GDAL
GDAL is a translator library for raster and vector geospatial data formats that is released under an MIT style Open Source License by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation. As a library, it presents a single raster abstract data model and single vector abstract data model to the calling application for all supported formats. It also comes with a variety of useful command line utilities for data translation and processing. The NEWS page describes the November 2025 GDAL/OGR 3.12.0 release.
Note
The GDAL project is currently soliciting feedback to help focus activities. We would highly appreciate you fill in the survey that will provide guidance about priorities for the program's resources (open until end of December 2025). Five T-shirts will be distributed to randomly chosen respondents who leave their email!
This documentation is also available as a PDF or a ZIP of individual HTML pages for offline browsing.
You may quote GDAL in publications by using the following Digital Object Identifier: 
- Download
- Programs
- Raster drivers
- AAIGrid -- Arc/Info ASCII Grid
- ACE2 -- ACE2
- ADRG -- ADRG/ARC Digitized Raster Graphics (.gen/.thf)
- AIG -- Arc/Info Binary Grid
- AIRSAR -- AIRSAR Polarimetric Format
- AVIF -- AV1 Image File Format
- BAG -- Bathymetry Attributed Grid
- BASISU -- Basis Universal
- BMP -- Microsoft Windows Device Independent Bitmap
- BSB -- Maptech/NOAA BSB Nautical Chart Format
- BT -- VTP .bt Binary Terrain Format
- BYN - Natural Resources Canada's Geoid file format (.byn)
- CAD -- AutoCAD DWG raster layer
- CALS -- CALS Type 1
- CEOS -- CEOS Image
- COASP -- DRDC COASP SAR Processor Raster
- COG -- Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF generator
- COSAR -- TerraSAR-X Complex SAR Data Product
- CPG -- Convair PolGASP data
- CTG -- USGS LULC Composite Theme Grid
- DAAS (Airbus DS Intelligence Data As A Service driver)
- DDS -- DirectDraw Surface
- DERIVED -- Derived subdatasets driver
- DIMAP -- Spot DIMAP
- DOQ1 -- First Generation USGS DOQ
- DOQ2 -- New Labelled USGS DOQ
- DTED -- Military Elevation Data
- ECRGTOC -- ECRG Table Of Contents (TOC.xml)
- ECW -- Enhanced Compressed Wavelets (.ecw)
- EEDAI - Google Earth Engine Data API Image
- EHdr -- ESRI .hdr Labelled
- EIR -- Erdas Imagine Raw
- ENVI -- ENVI .hdr Labelled Raster
- ESAT -- Envisat Image Product
- ESRIC -- Esri Compact Cache
- ERS -- ERMapper .ERS
- EXR -- Extended Dynamic Range Image File Format
- FAST -- EOSAT FAST Format
- FITS -- Flexible Image Transport System
- GenBin -- Generic Binary (.hdr labelled)
- Oracle Spatial GeoRaster
- GFF -- Sandia National Laboratories GSAT File Format
- GIF -- Graphics Interchange Format
- GPKG -- GeoPackage raster
- GRASS Raster Format
- GRASSASCIIGrid -- GRASS ASCII Grid
- GRIB -- WMO General Regularly-distributed Information in Binary form
- GS7BG -- Golden Software Surfer 7 Binary Grid File Format
- GSAG -- Golden Software ASCII Grid File Format
- GSBG -- Golden Software Binary Grid File Format
- GSC -- GSC Geogrid
- GDALG: GDAL Streamed Algorithm
- GTA - Generic Tagged Arrays
- GTI -- GDAL Raster Tile Index
- GTiff -- GeoTIFF File Format
- GXF -- Grid eXchange File
- HDF4 -- Hierarchical Data Format Release 4 (HDF4)
- HDF5 -- Hierarchical Data Format Release 5 (HDF5)
- HEIF / HEIC -- ISO/IEC 23008-12 High Efficiency Image File Format
- HF2 -- HF2/HFZ heightfield raster
- HFA -- Erdas Imagine .img
- RST -- Idrisi Raster Format
- ILWIS -- Raster Map
- IRIS -- Vaisala's weather radar software format
- ISCE -- ISCE
- ISG -- International Service for the Geoid
- ISIS2 -- USGS Astrogeology ISIS Cube (Version 2)
- ISIS3 -- USGS Astrogeology ISIS Cube (Version 3)
- JDEM -- Japanese DEM (.mem)
- JP2ECW -- ERDAS JPEG2000 (.jp2)
- JP2KAK -- JPEG 2000 (based on Kakadu SDK)
- JP2MrSID -- JPEG2000 via MrSID SDK
- JP2OpenJPEG -- JPEG2000 driver based on OpenJPEG library
- JPEG -- JPEG JFIF File Format
- JPEGXL -- JPEG-XL File Format
- JPIPKAK - JPIP Streaming
- KEA
- KMLSuperoverlay -- KMLSuperoverlay
- KRO -- KOLOR Raw format
- KTX2
- LAN -- Erdas 7.x .LAN and .GIS
- L1B -- NOAA Polar Orbiter Level 1b Data Set (AVHRR)
- LCP -- FARSITE v.4 LCP Format
- Leveller -- Daylon Leveller Heightfield
- LIBERTIFF -- GeoTIFF File Format
- LOSLAS -- NADCON .los/.las Datum Grid Shift
- MAP -- OziExplorer .MAP
- MRF -- Meta Raster Format
- MBTiles
- MEM -- In Memory datasets
- MFF -- Vexcel MFF Raster
- MFF2 -- Vexcel MFF2 Image
- MiraMon Raster
- MrSID -- Multi-resolution Seamless Image Database
- MSG -- Meteosat Second Generation
- MSGN -- Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) Native Archive Format (.nat)
- NDF -- NLAPS Data Format
- NetCDF: Network Common Data Form
- NGSGEOID - NOAA NGS Geoid Height Grids
- NGW -- NextGIS Web
- NITF -- National Imagery Transmission Format
- NOAA_B -- NOAA GEOCON/NADCON5 .b format
- NSIDCbin -- National Snow and Ice Data Centre Sea Ice Concentrations
- NTv2 -- NTv2 Datum Grid Shift
- NWT_GRD/NWT_GRC -- Northwood/Vertical Mapper File Format
- OGCAPI -- OGC API Tiles / Maps / Coverage
- ESRI File Geodatabase raster (OpenFileGDB)
- JAXA PALSAR Processed Products
- PAux -- PCI .aux Labelled Raw Format
- PCIDSK -- PCI Geomatics Database File
- PCRaster -- PCRaster raster file format
- PDF -- Geospatial PDF
- PDS -- Planetary Data System v3
- PDS4 -- NASA Planetary Data System (Version 4)
- PLMosaic (Planet Labs Mosaics API)
- PNG -- Portable Network Graphics
- PNM -- Netpbm (.pgm, .ppm)
- PostGISRaster -- PostGIS Raster driver
- PHOTOMOD Raster File
- RasterLite2 - Rasters in SQLite DB
- RCM -- RADARSAT Constellation Mission Product
- RIK -- Swedish Grid Maps
- RMF -- Raster Matrix Format
- ROI_PAC -- ROI_PAC
- RPFTOC -- Raster Product Format/RPF (a.toc)
- RRASTER -- R Raster
- RS2 -- RadarSat 2 XML Product
- S102 -- S-102 Bathymetric Surface Product
- S104 -- S-104 Water Level Information for Surface Navigation Product
- S111 -- S-111 Surface Currents Product
- SAFE -- Sentinel-1 SAFE XML Product
- SAR_CEOS -- CEOS SAR Image
- SAGA -- SAGA GIS Binary Grid File Format
- SENTINEL2 -- Sentinel-2 Products
- SIGDEM -- Scaled Integer Gridded DEM
- SNAP_TIFF -- Sentinel Application Processing GeoTIFF
- SNODAS -- Snow Data Assimilation System
- SRP -- Standard Product Format (ASRP/USRP) (.gen)
- SRTMHGT -- SRTM HGT Format
- STACIT - Spatio-Temporal Asset Catalog Items
- STACTA - Spatio-Temporal Asset Catalog Tiled Assets
- Terragen -- Terragen™ Terrain File
- TGA -- TARGA Image File Format
- TIL -- EarthWatch/DigitalGlobe .TIL
- TileDB - TileDB raster
- TSX -- TerraSAR-X Product
- USGSDEM -- USGS ASCII DEM (and CDED)
- VICAR -- VICAR
- VRT -- GDAL Virtual Format
- WCS -- OGC Web Coverage Service
- WEBP - WEBP
- WMS -- Web Map Services
- WMTS -- OGC Web Map Tile Service
- XYZ -- ASCII Gridded XYZ
- Zarr
- ZMap -- ZMap Plus Grid
- Vector drivers
- ADBC -- Arrow Database Connectivity
- ADBC BigQuery -- Google BigQuery through Arrow Database Connectivity
- Artificial intelligence powered vector driver
- AmigoCloud
- (Geo)Arrow IPC File Format / Stream
- Arc/Info Binary Coverage
- Arc/Info E00 (ASCII) Coverage
- CAD -- AutoCAD DWG
- Carto
- Comma Separated Value (.csv)
- CSW - OGC CSW (Catalog Service for the Web)
- Microstation DGN
- Microstation DGN v8
- AutoCAD DWG
- AutoCAD DXF
- Google Earth Engine Data API
- EDIGEO
- Elasticsearch: Geographically Encoded Objects for Elasticsearch
- ESRIJSON / FeatureService driver
- ESRI File Geodatabase (FileGDB)
- FlatGeobuf
- GDALG: GDAL Streamed Algorithm
- GeoJSON
- GeoJSONSeq: sequence of GeoJSON features
- GeoRSS : Geographically Encoded Objects for RSS feeds
- GML - Geography Markup Language
- GMLAS - Geography Markup Language (GML) driven by application schemas
- GMT ASCII Vectors (.gmt)
- GPKG -- GeoPackage vector
- GPSBabel
- GPX - GPS Exchange Format
- GRASS Vector Format
- GTFS - General Transit Feed Specification
- SAP HANA
- IDB
- Idrisi Vector (.VCT)
- "INTERLIS 1" and "INTERLIS 2" drivers
- JML: OpenJUMP JML format
- JSONFG -- OGC Features and Geometries JSON
- KML - Keyhole Markup Language
- LIBKML Driver (.kml .kmz)
- Dutch Kadaster LV BAG 2.0 Extract
- MapML
- MEM -- In Memory datasets
- Memory (deprecated)
- MiraMon Vector
- MapInfo TAB and MIF/MID
- MongoDBv3
- MSSQLSpatial - Microsoft SQL Server Spatial Database
- MVT: Mapbox Vector Tiles
- MySQL
- NAS - ALKIS
- NetCDF: Network Common Data Form - Vector
- NGW -- NextGIS Web
- OGC API - Features
- Oracle Spatial
- ODBC RDBMS
- ODS - Open Document Spreadsheet
- ESRI File Geodatabase vector (OpenFileGDB)
- OSM - OpenStreetMap XML and PBF
- (Geo)Parquet
- PDF -- Geospatial PDF
- PDS - Planetary Data Systems TABLE
- PostgreSQL SQL Dump
- ESRI Personal GeoDatabase
- PostgreSQL / PostGIS
- PLScenes (Planet Labs Scenes/Catalog API)
- PMTiles
- IHO S-57 (ENC)
- Selafin files
- ESRI Shapefile / DBF
- Norwegian SOSI Standard
- SQLite / Spatialite RDBMS
- Storage and eXchange Format - SXF
- TileDB -- TileDB vector
- TopoJSON driver
- VDV - VDV-451/VDV-452/INTREST Data Format
- VFK - Czech Cadastral Exchange Data Format
- VRT -- OGR Virtual Format
- WAsP - WAsP .map format
- WFS - OGC WFS service
- XLS - MS Excel format
- XLSX - MS Office Open XML spreadsheet
- XODR -- OpenDRIVE Road Description Format
- User
- Raster Data Model
- GDAL Band Algebra
- Multidimensional Raster Data Model
- Vector Data Model
- Geographic Networks Data Model
- Multi-threading
- OGR SQL dialect and SQLITE SQL dialect
- GDAL Virtual File Systems
- Feature Style Specification
- Coordinate epoch support
- Configuration options
- GDAL Python Utilities
- Migration guide
- Security considerations
- API
- Tutorials
- Development
- Community
- Sponsors
- How to contribute?
- FAQ
- What does GDAL stand for?
- What is this OGR stuff?
- What does OGR stand for?
- What does CPL stand for?
- What does VSI stand for?
- When was the GDAL project started?
- Is GDAL/OGR proprietary software?
- What license does GDAL/OGR use?
- What operating systems does GDAL-OGR run on?
- Is there a graphical user interface to GDAL/OGR?
- What compiler can I use to build GDAL/OGR?
- I have a question that's not answered here. Where can I get more information?
- How do I add support for a new format?
- What about file formats for 3D models?
- Is GDAL thread-safe ?
- Does GDAL provide a Section 508 information?
- How do I cite GDAL ?
- Glossary
- License
- Thanks