KMZ

.kmz

Supported

KMZ is the compressed archive format of KML, packaging the .kml file and its associated images, icons, and other resources into a single ZIP archive. KMZ files are smaller and easier to distribute via email or web download. Google Earth can open KMZ files directly, automatically extracting and rendering the geographic content.

Specifications

Standard: OGC

MIME: application/vnd.google-earth.kmz

Key Features

Compressed version of KML with smaller file size
Can package associated image and icon resource files
Natively supported by Google Earth

Advantages

Single file containing all content, easy to distribute
Significantly smaller file size after compression

Limitations

Essentially a ZIP archive, needs to be extracted for processing
Limitations of the internal KML format still apply

Common Use Cases

Packaging and distributing KML map data with icons
Sharing Google Earth content via email or web
Packaging and distributing offline map data

Related Tools

KMZ → GEOJSON GEOJSON → KMZ

KMZ