GPX elevation gain calculator

Drop in your route: the tool works out the distance and the elevation gain two ways, point by point (raw) and after smoothing the altitude, which is what this site uses. The gap between the two tells you a lot about the quality of your file's elevation.

or drag it here from a computer

Drop a route to see its distance, raw elevation gain and smoothed elevation gain. Nothing is sent.

Two numbers, and why

The raw gain adds up every rise between two successive points in the file. It also counts the small wobbles caused by measurement noise: on a GPS recording it is often higher than reality. The smoothed gain is worked out as everywhere on this site: the altitude is resampled every 25 m and smoothed over about 200 m before the climbs are added up.

On a test route where I added a few metres of artificial noise to a known 800 m climb, the raw sum went over 1,500 m and the smoothed calculation came back to 789 m. The other way round, a file with few points (a route drawn by hand) gives a raw gain close to the smoothed one, but both underestimate the terrain: the small bumps between two points aren't in the file.

Reading the gap

  • Small gap: clean altitude, from a barometer or a terrain model, or a file that's already smoothed.
  • Large gap: noisy altitude, often from a phone or a GPS unit without a barometer. The smoothed number is closer to what you climbed.

Why don't Strava, Garmin and Komoot give the same total? See why your Strava elevation gain doesn't match. To turn the route into an image, use the tool to create an elevation profile from GPX.

The file is read in your browser; nothing is sent or stored.

Frequently asked questions

Which gain is right, raw or smoothed?

Neither is perfect. Smoothed is usually closer to the terrain on a noisy GPS recording; it's the one this site's images and stickers show.

My file has no elevation?

Export the “track” version of your route, or run it through a platform that recalculates elevation, then export it as GPX again.

Are FIT files accepted?

No: export the ride as GPX from your platform, or convert the FIT file with a tool such as GPSBabel.