How to Find Elevation on Google Maps

Google Maps doesn’t show elevation directly — click a point and there’s no altitude number anywhere. But you can still get it. This guide covers the real methods — the Terrain layer, Google Earth’s elevation readout, and Google Earth Pro’s route profile — step by step, then the faster shortcuts for when you just want the number.

Marko VisicPublished 12 Aug 2026~7 min read

The short version. Google Maps has no elevation readout for a point. The Terrain layer shows the shape of the land (contours + shading), Google Earth shows an exact elevation under your cursor, and Google Earth Procan chart a whole route’s climb. If you just want a number fast, a dedicated elevation tool does it in one step.

Does Google Maps show elevation?

No — not as a number. There is no “elevation” field when you click or drop a pin in Google Maps, and the Measure distance tool only reports horizontal distance, not height. What Google Maps can do is show you the terrain: turn on the Terrain layer and you get contour lines and hillshading, which tell you whether the ground rises or falls and roughly how steeply. For an actual elevation figure you need Google Earth or a purpose-built tool — both covered below.

Method 1: Turn on the Terrain layer in Google Maps

The Terrain layer is the closest Google Maps gets to elevation. It overlays shaded relief and contour lines on the standard map.

On the desktop site (google.com/maps): find the Layers control in the bottom-left corner, hover or click it, and choose Terrain (it may sit under “More” depending on the version).
In the mobile app (iPhone/Android): tap the layers icon (the stacked-squares button near the top-right), then select Terrainunder “Map type.”
Zoom in on hilly or mountainous ground. You’ll see contour lines, and some contours are labeled with their elevation (e.g. along ridges and peaks). Flat areas show few or no contours.

What it won’t do:the Terrain layer never puts a precise elevation on the exact point you clicked. It’s for reading the shape of the landscape, not for getting a single number. For that, use Method 2.

Method 2: Get an exact elevation with Google Earth

Google Earth does show a number. Both the browser version (earth.google.com) and the free desktop app, Google Earth Pro, display the ground elevation at the point under your cursor.

Open Google Earth in a browser, or download and open Google Earth Pro (it’s free).
Search for your address or place, or navigate to it and zoom in.
Move the cursor over the exact point. Look at the readout at the bottom of the screen — alongside the latitude and longitude it shows the elevation of the ground there. It updates as you move the mouse, so you can hover a summit, a trailhead, or your backyard and read the number directly.

Google Earth Pro (the desktop app) is the most reliable for this, and it’s what you want for the next method too.

Method 3: Chart a route’s elevation profile in Google Earth Pro

If you want the total climb of a hike or ride — not just one point — Google Earth Pro can draw an elevation profile of a path.

Open Google Earth Pro (the free desktop application).
Click Add → Path (or the path button in the toolbar), then click along your route on the map to lay down points. Give it a name and click OK.
In the Places panel on the left, right-click your path and choose Show Elevation Profile.
A graph appears at the bottom: elevation versus distance, with total gain and loss, min/max elevation, and grade. Hover the graph to see each point highlighted on the map.

Note: the elevation-profile feature is in Google Earth Pro(desktop), not the basic Maps app. It’s a free download, but it’s an install.

The faster way: skip the steps

The methods above are the honest answer to “how do I do this in Google’s tools.” But if you just want the number — or a route’s gain — a dedicated web tool gets you there in one step, no layer-toggling or app install:

What Is My Elevation?— your current elevation from GPS, instantly, in feet and meters (this is the “elevation of my location” answer).
Elevation Finder — the elevation of any address, city, mountain, or point: search or click the map.
Elevation Profile — draw a route and get its elevation profile chart with cumulative gain, loss, and steepest grade (the Google Earth Pro workflow, in your browser).

Google Maps vs Google Earth vs a dedicated tool

Each option is genuinely better at something. Use Google Maps’ Terrain layer to see the terrain, Google Earth to grab a quick number, Earth Pro for detailed route work, and a web tool when you want the fastest answer.

Method	Exact number?	Route profile?	Install?	Best for
Google Maps — Terrain layer	No (visual only)	No	No	Seeing the lay of the land
Google Earth (web)	Yes — hover readout	No	No (browser)	A quick number for one point
Google Earth Pro (desktop)	Yes	Yes (draw a path)	Yes (free app)	Routes + detailed work
Dedicated elevation tool	Yes — one step	Yes	No	Fastest for a number or a route

How accurate is Google Maps / Google Earth elevation?

Every one of these methods reads from a digital elevation model (DEM) — a grid of ground heights built from satellite radar and survey data, not a live measurement. Google Earth uses its own terrain dataset; web elevation tools (including ours) use open DEMs such as USGS 3DEP (~2 m vertical accuracy in the contiguous US and Hawaii) and SRTM(~9 m elsewhere). In practice that means US and European elevations are usually within a few meters, while remote and small-island areas can be off by more. It’s reliable for hiking, cycling, flood awareness, and curiosity — but not survey-grade, so don’t use it for engineering, floodplain determination, or aviation.

Frequently asked questions

Not directly. Google Maps has no elevation readout when you click a point. The Terrain layer shows the shape of the land — shaded relief and contour lines — but it does not put a number on a specific spot. To get an actual elevation number you use Google Earth, or a dedicated elevation tool.

Turn on the Terrain layer. On the desktop site, open the Layers control (bottom-left) and choose “Terrain”; in the mobile app, tap the layers icon (top-right) and pick “Terrain” under map type. You will see hillshading and contour lines, and in hilly or mountainous areas some contour lines are labeled with their elevation. It shows the lay of the land, not a precise number for one point.

For your own current spot, the fastest way is a GPS elevation tool — our What Is My Elevation? reads your location and shows the altitude in feet and meters in one tap. In Google Earth you can also search your address and hover the cursor over it to read the elevation at the bottom of the screen.

Google Maps itself cannot draw an elevation profile. Google Earth Pro (the free desktop app) can: draw a path, right-click it, and choose “Show Elevation Profile” to see a distance-vs-elevation graph with total gain and loss. Our Elevation Profile tool does the same thing in the browser — click points to draw a route and read its cumulative gain, loss, and steepest grade.

A professional survey (or an RTK-GPS receiver) is the gold standard. For everyday use, the digital elevation models behind Google Earth and web elevation tools are within a few meters in the US and Europe — good enough for hiking, cycling, flood awareness, and curiosity, but not for engineering. Our tools use AWS Terrain Tiles, which merge USGS 3DEP (~2 m in the US) and SRTM (~9 m elsewhere).

Related: What Is My Elevation?, Elevation Finder, and Elevation Profile — the three tools that turn these steps into one click.