How to Export a GPX File from Strava, Garmin Connect or Komoot
To export a GPX from Strava, open the route or activity on the website and choose Export GPX — routes use the download arrow, activities use the three-dot menu. In Garmin Connect, open the activity or course on the web and use the gear icon at the top right, then Export to GPX. In Komoot, open the tour and choose the GPX download, but note that Komoot only allows it when the region the route starts in is unlocked on your account. All three hand you a plain .gpx file in your Downloads folder, which any route planner, head unit or indoor cycling app can read.
Strava
Strava treats a planned route and a recorded activity as two different things, and they export from two different places. Both work from the website; the mobile app does not offer GPX export at all.
The distinction matters if the elevation looks wrong later. A route you planned carries elevation from Strava's map data. An activity carries whatever your head unit recorded, barometer included — usually better, and occasionally with a spike where the device recalibrated mid-ride.
- A route you planned: open it on strava.com, click the download arrow, choose GPX.
- A ride you recorded: open the activity on strava.com, open the three-dot (more) menu, choose Export GPX.
- Someone else's public activity: Strava has a separate download for this, subject to that athlete's privacy settings.
- Everything at once: Settings → My Account → Download or Delete Your Account gives a bulk export of your whole history, which arrives by email as a zip.
Garmin Connect
Export lives on the web version, not in the phone app. Open connect.garmin.com, click the activity's name in the list to open its own page — the one with the map, the summary and the graphs — and the gear icon sits at the top right, below the sync and profile icons. Choose Export to GPX.
Courses export the same way from the Courses section. If you cannot see the gear icon at all, it is nearly always because you are looking at the activity list rather than the activity page, or at the phone app rather than the website.
Komoot
Open the tour and choose the GPX download. Komoot's own support page states the condition plainly: the region the route starts in has to be unlocked on your account, and if it is not, Komoot tells you which region is needed. A free account comes with one free region, so this is the step that stops most first-time exports.
The file lands in Downloads on a computer and on Android. On iOS you get a prompt to save it or open it in another app instead.
Wahoo, RideWithGPS and the rest
GPX is an open format, so essentially every planner and platform exports it. Wahoo exports routes and completed rides from the app or the companion site. RideWithGPS, plotaroute and Bikemap all put a GPX download on the route page, usually behind a Download or Export button.
If a platform offers GPX, TCX and FIT, take the GPX unless you specifically need the others. TCX and FIT carry training data — power, heart rate, laps — that a mapping tool does not need, and some tools read them less reliably.
What to check before you use the file
A GPX is plain text, so you can open it in any text editor and see exactly what it holds. Two things are worth a glance, because they decide what the file is good for.
First, elevation. Look for <ele> tags inside the track points. A GPX without them is still a valid file and still draws the right shape on a map, but there is no climbing in it — an indoor app reading it will give you a completely flat ride, usually without warning you. Re-importing to a route planner and exporting again normally re-attaches elevation from its own terrain data.
Second, whether it is a track or a route. A recorded ride is a <trk> with dense points a metre or two apart. A planned route can be a <rte> with far fewer, sometimes only the turns. Both are valid GPX and Cycloscape reads either, but a sparse <rte> cuts corners on bends — because the corners were never in the file to begin with.
Riding the file you just exported
A GPX is not only for a head unit. Upload it to Cycloscape and it becomes a 3D world you ride indoors on a smart trainer, with the real distance, the real gradients and the resistance following the profile — the road you exported, ridden in your own front room.
It runs in Chrome or Edge with nothing to install, and riding is free and unlimited. To see the whole flow before exporting anything, the upload page has a demo route built in.
Frequently asked
Can I export a GPX from the Strava mobile app?
No. GPX export is a website feature — open strava.com in a browser (a phone browser works, though the desktop layout is easier to click). The app can send a route to a paired head unit, but it will not hand you the file.
Why is there no gear icon on my Garmin Connect activity?
You are almost certainly on the activity list rather than the activity's own page. Click the activity's name to open it — the page with the map, summary and graphs — and the gear icon appears at the top right, under the sync and profile icons. It is a web-only control; the phone app does not have it.
Why won't Komoot let me download the GPX?
Komoot requires the region where the route STARTS to be unlocked on your account, and tells you which region that is when it blocks the export. A free account includes one free region, so a route starting outside it cannot be exported until that region is unlocked.
GPX, TCX or FIT — which should I download?
GPX, unless you have a specific reason otherwise. It is the open, universally-read format and it carries what a route needs: coordinates and elevation. TCX and FIT add training data such as power, heart rate and laps, which mapping and simulation tools do not use and some read less reliably.
My GPX has no elevation. Does that matter?
It depends what you want from it. For navigation, no — the shape is intact. For anything that simulates gradient, completely: with no <ele> values there is nothing to climb, so an indoor app gives you a flat ride of the correct length. Re-importing to a route planner and exporting again usually re-attaches elevation.
Can I ride an exported GPX indoors?
Yes. Cycloscape reads a GPX and builds that exact road as a 3D world you ride on a smart trainer in the browser, with real distance, real gradients and resistance that follows the profile. Free and unlimited, with nothing to install.