View GDB files in your browser
The folder ArcGIS keeps its layers in, as governments, utilities and open data portals hand it out. Open a .gdb right here on a map, with no ArcGIS. Nothing leaves your device.
Or drop it anywhere on this page
What you'll see
Your geodatabase opens on a map, each feature class a layer under its alias, over OpenStreetMap from the system it names.
- Every feature class a layer • Its alias as its name
- Lines with their arcs • From its own system
- Click a feature for its fields • Search them
- Export • PNG, GeoJSON, GPX, KML and CSV
About GDB
Esri brought out the File Geodatabase with ArcGIS 9.2 in 2006 and changed its insides with ArcGIS 10 in 2010, the format every ArcGIS since writes. Agencies hand out parcels, roads, zoning and survey data in it, most often as a zipped .gdb folder.
A File Geodatabase is a folder of files named like a00000009.gdbtable, a table each, with their indexes beside them. The catalog lists the tables, GDB_Items holds each one's definition, and a feature class keeps its shapes and fields in rows: points, lines and polygons, curves included, in the coordinate system it names.
Drop the .gdb folder, or the ZIP it came in, and Filepeek draws every feature class as a layer over OpenStreetMap under its alias, moved into longitude and latitude from its own system, arcs and all. Click a shape for its fields, search them, and save the features as GeoJSON, KML, GPX or CSV, or the view as PNG.
Esri File Geodatabase
.gdb
Format
- MIME type
- application/x-filegdb
- Made by
- Esri, for ArcGIS
- Released
- 2006
Inside the file
- Holds
- Feature classes and tables
- Each table
- A .gdbtable and its .gdbtablx
- Shapes
- Points, lines and polygons, with curves
- System
- By WKID or WKT
Opens in every browser
Filepeek opens File Geodatabases, as a folder or zipped, on a map in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. On their own, browsers can't open the folder and download the ZIP.
- YouChromeOpens through Filepeek
- YouEdgeOpens through Filepeek
- YouFirefoxOpens through Filepeek
- YouSafariOpens through Filepeek
Apps that open GDB
- WindowsArcGIS Pro • QGIS • Global Mapper
- MacQGIS
- iPhone and iPadNo app built in opens it
- AndroidNo app built in opens it
Questions
How do I open a .gdb?
Drop the whole .gdb folder on this page, or the ZIP it came in, so its tables come together. It opens on a map with each feature class a layer.
Why is a .gdb a folder?
Each table of a File Geodatabase is a few files of its own, and the folder holds them with the catalog that names them. To send one, zip the whole folder.
Can I open a geodatabase without ArcGIS?
Yes. Filepeek reads it in your browser, and QGIS opens it on Windows, Mac and Linux. Esri's own File Geodatabase API is for programs to call, with no window of its own.
Why don't all my layers show?
Tables with no shapes are named in Show details rather than drawn, and so are multipatches, the 3D shells of buildings, and raster datasets. A layer in a system Filepeek doesn't know says so.
What is a .gdb file that isn't a folder?
Most often Garmin MapSource's or BaseCamp's file of waypoints, routes and tracks, which opens on the map too. InterBase's and Firebird's databases are named .gdb as well, and show their About card.