Open GTF files in your browser
Genes and transcripts as Ensembl and GENCODE annotate them, for RNA-seq tools. Open a GTF right here as a row for each feature. Nothing leaves your device.
Or drop it anywhere on this page
What you'll see
Your features open as a row for each one, the first rows on show while the rest are read.
- A row for each feature • Place, length, strand and ID
- Sort and filter • Counts for every column
- Search • A gene by its name or ID
- Export • Save as CSV, Excel, JSON or Parquet
About GTF
GTF grew out of GFF at Washington University in St. Louis to describe genes and their transcripts, and Ensembl and GENCODE hand out their annotations in it. RNA-seq tools like STAR, HISAT2 and featureCounts take a GTF to know where each gene's exons are.
It keeps GFF's nine columns, the sequence, source, type, start and end counted from 1, score, strand and frame, and writes its attributes as gene_id "…"; transcript_id "…";, every exon and CDS naming the gene and transcript it belongs to.
Filepeek reads the file in pieces in your browser and shows each feature as a row with its place, length and strand, and its gene ID, transcript ID and gene name taken out of its attributes, to sort, search and filter like any table. Export saves the rows as CSV, Excel, JSON or Parquet.
Gene Transfer Format
.gtf
Format
- MIME type
- text/x-gtf
- Made by
- Washington University in St. Louis, from GFF
Inside the file
- Each line
- A feature in nine columns
- Places
- Counted from 1, both ends in
- Attributes
- gene_id and transcript_id, always
- Markup
- Plain text
Opens in every browser
Filepeek opens GTF files of any size in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari, read in pieces so the first features show at once. On their own, browsers download them or show them as text.
- YouChromeOpens through Filepeek
- YouEdgeOpens through Filepeek
- YouFirefoxOpens through Filepeek
- YouSafariOpens through Filepeek
Apps that open GTF
- WindowsNo app built in reads it • IGV shows it on the genome
- MacNo app built in reads it • IGV shows it on the genome
- iPhone and iPadNo app opens it
- AndroidNo app opens it
Questions
How do I list a gene's transcripts?
Filter Type to transcript and Gene name to the gene, or search for its gene ID. Each transcript's exons and CDS share its Transcript ID.
Why don't my gene IDs match my counts table?
Ensembl's IDs carry a version after a dot, like ENSG00000141510.18, which some tools drop. Ensembl and GENCODE also name chromosomes differently, 1 or chr1.
What's the difference between GTF and GFF3?
They share nine columns. GTF names each feature's gene and transcript in every line, and GFF3 ties features together with ID and Parent. Filepeek opens both.
Can I open a big GTF?
Yes. GENCODE's human annotation, over a GB unpacked, opens in pieces with its first rows at once, and sorting and filtering run through all of it.