points” layer contains 2,648 point features, and the “tracks” layer contains 1 continuous line feature.)
adding GPX data from the Browser Panel
GPX point data usually contains attribute information on collected features, such as elevation and time recorded, as shown below.
viewing attributes of the “track_points” layer
Option 2: Add from Data Source Manager
Open the Data Source Manager by clicking the icon in the Data Source Manager toolbar,shown in the example below. Alternatively, click through Layer > Data Source Manager.
Click GPS in the side menu of the window, then click the three dots icon to navigate to the desired GPX data from your files and click Open.
Selecting Feature Types: In the GPS tab of the Data Source Manager, you can select which (or all) GPX feature types to import from the selected file via the checkbox list in the dialogue box. If all boxes are left checked (the default option), three layers will be added to your map project: a point layer (waypoints) and two polyline layers (routes and tracks). This approach does not include individual points for tracks and routes as in Option 1.
When you are satisfied with your options, click Add to add the data to your map.
adding GPX data from the Data Source Manager