
The GPX file format is called an “open standard” meaning that it can be used on any device for free regardless of brand. If you don’t use the tags the way they are specified here (e.g. These are some of the naming standards for a waypoint (more later). GPX Tag Naming Standards The tag names in your GPX file are all predefined and documented online.

Instead of plain text like the last image, the GPX file is written in XML (eXtensible Markup Language). Information that is indented belongs to the higher level bullet point. Think of the GPX file like a bulleted outline containing your GPS information. The GPX file was specified in the text format so that any type of device could easily open and read it without a fuss. There are also more sophisticated tools that offer mapping and are easier to work with, and I’ll talk about those later.

You can open a GPX file with any text editor or word processor. If you open up a GPX file, you’ll see that it’s simply a text file.

It might look crazy now, but if you know what to look for, you’ll be able to decode it and understand what you’re looking at. What’s in a GPX File? Here’s what a GPX file looks like if you open it up.
