Elevation Profile
Click route points on the map and get a full elevation profile: min/max altitude, total ascent and descent, steepest grade, and a clean SVG chart.
By Aryan Khan, Founder & Editor · Updated October 2026
For example, a 12.4 km ridge walk gaining 640 m of total ascent averages 51.6 m of climb per kilometre — the profile turns that one number into the whole story of where the climbing lives.
How to use Elevation Profile
Click the route; read its shape:
Elevation Profile charts the height of the ground along any route you click on the map, and totals it: minimum and maximum elevation, total ascent and descent, and the steepest grade. Draw the route and read its shape — the difference between a walk and a climb, made visible.
- 1Click the map to drop two or more route points.
- 2Press 'Build elevation profile'.
- 3Read ascent, descent, grade and the chart.
What people use Elevation Profile for
1. Hike planning
Total ascent — not summit height — is what legs feel. Profile the route before the boots commit; point heights come from the Elevation Finder, whole-route shape lives here.
2. Cycling route grading
Steepest grade decides gearing and honesty: a ride averaging 5.2% with one 14% wall is two different rides, and the profile names both.
3. Race and event courses
Organisers publish profiles because runners plan pacing by them — where the climb sits (mile 2 or mile 20) changes the race.
4. Road and driveway feasibility
A proposed access road's grade against vehicle and code limits starts as a profile across the terrain, before any surveyor is hired.
Worked examples
Total ascent (640 m) exceeds the start-to-finish height change on any rolling route — every dip re-buys its height. The profile's ascent figure is the honest one; the endpoints' difference is the liar.
A sustained 5.2% average (640 m over 12.4 km) is a solid mountain walk; roads for cars rarely sustain over 6–7%, and the steepest pitch on the profile — not the average — is where trailers and knees complain.
What the profile reports
Each stat and the decision it feeds.
| Statistic | Meaning | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Min / max elevation | The route's floor and ceiling | Layers, water, snow expectations |
| Total ascent / descent | Every metre climbed, dips included | Effort budgeting — the honest workload |
| Steepest grade | The hardest pitch anywhere on the route | Gearing, vehicle limits, warnings |
| Chart (SVG) | Height against distance | Seeing where the work lives |
Ascent totals depend on the terrain model's sampling: more samples catch more small dips and raise the total. Two tools can honestly report different ascents for one route — method, not error.
The cross-section between two points
Pick two points and this tool samples the Copernicus GLO-90 elevation model sixty times along the great-circle line between them, then plots the full cross-section: total ascent, total descent, minimum and maximum elevation and line length. It is quick-and-dirty route reconnaissance — see the climb before you commit to the ride, check a pipeline corridor's relief, or understand why the direct hiking line is the hard one.
Sixty samples balance detail against the API's 100-coordinate limit: on a 10 km line each sample spans about 170 m, which resolves hills honestly while smoothing micro-terrain. The profile follows the straight surface line, not roads — road profiles differ where roads switchback — and the page says so. The same samples power the line-of-sight calculator, which adds Earth curvature and refraction to answer visibility questions. Elevation data is terrain-only: buildings and forests are invisible to the DEM, and results are labelled accordingly.
How to interpret the result
The most common errors come from using a correct result to answer the wrong geographic question. Keep these points in mind for Elevation Profile:
- Include your height inputs explicitly (eye height, mast height, deck level) when sharing visibility results: the same hill answers differently for a child, an adult and a 10 m antenna, and unstated heights make numbers unreproducible.
- Treat climate and hardiness outputs as 30-year character, not this year's weather: a zone tells you what winters usually allow, and microclimates — walls, slopes, urban heat — shift a real garden half a zone either way.
Limits & appropriate use
Terrain intelligence carries one dominant limit: the model sees bare earth at ~90 m spacing with metres of vertical error, and is blind to canopies, walls and wires. Every downstream answer inherits it — profiles show terrain truth with noisy amplitude, line-of-sight verdicts are pending trees, horizons assume open ground, and solar radiation averages assume an unshaded panel. The second limit is temporal: climate letters and hardiness zones are thirty-year character, not this year's behaviour, and seismicity is a mood, not a hazard model. Each result here is printed with its recipe precisely so these boundaries travel with the number.
The value proposition is screening-grade truth at zero cost: orientation for sites, gardens, antennas, shoots and curiosity, with the upgrade points clearly marked. When money or safety attaches to the answer — tower siting, flood insurance, structural shading, avalanche terrain — the escalation is professional: licensed survey, certified shade studies, regulatory flood determinations and geological hazard services. A good free tool makes that ladder visible instead of pretending to be the top of it.
- Construction and tower siting → licensed topographic survey.
- Flood decisions → regulatory determinations (FEMA/FIRM in the US).
- Solar finance → certified shade and production studies.
Data & methodology
The drawn line is sampled at 60 positions and elevation is decoded from remote Terrarium tiles; gaps and terrain data resolution affect the result.
For source details, licences and model limitations, see Data Sources and Methodology.
Key terms worth knowing
- Refraction coefficient
- The standard 0.13 factor bending sightlines over the curvature.
- Antipode
- The diametrically opposite point; latitude flips, longitude shifts 180°.
Editorial guidance: MapBench explains the method and limitations so the tool can be used as a transparent reference, not as a black-box answer. For legal boundaries, safety-critical routing, surveying, engineering, regulated decisions or official statistics, verify the result with the responsible authority or a qualified professional.
Category: Earth Science. Results are intended for everyday analysis and planning unless a page explicitly states otherwise.
Method, assumptions & limits
- This tool’s method
- The drawn line is sampled at 60 positions and elevation is decoded from remote Terrarium tiles; gaps and terrain data resolution affect the result.
- Before relying on the answer
- Check the location, height units and any model options shown by this calculator. A terrain lookup and a geometric Earth model answer different questions.
- What the result cannot establish
- Local terrain, atmospheric conditions and source resolution can matter more than numerical rounding. Do not use a planning result for safety-critical work.
Coverage: Worldwide. Search, basemap and external data requests may use third-party services; browser-based does not mean every operation is offline. Read the source and licence notes, calculation methodology and privacy policy. If a result looks inconsistent, report a correction with the inputs and mode used.
Frequently asked questions
Clear answers about the calculation, accuracy and appropriate use.
Where does the elevation data come from?
Terrarium tiles derived from SRTM (~30 m resolution), sampled at 60 points along your route.
How accurate is it?
Approximate — good for hike and ride planning. Not survey-grade; never use it for engineering or construction.
What if part of the route shows no data?
Tile gaps (ocean, network hiccups) are skipped and flagged; the chart draws through the samples that succeeded.
How is steepest grade computed?
The largest altitude change between consecutive samples, divided by the horizontal distance of that segment.
Does my route leave my browser?
Only the elevation tile requests go out — your route points are never uploaded or stored.
Can I profile a route from a GPX file?
This page builds routes by clicking; GPX files from watches and apps carry their own recorded elevation, which their native apps profile best. Click the same line here when you want the terrain model's impartial version.
Why does my watch disagree with the profile?
Barometric watches measure air pressure live (accurate day to day, drifting with weather); the profile samples a stored terrain model. Differences of a few percent in total ascent are normal between the methods.
What is a good grade for a driveway?
Most vehicles and codes are comfortable under about 10–12% sustained; beyond that, ice and loaded trucks vote no. The profile's steepest-grade figure is the number to hold against local rules.
Does the profile include bridges and tunnels?
Terrain models mostly follow the ground surface — a route over a gorge bridge will profile the gorge unless the model's data says otherwise. Read cliff-edge artefacts with that in mind.
How long a route can I draw?
As long as patience allows clicks. Very long routes are better sketched in segments — the totals add, and each segment's shape stays legible.
Vertical exaggeration?
Charts stretch the vertical axis so relief is visible; the numbers (ascent, grade) are computed from true values, not from the stretched picture.
Metric and imperial?
Heights and distances show in both conventions — feet and miles for the US reader, metres and kilometres alongside.
Related tools and resources
Point heights: the Elevation Finder; summits: the Peak Elevation Lookup; steepness as a ratio: the Relief Ratio Calculator.
More free tools
Sources, methodology & editorial trust
- ✓ Browser-first processing where supported
- ✓ External sources are documented
- ✓ No account required for public tools
- ✓ Review data sources
Calculations are documented with their assumptions, limitations and source context rather than presented as unexplained answers.
Reviewed and maintained by Aryan Khan, Founder & Editor of MapBench.
Part of our elevation & terrain hub
Elevation Profile sits in the elevation & terrain cluster, alongside 40 other tools that answer neighbouring questions with different methods or datasets.
You may also need
When this answer is only part of the job, these clusters cover the next step.
Read the guide behind this tool
How to Find Elevation on Google Maps — Check the elevation of any spot on Google Maps — desktop, mobile, and the precise method with exact numbers.