OneTaskBy Tim King · Updated
GPX Elevation Profile
Chart the Climb of a Route or Ride, Free Online
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How the GPX Elevation Profile works
This GPX elevation profile tool charts climb and descent along a route. Choose the file and the route appears on the map with its elevation profile drawn beneath it: distance along the bottom, height up the side, the climbs shaded. Move the cursor along the chart and a marker follows on the map, so you can see exactly where that hill is. The stats give total ascent and descent, the low and high points, the average grade of the climbing and the single steepest stretch. Save the chart as a PNG for a ride briefing or the raw distance/elevation pairs as CSV.
GPX elevation profile: climb, descent and grade
Elevation gain is the sum of every uphill step along the route, not the difference between start and finish. A loop that finishes where it started can still have 1,000 m of climbing. The catch is that GPS altitude is noisy — a device sitting still will report the height wobbling up and down by a few metres — and summing every wobble inflates the total badly. The smoothing threshold deals with this: a change in height is only counted once it exceeds the threshold since the last counted point. 3 m is a sensible default for GPS-recorded tracks; barometric watches are steadier and can use 1 m; a route planned in an app with elevation looked up from a terrain model can use 0. This is why two apps give different gain figures for the same file — they smooth differently.
Grade is rise over run as a percentage: 100 m up over 1 km along is 10%. The average grade shown is total climb divided by total distance, a rough "how hilly" figure; the steepest section is the worst single stretch of at least 20 m, which is what your legs will remember. Beyond about 8% is hard cycling; 15% is a wall; hiking trails often exceed 20% in short bursts.
Which files have elevation. Recorded GPX tracks from a watch, bike computer or phone app nearly always do. Routes drawn in Komoot, Strava, RideWithGPS or Garmin Connect include elevation looked up from terrain data. A KML exported from Google Earth may have a third coordinate value; a GeoJSON from a web map usually does not. If the file has no heights the tool says so; the GPX Viewer still shows the route and distance.
Reading the chart. The vertical axis is stretched to fit the data, so a 50 m rise over a flat 100 km ride looks like a mountain. Check the axis labels before judging a climb; the hover readout gives the actual figures. The CSV has cumulative distance in metres, elevation in metres and the coordinates of each point, ready for a spreadsheet or your own charting.
FAQ
Which smoothing threshold should I use?
3 m for a track recorded by GPS, 1 m for a barometric watch or bike computer, and 0 for a route planned in an app whose heights came from a terrain model. A lower threshold on a noisy file inflates the gain; a higher one on a clean file hides real climbs.
Why does the chart look so steep?
The vertical axis is scaled to fit the data, so a small rise over a long flat route looks dramatic. Read the axis labels and the hover figures rather than the shape of the line.
Can I compare two routes?
Not side by side. Load each in turn and save the PNG of each, or download both CSVs and plot them together in a spreadsheet.
Is grade the same as the steepest section?
No. The average grade is total climb over total distance and describes the whole route. The steepest section is the single worst stretch of at least 20 m and is what you feel on the hill.
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