View SHP files in your browser
Esri's map format, still the common tongue of GIS. Open a shapefile right here on a map, its records a click away, with no QGIS or ArcGIS. The file never leaves your device.
Or drop it anywhere on this page
What you'll see
Your file opens on a map, framed to fit, its layers drawn over OpenStreetMap's streets and what it holds listed beside it.
- OpenStreetMap, dark or light • Flat or a globe
- Every layer and feature in a list • Search their names and fields
- Click a feature for its fields • Measure distances
- Export • PNG, GeoJSON, GPX, KML and CSV
About SHP
Esri brought out the shapefile with ArcView in the early 1990s and published its layout in 1998. Governments, utilities and open data portals still hand out boundaries, parcels, roads and zones in it.
A shapefile is several files of one name: the .shp holds the shapes, the .dbf a dBase table of their fields, the .shx an index, the .prj the coordinate system and the .cpg the code page of its text. One shapefile holds one kind of shape: points, lines or polygons.
Drop the files together, or the ZIP they came in, and Filepeek draws them over OpenStreetMap, moved into longitude and latitude from the system the .prj names, national grids and UTM zones included. Click a shape for its record, search the fields, and save the features as GeoJSON, KML, GPX or CSV, or the view as PNG.
Esri Shapefile
.shp
Format
- MIME type
- application/vnd.shp
- Made by
- Esri
- Released
- Early 1990s
Inside the file
- Holds
- Points, lines or polygons
- Beside it
- DBF, SHX, PRJ and CPG
- Fields
- A dBase table
- System
- Named in the PRJ
Opens in every browser
Filepeek opens shapefiles with their DBF and PRJ on a map in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. On their own, browsers download them.
- YouChromeOpens through Filepeek
- YouEdgeOpens through Filepeek
- YouFirefoxOpens through Filepeek
- YouSafariOpens through Filepeek
Apps that open SHP
- WindowsQGIS and ArcGIS Pro
- MacQGIS
- iPhone and iPadQField opens it in a project
- AndroidQField opens it in a project
Questions
How do I open a shapefile?
Drop the .shp with the files of its name, the .dbf, .shx and .prj, or the ZIP they came in, on this page. It opens on a map with every record listed beside it.
Why does it ask for the PRJ?
Its coordinates are in meters of a map projection, and the .prj says which. Without it they can't be placed on the earth, so open the .shp and the .prj together.
Why are the fields empty?
A shape's fields are in the .dbf of the same name. Open it with the .shp, and Show details says when it's missing.
Can I convert a shapefile to GeoJSON or KML?
Yes. Open it, choose Export, then Save the features as GeoJSON, KML, GPX or CSV. They come out in longitude and latitude.
Why do names show odd characters?
Older shapefiles keep their text in the code page their .cpg names. Drop the .cpg with the rest so the names read right.