MBTiles

MBTiles is a file format specification developed by MapboxMapboxMapbox is a robust platform that equips developers with tools to create highly customizable, interactive maps for web... that packages map tiles into a single SQLite database. Each tile is stored as a row in the tiles table, indexed by zoom levelZoom LevelA zoom level is a discrete scale step in a web mapping tile system that determines the amount of geographic detail di..., column, and row. Metadata such as tile format, bounds, attribution, and description are stored in a companion metadata table. This self-contained approach makes MBTiles files easy to copy, transfer, and deploy. The format supports raster tiles (PNG, JPEG, WebP) and vector tiles (PBF/MVT). For vector tiles, MBTiles serves as the standard intermediate format produced by tools like TippecanoeTippecanoeTippecanoe is an open-source command-line tool for creating vector tilesets from GeoJSON features. Developed by Mapbo... and OpenMapTiles before conversion to other serving formats. Raster MBTiles archives are commonly generated from styled map renders for offline use in mobile applications. MBTiles is widely supported across the geospatial ecosystem. QGISQGISQGIS is a user-friendly, open-source GIS platform that provides tools for geospatial data analysis, mapping, and inte... can read and write MBTiles directly. MapLibre Native and Mapbox Mobile SDKs use MBTiles for offline map caching. Server-side tools like TileServer GLTileServer GLTileServer GL is an open-source map tile server that serves vector and raster tiles using Mapbox GL styles. It render... and Martin can serve MBTiles archives as tile endpoints. While MBTiles requires SQLite to read—unlike PMTilesPMTilesPMTiles is a single-file archive format for tiled map data that supports HTTP range requests, eliminating the need fo... which works with plain HTTP range requests—it remains the most established and broadly supported tile packaging format, with extensive tooling for creation, validation, and conversion.