GeoCSV (CSV with lat/lon columns)
Open BetaGeoCSV is the simplest geo-format: a plain CSV file with separate latitude and longitude columns that opens anywhere — from Excel and Google Sheets to pandas, QGIS, and DuckDB. That universality is why it is chosen for exchanging POI lists between the Excel team, analysts, and GIS engineers. Our exporter writes OSM features as rows with lat and lon columns, adding name, type, layer, and non-empty attributes; for lines and polygons the centroid is used. The file is encoded in UTF-8 with BOM so Cyrillic opens correctly in Excel. A single layer yields a .csv file, multiple layers a ZIP. Honestly: it is a flat table of points — the full shape of lines and polygons is not preserved here; for those use GeoJSON or GeoPackage.
Key Features
About GeoCSV Format
GeoCSV is not a separate technology but a convention: an ordinary CSV table in which two columns are set aside for latitude and longitude. There is nothing to comply with, but such a file opens everywhere — from Excel and Google Sheets to pandas, R, QGIS and DuckDB.
The format is chosen for people rather than machines: a list of features has to go to a colleague who does not work in GIS, be published on an open data portal, or be loaded into someone else's system that only accepts "a file with coordinates".
The file has a row per feature: lat and lon columns, next to them the name, the type, the map layer and the non-empty OpenStreetMap tags. For lines and polygons the centroid is used — one point per feature. The encoding is UTF-8 with BOM, so that non-Latin text opens in Excel with a double click, without the import wizard. One layer means one .csv, several layers mean a ZIP.
The shape of streets and blocks is not preserved in such a table. If you need the whole geometry rather than points, take GeoJSON, GeoPackage or Shapefile.
What Program Opens GeoCSV Files
The following programs and applications can open, edit, and work with GeoCSV (CSV with lat/lon columns) (.csv) files exported from OSM2CDR:
Format specifications
- Open standard
- 2D only
- Lossy compression
- Stores feature attributes
- Output: 1 file
- A flat CSV with separate lat/lon columns plus attributes, UTF-8 with BOM for Excel; lines and polygons collapse to their centroid, so full shapes are not preserved.
Who Uses GeoCSV Maps
How to Export GeoCSV
How to Open After Export
- Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice Calc — open with a double click; if the columns end up glued into one, use "Data → From Text/CSV" and set the delimiter to comma.
- QGIS (free) — drag the .csv onto the canvas or use "Add Delimited Text Layer": the program will suggest the lon and lat columns as WGS84 coordinates on its own.
- Python — pandas.read_csv("map.csv"), then geopandas.points_from_xy(df.lon, df.lat) turns the table into a geo layer.
- Google My Maps and similar services — CSV import with latitude and longitude columns works out of the box, and the points land on the map.
- DuckDB — read_csv_auto('map.csv') reads the file directly, and from there the spatial extension's functions work.
Popular maps in GeoCSV
Get GeoCSV (CSV with lat/lon columns) map exports
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