rooot viewer

OpenStreetMap PBF viewer

View OpenStreetMap PBF files (.pbf, .osm.pbf) on a 3D map in your browser. Compact protobuf-encoded OpenStreetMap extract — what Geofabrik delivers. No account, no install, no upload until you decide to convert or hand off to the rooot.it route planner.

Open the viewer → or jump straight to a conversion:

About OpenStreetMap PBF

OSM PBF (Protocolbuffer Binary Format) is the de-facto distribution format for OpenStreetMap data. Geofabrik, BBBike, and most regional mirrors publish country and city extracts as PBF because it is roughly 1/8 the size of OSM XML.

Typical producers: Geofabrik, BBBike, osmium-tool, osmosis.
Typical consumers: QGIS, Mapbox Tippecanoe, osm2pgsql, pyrosm.

How to view a OpenStreetMap PBF file

  1. Open the viewer.
  2. Drag your OpenStreetMap PBF file (.pbf, .osm.pbf) onto the page, or click the + in the Places panel.
  3. The file renders on a 3D MapLibre globe. Use the right-hand panel to toggle background layers (borders, labels, roads, buildings, transportation, places, terrain).
  4. Click features for details, or use the bottom toolbar to convert to another format.

Convert OpenStreetMap PBF to other formats

OpenStreetMap PBF viewer FAQ

Can I view a Geofabrik .pbf file in the browser?

Yes — drop the .osm.pbf on rooot viewer. GDAL decodes the protobuf and features render on a 3D map. The 50 MB upload cap means you typically need to clip large country extracts first with osmconvert.

How do I convert OSM PBF to GeoJSON?

Drop the .pbf, choose GeoJSON in the Convert dropdown, click Download.

What size of PBF can the viewer handle?

The hard cap is 50 MB per upload. For larger extracts use osmium-tool locally — typical workflow: osmium extract -b BBOX in.pbf -o clip.pbf.

Is rooot viewer free?

Yes. No account required. There are no per-conversion or per-view charges.

Does rooot viewer upload my files?

Files are parsed server-side for rendering but are not persisted unless you click Convert or Open in roooute. Persisted files are deleted within 24 hours.

Privacy

Files dropped on the main viewer are parsed server-side for rendering but are not persisted. Persistence happens only when you click Convert or Open in roooute; persisted files are deleted within 24 hours. Direct conversions through the per-format converter pages do not persist anything at all.