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Elevation & time

Elevation profile

Tap the map to draw a line and see how the ground rises and falls along it, with the total climb and the grades.

By the All Map Tools Team

Example Manitou Springs to the top of Pikes Peak, as the crow flies. Tap the map to start your own line.

Loading the map…

Distance
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Total climb
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Total descent
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Lowest point
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Highest point
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Average grade
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Steepest climb
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Steepest descent
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Working out the profile…

How to use it

Tap the map to drop the first point, then keep tapping to extend the line: every tap adds a vertex. Two points are enough for a profile, and each new point updates it. Undo removes the last point and Clear starts over. If you can’t find the spot on the map, search for it by name and the line will start there.

Move your finger or mouse along the chart and a dot shows you on the map where you are; with a keyboard, use the arrow keys. The page address stores the points of the line, so sharing the profile is as easy as copying the link. You can also download it as an image, as a CSV for a spreadsheet or as a GPX for your phone or GPS unit.

Where the elevation comes from

The line is split into samples every few meters, up to a thousand, and each one takes its elevation from the Terrain Tiles, a worldwide digital elevation model that combines the best public data for each area, such as the USGS 3D Elevation Program in the United States and NASA’s SRTM elsewhere, published on Amazon Web Services. The shorter the line, the finer the detail it reads.

In Spain, the profile uses something finer: the MDT05 model from Spain’s National Geographic Institute (IGN), a lidar-based grid with one value every 5 meters (16 ft), the same one the Elevation finder uses there. We don’t ask for it point by point: your browser fetches the pieces of the grid the line crosses, a little over half a mile across, and reads them itself. Past about 12 miles, it switches to the IGN’s 25 m (82 ft) model, which gives almost the same climb with samples that far apart and takes a quarter of the requests. Below the numbers you’ll see which model the profile came from.

How the climb is worked out

Total climb (elevation gain) adds up every bit of uphill, and total descent every bit of downhill. It isn’t the difference between the highest and the lowest point: a line that crosses three hills counts all three climbs.

To avoid adding up noise, a rise or a drop only counts once it passes 3 meters (about 10 ft); smaller wiggles are ignored. The average grade is all the climbing and descending divided by the distance, and the steepest grade is the largest over any 100 m (about 330 ft) stretch, so a single glitch in the model can’t inflate it. Below the chart you’ll find the grade section by section.

Why doesn’t it match my watch or app?

Every device measures in its own way. GPS elevation is off by several meters and jumps around from second to second, and if every tiny up and down is added, the total comes out higher than the real climb. Watches with a barometer are smoother but drift when the weather changes. And a terrain model gives the height of the ground, not of the trail: through a tunnel you get the mountain above it, on a bridge the bottom of the valley, and on a ledge cut into a cliff some of the wall creeps in.

Apps correct for all this with different filters, so two of them can give different numbers for the same route. To compare routes, measure them all with the same tool. And if you already have the route recorded, open it in GPX elevation profile to compare the file’s elevation with the terrain model.

Frequently asked questions

What is an elevation profile?

A chart of the ground’s elevation along a route: distance across and height up. It shows at a glance where the climbs are and how steep they get.

Can I get the elevation difference between two points?

Yes. Drop just two points and you’ll see the elevation of each, how much the ground rises and falls between them in a straight line, and the grade.

Can I upload a GPX file?

That’s what GPX elevation profile is for: upload the file from Strava, Garmin or your GPS app and get its profile, grades by section and an estimated time.

How do I share the profile?

Use Share. The address includes the points of the line, so anyone who opens it sees the same profile.

Can I see it in kilometers and meters?

Yes, with the units switch. Your choice is remembered for next time.

Related tools

All tools
Elevation finder Click anywhere on the map or search for a place to get its elevation above sea level. GPX route profile Upload a GPX from Strava, Garmin or Wikiloc to see its climb, slopes by section and an estimated time. What is my elevation? See your current elevation above sea level, read from terrain data instead of your phone’s GPS. Sun position See where the sun sits in the sky at any place and time: its height, its direction and its daily path. Time zone finder Find the time zone and current local time for any place, with its UTC offset and daylight saving. World time zone map Explore the world’s time zones on a live map, with the current time shown in each one.

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