planetiler

Project Url: onthegomap/planetiler
Introduction: Flexible tool to build planet-scale vector tilesets from OpenStreetMap data fast
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Planetiler is a tool that generates Vector Tiles from geographic data sources like OpenStreetMap. Planetiler aims to be fast and memory-efficient so that you can build a map of the world in a few hours on a single machine without any external tools or database.

Vector tiles contain raw point, line, and polygon geometries that clients like MapLibre can use to render custom maps in the browser, native apps, or on a server. Planetiler packages tiles into an MBTiles (sqlite) or PMTiles file that can be served using tools like TileServer GL or Martin or even queried directly from the browser. See awesome-vector-tiles for more projects that work with data in this format.

Several full-featured basemaps are built using planetiler:

You can also create your own custom base maps or overlays using YAML or Java.

See the live demo of vector tiles created by Planetiler and hosted by OpenStreetMap US.

Planetiler Demo Screenshot © OpenMapTiles © OpenStreetMap contributors

Quick start

Install (macOS or Linux with Homebrew, other options below):

brew install planetiler

Build a map of Monaco:

planetiler --download --area=monaco --output=monaco.pmtiles

View it by dragging monaco.pmtiles onto pmtiles.io.

:warning: The first run downloads about 1GB of data sources required by the OpenMapTiles profile, including ~750MB for ocean polygons and ~240MB for Natural Earth Data. To try it out with much smaller downloads, add these arguments (they only work for Monaco):

planetiler --download --area=monaco --output=monaco.pmtiles \
  --water-polygons-url=https://github.com/onthegomap/planetiler/raw/main/planetiler-core/src/test/resources/water-polygons-split-3857.zip \
  --natural-earth-url=https://github.com/onthegomap/planetiler/raw/main/planetiler-core/src/test/resources/natural_earth_vector.sqlite.zip

Install

Method Needs Java? Good for Command to run
Homebrew no macOS and Linux desktops planetiler
Single-file launcher no supported platforms or servers (experimental) ./planetiler (.\planetiler.exe on Windows)
Jar Java 25+ existing Java setups, custom profiles java -jar planetiler.jar
Docker no containers docker run ... ghcr.io/onthegomap/planetiler

Homebrew

brew install planetiler
planetiler --help

Single-file launcher

An experimental single executable that bundles planetiler.jar and a minimal Java runtime, so you don't need to install Java. Download the one for your platform from the latest snapshot release, extract it, and run it.

macOS (Apple Silicon)

curl -fL https://github.com/onthegomap/planetiler/releases/download/latest-main/planetiler_snapshot_darwin_arm64.tar.gz | tar -xz
./planetiler --help

macOS (Intel)

curl -fL https://github.com/onthegomap/planetiler/releases/download/latest-main/planetiler_snapshot_darwin_amd64.tar.gz | tar -xz
./planetiler --help

Linux (x86-64):

curl -fL https://github.com/onthegomap/planetiler/releases/download/latest-main/planetiler_snapshot_linux_arm64.tar.gz | tar -xz
./planetiler --help

Linux (ARM64):

curl -fL https://github.com/onthegomap/planetiler/releases/download/latest-main/planetiler_snapshot_linux_arm64.tar.gz | tar -xz
./planetiler --help

Windows (x86-64, PowerShell):

curl.exe -fLo planetiler.zip https://github.com/onthegomap/planetiler/releases/latest/download/planetiler_snapshot_windows_amd64.zip; Expand-Archive planetiler.zip .
.\planetiler.exe --help

Notes:

  • On macOS, files downloaded with curl run directly. Files downloaded in a browser are quarantined by Gatekeeper, so run xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ./planetiler first.
  • On Windows, SmartScreen may warn about the unsigned executable.
  • To extract the bundled planetiler.jar back out, run planetiler --extract-jar.

Jar

Requires Java 25+ (see CONTRIBUTING.md).

wget https://github.com/onthegomap/planetiler/releases/latest/download/planetiler.jar
java -jar planetiler.jar --help

Docker

docker run -v "$(pwd)/data":/data ghcr.io/onthegomap/planetiler:latest --help

Write output under /data (for example --output=/data/monaco.pmtiles) so it lands in the data folder on your machine.

Run

The examples in this README use planetiler as the command. Substitute the command for the way you installed it:

Installed with Replace planetiler with
Homebrew planetiler
Launcher ./planetiler (or .\planetiler.exe on Windows)
Jar java -jar planetiler.jar
Docker docker run -v "$(pwd)/data":/data ghcr.io/onthegomap/planetiler:latest

Common arguments

  • --output tells planetiler where to write output to, and what format to write it in. For example --output=australia.pmtiles creates a pmtiles archive named australia.pmtiles. It is best to specify the full path to the file. With Docker, use /data/australia.pmtiles.
  • --download downloads input sources automatically and --only-download exits after downloading
  • --area=monaco downloads a .osm.pbf extract from Geofabrik
  • --osm-path=path/to/file.osm.pbf points Planetiler at an existing OSM extract on disk
  • --force overwrites the output file
  • --help shows all of the options and exits

Memory

Give the JVM about 0.5x the size of the input .osm.pbf file, leaving the rest of your RAM for memory-mapped files. How you set it depends on how you installed planetiler (shown here for 1GB):

Installed with Set memory to 1GB
Homebrew JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS="-Xmx1g" planetiler ...
launcher planetiler --memory=1g ...
Jar java -Xmx1g -jar planetiler.jar ...
Docker docker run -e JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS="-Xmx1g" ...

The launcher also accepts --jvm-args="..." for other JVM options, and reads the JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS environment variable.

Requirements

  • at least 1GB of free SSD disk space plus 5-10x the size of the .osm.pbf file
  • at least 0.5x as much free RAM as the input .osm.pbf file size

View tiles locally

Generate a pmtiles tile archive by adding --output=output.pmtiles then drag and drop output.pmtiles to pmtiles.io.

Or with the default mbtiles output format, use tileserver-gl-light:

npm install -g tileserver-gl-light
tileserver-gl-light output.mbtiles

Then open http://localhost:8080 to view tiles.

Generating a Map of the World

See PLANET.md.

Generating Custom Maps

Planetiler supports custom vector tile maps in two ways, depending on how much control you need:

  1. YAML configuration (no Java required) – for simple custom maps
  2. Java profiles – for advanced logic and full control

Both approaches generate standard Mapbox Vector Tiles (MVT) that can be used with MapLibre GL, Mapbox GL, and other vector-tile clients.

Option 1: Custom Maps Using YAML (No Java Required)

For many use cases, you can define a custom vector tile map using a YAML configuration file. This approach does not require writing Java code and is ideal for:

  • Simple or moderately complex maps
  • Prototyping
  • Users who prefer declarative configuration

YAML-based maps are powered by the planetiler-custommap module. See examples and documentation: https://github.com/onthegomap/planetiler/tree/main/planetiler-custommap.

Example YAML configuration

schema_name: Roads
attribution: <a href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright">&copy; OpenStreetMap contributors</a>
sources:
  osm:
    type: osm
    url: geofabrik:rhode-island
layers:
- id: roads
  features:
  - source: osm
    geometry: line
    min_zoom: 6
    include_when:
      highway: [primary, secondary, tertiary]
    attributes:
    - key: class
      tag_value: highway

To run:

planetiler roads.yaml --download --output=roads.pmtiles

Option 2: Custom Maps Using Java Profiles

For more complex use cases, Planetiler supports custom Java profiles that allow full control over feature processing, attributes, zoom logic, and geometry handling. Java profiles are recommended when you need:

  • Complex conditional logic
  • Advanced attribute derivation
  • Non-trivial feature interactions
  • Maximum performance tuning

See examples and documentation: https://github.com/onthegomap/planetiler-examples/.

Example Java profile

import com.onthegomap.planetiler.*;
import com.onthegomap.planetiler.config.*;
import com.onthegomap.planetiler.reader.*;
import java.nio.file.Path;

public class Roads implements Profile {

  @Override
  public String attribution() {
    return """
      <a href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright">&copy; OpenStreetMap contributors</a>
      """.trim();
  }

  @Override
  public void processFeature(SourceFeature feature, FeatureCollector features) {
    if (feature.canBeLine() && feature.hasTag("highway", "primary", "secondary", "tertiary")) {
      features.line("roads").setAttr("class", feature.getTag("highway"));
    }
  }

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Planetiler.create(Arguments.fromArgs(args)).addOsmSource("osm", Path.of("ri.osm.pbf"), "geofabrik:rhode-island")
      .overwriteOutput(Path.of("roads.pmtiles"))
      .setProfile(new Roads())
      .run();
  }
}

This can be run without any compile step or build tools. With the launcher (which includes a Java 25 runtime):

./planetiler Roads.java --download --output=roads.pmtiles

Or with the jar and Java 22 or later:

java -cp planetiler.jar Roads.java --download --output=roads.pmtiles

Use as a library

For larger projects with other dependencies, Planetiler can be used as a maven-style dependency in a Java project using the settings below:

Maven

Add this repository block to your pom.xml:

<repositories>
  <repository>
    <id>osgeo</id>
    <name>OSGeo Release Repository</name>
    <url>https://repo.osgeo.org/repository/release/</url>
    <snapshots>
      <enabled>false</enabled>
    </snapshots>
    <releases>
      <enabled>true</enabled>
    </releases>
  </repository>
</repositories>

Then add the following dependency:

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.onthegomap.planetiler</groupId>
  <artifactId>planetiler-core</artifactId>
  <version>${planetiler.version}</version>
</dependency>

Gradle

Set up your repositories block:

mavenCentral()
maven {
    url "https://repo.osgeo.org/repository/release/"
}

Set up your dependencies block:

implementation 'com.onthegomap.planetiler:planetiler-core:<version>'

Features

Limitations

  • It is harder to join and group data than when using database. Planetiler automatically groups features into tiles, so you can easily post-process nearby features in the same tile before emitting, but if you want to group or join across features in different tiles, then you must explicitly store data when processing a feature to use with later features or store features and defer processing until an input source is finished (boundary layer example)
  • Planetiler only does full imports from .osm.pbf snapshots, there is no way to incorporate real-time updates.

Benchmarks

Some example runtimes for the OpenMapTiles profile (excluding downloading resources):

Input Version Machine Time output size Logs
s3://osm-pds/2026/planet-260302.osm.pbf (92GB) 0.10.1 h4d-standard-192 (192cpu/720GB) 19m cpu:37h59m avg:117 81GB pmtiles logs
s3://osm-pds/2024/planet-240108.osm.pbf (73GB) 0.7.0 c7gd.16xlarge (64cpu/128GB) 42m cpu:42m28s avg:52 69GB pmtiles logs
s3://osm-pds/2022/planet-220530.osm.pbf (69GB) 0.5.0 c6gd.16xlarge (64cpu/128GB) 53m cpu:41h58m avg:47.1 79GB mbtiles logs, VisualVM Profile
s3://osm-pds/2022/planet-220530.osm.pbf (69GB) 0.5.0 c6gd.8xlarge (32cpu/64GB) 1h27m cpu:37h55m avg:26.1 79GB mbtiles logs
s3://osm-pds/2022/planet-220530.osm.pbf (69GB) 0.5.0 c6gd.4xlarge (16cpu/32GB) 2h38m cpu:34h3m avg:12.9 79GB mbtiles logs

Merging nearby buildings at z13 is very expensive, when run with --building-merge-z13=false:

Input Version Machine Time output size Logs
s3://osm-pds/2024/planet-240115.osm.pbf (69GB) 0.7.0 c3d-standard-180 (180cpu/720GB) 16m cpu:27h45m avg:104 69GB pmtiles logs
s3://osm-pds/2024/planet-240108.osm.pbf (73GB) 0.7.0 c7gd.16xlarge (64cpu/128GB) 29m cpu:23h57 avg:50 69GB pmtiles logs
s3://osm-pds/2024/planet-240108.osm.pbf (73GB) 0.7.0 c7gd.2xlarge (8cpu/16GB) 3h35m cpu:19h45 avg:5.5 69GB pmtiles logs
s3://osm-pds/2024/planet-240108.osm.pbf (73GB) 0.7.0 im4gn.large (2cpu/8GB) 18h18m cpu:28h6m avg:1.5 69GB pmtiles logs
s3://osm-pds/2022/planet-220530.osm.pbf (69GB) 0.5.0 c6gd.16xlarge (64cpu/128GB) 39m cpu:27h4m avg:42.1 79GB mbtiles logs, VisualVM Profile

Alternatives

Some other tools that generate vector tiles from OpenStreetMap data:

  • OpenMapTiles is the reference implementation of the OpenMapTiles schema that the OpenMapTiles profile is based on. It uses an intermediate postgres database and operates in two modes:
    1. Import data into database (~1 day) then serve vector tiles directly from the database. Tile serving is slower and requires bigger machines, but lets you easily incorporate realtime updates
    2. Import data into database (~1 day) then pregenerate every tile for the planet into an mbtiles file which takes over 100 days or a cluster of machines, but then tiles can be served faster on smaller machines
  • Tilemaker uses a similar approach to Planetiler (no intermediate database) using lua scripts to customize handling.
  • Tippecanoe generates vector tiles directly from GeoJSON and is designed for visualizing all features across all zoom levels, but unlike Planetiler it is not built for filtering and processing raw OpenStreetMap planet files at global scale.

Some services that generate and host tiles for you:

  • Mapbox - data from the creator of vector tile technologies
  • Maptiler - data from the creator of OpenMapTiles schema
  • Stadia Maps - reasonably priced hosted OpenMapTiles tiles
  • OpenFreeMap - free API serving OpenMapTiles tiles generated by planetiler weekly

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

Git submodules

Planetiler has a submodule dependency on planetiler-openmaptiles. Add --recurse-submodules to git clone, git pull, or git checkout commands to also update submodule dependencies.

To clone the repo with submodules:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/onthegomap/planetiler.git

If you already pulled the repo, you can initialize submodules with:

git submodule update --init

To force git to always update submodules (recommended), run this command in your local repo:

git config --local submodule.recurse true

Learn more about working with submodules here.

Support

For general questions, check out the #planetiler channel on OSM-US Slack (get an invite here), or start a GitHub discussion.

Found a bug or have a feature request? Open a GitHub issue to report.

This is a side project, so support is limited. If you have the time and ability, feel free to open a pull request to fix issues or implement new features.

Acknowledgement

Planetiler is made possible by these awesome open source projects:

See NOTICE.md for a full list and license details.

Author

Planetiler was created by Michael Barry for future use generating custom basemaps or overlays for On The Go Map.

License and Attribution

Planetiler source code is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License, so it can be used and modified in commercial or other open source projects according to the license guidelines. The single-file launcher also bundles a Java runtime built from OpenJDK under its own license, see NOTICE.md.

Maps built using planetiler do not require any special attribution, but the data or schema used might. Any maps generated from OpenStreetMap data must visibly credit OpenStreetMap contributors. Any map generated with the profile based on OpenMapTiles or a derivative must visibly credit OpenMapTiles as well.

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