Add your KML
Drop a KML file anywhere on this page
.kml · it never leaves the browser
Options
Your WKT
Add a KML file and the WKT appears here, with its feature counts and anything this pair cannot carry.
What comes across, and what cannot
Preserved
- Geometry — points, lines and polygons come across coordinate for coordinate; nothing is reprojected, because both sides are WGS84 longitude/latitude.
- Elevation (the Z ordinate) is preserved where the source has one.
Dropped
- Styling. KML carries Style and StyleMap elements — icon, colour, line width, fill — and WKT has nowhere to put them, so they are dropped. Style the data on the map instead.
- Attributes. WKT is a geometry notation — there is no place in it for a name, an id or any other column. Convert to GeoJSON or CSV when you need to keep the table.
- Time as a dimension. KML's TimeStamp and TimeSpan elements are read as ordinary attributes, which is as close as WKT gets to a clock.
Keyhole Markup Language (KML)
The XML format Google Earth popularised. Placemarks carry a name, a description balloon, a geometry and — unlike GeoJSON — presentation: styles, icons, colours, altitude modes and time stamps.
.kml · application/vnd.google-earth.kml+xml
Well-Known Text (WKT)
The OGC's text notation for a single geometry — POINT (30 10), POLYGON ((…)) — and the form PostGIS, Snowflake and BigQuery accept in a SQL statement. It describes shape and nothing else: no attributes, no styling.
.wkt · .txt · text/plain
Convert KML to WKT, step by step
- Step 1
Add your KML
Drop a KML file anywhere on the page, paste it, point at a URL, or press Sample to start from real data. Several files at once are fine.
- Step 2
Set what matters
Coordinate precision and simplification on every pair, plus the handful of settings this one needs.
- Step 3
Take the WKT
Read the feature counts and the warning list, then download, copy, or open the result in the Spatly studio to style and publish it.
Your data never leaves the page
Every conversion, measurement and export happens client-side. Nothing is uploaded, logged or stored — you can even use this offline once the page has loaded. Only “Open in Studio” sends data, and only after you sign in.
Good to know
- What is preserved when converting KML to WKT?
- Geometry — points, lines and polygons come across coordinate for coordinate; nothing is reprojected, because both sides are WGS84 longitude/latitude. Elevation (the Z ordinate) is preserved where the source has one.
- What is lost converting KML to WKT?
- Styling. KML carries Style and StyleMap elements — icon, colour, line width, fill — and WKT has nowhere to put them, so they are dropped. Style the data on the map instead. Attributes. WKT is a geometry notation — there is no place in it for a name, an id or any other column. Convert to GeoJSON or CSV when you need to keep the table. Time as a dimension. KML's TimeStamp and TimeSpan elements are read as ordinary attributes, which is as close as WKT gets to a clock.
- What happens to my folders?
- Placemarks inside folders are flattened into one collection; the folder name is not carried through as a grouping. If you need the grouping, add a property for it before converting, or convert each folder separately.
- Are ground overlays and network links converted?
- No. Only placemark geometry and its data come through. GroundOverlay, ScreenOverlay and NetworkLink are references to other resources rather than features, so there is nothing to convert them into.
- What exactly comes out?
- One WKT geometry per line, in the same order as the input features, ready to paste into a PostGIS, DuckDB, Snowflake or BigQuery statement. Features with no geometry are skipped rather than emitted as blank lines.
- Is my file uploaded anywhere?
- No. The KML is read, converted and written entirely inside this page — there is no upload, no queue, no server-side copy and no size limit imposed by a plan. Large files are parsed in a background worker so the page stays responsive. The only action that transmits anything is Open in Studio, and that happens after you sign in and press it.
- Is there a limit on file size or number of files?
- There is no imposed limit; the practical ceiling is your browser's memory. Files over about 5 MB are handed to a web worker so the interface keeps responding, and you can drop several files at once — each is converted separately and the set can be downloaded as one zip.