Offline GPX Navigation

OffTrail lets you import GPX tracks, download maps to your device and navigate without relying on continuous mobile coverage. It is a free app for iPhone and Android, built offline-first from the start rather than adding offline as an afterthought.

How offline GPX navigation works

Two different things are often confused: GPS and the internet. GPS is a receiver in your phone listening to satellites — it works anywhere under open sky and never needs a data connection. The internet is only needed to download maps. So offline GPX navigation is simple in principle: get the GPX track onto the phone, get the map onto the phone, and from then on the phone can draw the map, place you on it and follow the track entirely locally.

In OffTrail that means: import a GPX file (file manager, email, browser or share menu), download the offline map for the country you are riding, and go. Airplane mode, no SIM, a dead zone in the mountains — navigation keeps working.

What works offline

With a downloaded map: the map display, your live GPS position with course-up tracking, the GPX tracks you loaded, off-track and wrong-way alerts, waypoints, and automatic ride recording. Two things do need a connection: downloading maps in the first place, and generating a new route (the route computation runs on OffTrail's servers). Once a route is on the map, following it is fully offline.

Whole-country offline maps

Offline maps are downloaded per country, as a single package — no fiddling with bounding boxes or tile counts. More than 100 countries are available. In countries where OffTrail has built its own map coverage — Portugal, Spain, the USA state-by-state, Australia, Russia and a growing list — the maps carry a dense off-road trail network; everywhere else a worldwide base map is used, so there is always a map under you. An optional satellite layer is available too.

GPX in, GPX out

GPX is the exchange format for tracks, and OffTrail treats it as such: any standard GPX file can be imported, and every recorded ride is saved as a standard GPX file on your phone — share it by AirDrop on iPhone, or any share target on Android — file manager, email, chat. Nothing is locked into the app.

Where offline navigation matters most

Adventure motorcycle travel through areas with weak coverage (see motorcycle GPX navigation), 4x4 and overland trips far from towns, remote trail networks, and international riding where roaming data is expensive or unavailable. If you would rather build a route than import one, OffTrail's off-road route planner generates routes you can then follow offline. For the full preparation checklist, read the guide to navigating a GPX without internet.

Get OffTrail free on the App Store or Google Play. Load a GPX track, build a route and ride.

Frequently asked questions