How to export a GPX file from Strava

Route or activity: which GPX do you need?

It depends on what you'll do with it. To follow or forecast a ride you haven't done yet, export a route. To keep or analyse a ride you've finished, export the activity. Either way, you export GPX from Strava on its website, not in the app. If GPX files are new to you, start with our guide to GPX files for cycling.

How do you export a Strava route as a GPX file?

Open the route on strava.com, click the down arrow icon and choose GPX. Strava's help centre says you can export any public route this way.

1. Sign in at strava.com in a web browser.
2. Select Dashboard, then My Routes, to see routes you've created or saved. For a public route someone shared, open their link instead.
3. Open the route.
4. Click the down arrow icon.
5. Choose GPX. The file lands in your browser's downloads folder.

The same menu offers TCX, which Strava suggests for devices without base maps. Creating routes from scratch needs a subscription, and Strava listed its newer Route Saves feature as subscriber-only in June 2026.

Want this for your own route? Windline shows the wind for every stretch, timed to your pace. Free. Make a free ride page →

How do you export a Strava activity as a GPX file?

Open the activity on strava.com, click the More (three-dot) menu and select Export GPX.

1. Sign in at strava.com and open one of your activities.
2. Click the three-dot icon, on the left-hand side of the page on the website.
3. Select Export GPX. The file downloads with a .gpx extension.

Strava generally recommends Export Original, in the same menu, which gives you the file as uploaded, often in FIT format. For TCX, add /export_tcx to the end of the activity's web address. An activity without GPS data, such as an indoor trainer ride, produces an empty or unreadable GPX.

Can you export GPX from Strava on your phone?

Not in the app. Strava's help centre says exporting your data is only available on the Strava website. You have three workarounds:

• Use the website in your phone's browser. Open strava.com, sign in, switch your browser to its desktop-site mode, then follow the web steps above.
• Do it later on a computer. Send yourself the route or activity link and export it there.
• Skip the file. If you only need the route on a bike computer or watch, Strava syncs routes you've created or starred to compatible Garmin devices, and its help centre has sync guides for Coros, Polar and Suunto too.

Can you download someone else's Strava route or ride?

Yes, within their privacy settings. Any public route exports in the usual way. On another athlete's activity, a GPX Download button sits at the top right of the map.

Strava is clear about the limits:

• Files from other athletes' activities are stripped of performance data, so there are no heart-rate or power figures.
• They respect map visibility. Strava hides the first and last 200 m (656 ft) of activities by default, and riders can hide more, within 1.6 km (1 mile) of the start or end. A downloaded track can therefore start some way from where the rider actually set off.
• Only the owner can export an activity set to "Only You".

Ask before you share someone's route beyond your group, and for an organised event, use the organiser's official file.

How do you check the file, and fix a failed export?

Open the GPX in the app or device you'll use, and check that the start, finish and distance match what Strava shows. If something's wrong, the cause is usually one of these:

What can you do with the GPX next?

Load it onto a bike computer, into another planner, or into a route-timed forecast. A route-timed forecast works out when you'll reach each stretch of the route and shows the weather for that place at that hour.

Our guide to seeing the weather along a Strava route walks through it, how to read a weather forecast for a bike ride explains what to look for, and our round-up of the best weather apps for cycling compares the tools. Planning in Komoot instead? See how to download a GPX file from Komoot.