OSM file formats

Map Data

The most important formats are:

PBF Format – highly compressed, optimized binary format similar to the API, recommended for data processing
OSM XML – XML format provided by the API. Please use PBF if you can.
OSM JSON – JSON format provided by the API, based on Overpass API JSON format.
o5m – for high-speed processing, uses PBF coding, has same structure as XML format, limited support by applications
Overpass JSON – JSON variant of OSM XML, used by Overpass API
Level0L – more human readable OSM XML without <> and lowered redundancy
OPL – "One Per Line" each OSM object is on its own line with a newline character at the end

For converting OSM file formats to and from other geospatial formats (such as GeoJSON or GPX), see converting map data between formats.

			o5m	OPL	OSM JSON	OSM XML	Overpass JSON	PBF	Notes
			Converting To						Notes
Osmium (C++)	Converting From	o5m	no	yes	no	yes	no	yes	use the Osmium command line tool or see osmium_convert in examples directory Osmium supports exporting data to a few other formats, see here for the full list.
		OPL	no	yes	no	yes	no	yes
		OSM XML	no	yes	no	yes	no	yes
		PBF	no	yes	no	yes	no	yes
osmconvert (C)		o5m	yes	yes	no	yes	no	yes	own PBF implementation (does not use a library)
		OSM XML	yes	yes	no	yes	no	yes
		PBF	yes	yes	no	yes	no	yes
Osmosis (Java)		o5m	no	no	no	yes	no	yes	software unmaintained but still in wide use
		OSM XML	no	no	no	yes	no	yes
		PBF	no	no	no	yes	no	yes
osm4j (Java)		o5m	no	no	no	yes	no	yes
		OSM XML	no	no	no	yes	no	yes
		PBF	no	no	no	yes	no	yes
osm (Go library)		OSM XML	no	no	yes	yes	yes	no
		OSM JSON	no	no	yes	yes	yes	no
		Overpass JSON	no	no	yes	yes	yes	no
		PBF	no	no	yes	yes	yes	no
skyway (Rust)		OPL	no	yes	yes	yes	yes	no	skyway is a nascent project and is not ready for production use.
		OSM JSON	no	yes	yes	yes	yes	no
		OSM XML	no	yes	yes	yes	yes	no
		Overpass JSON	no	yes	yes	yes	yes	no
		PBF	no	yes	yes	yes	yes	no

Format	Pros	Cons	Supported by
OsmChange	Streamable When sorted properly this file is a continuous stream of changes that can be played in order. In osmosis the option --sort-change will put the change into streamable order.	Doesn't indicate source of data	Osmosis Bulk_upload.py (read-only) [library] osmconvert osmupdate (as output format) osmchange (read-only) osmfilter Vespucci
o5c	streamable can be processed very fast (uses PBF like encoding, similar to .o5m format) small file sizes even when not compressed	not human-readable cannot be modified directly with texteditors	osmconvert osmupdate (as output format)
Augmented Diffs id-sorted version	streamable real diff as before and after values are included		Overpass API osmconvert (read-only)
JOSM_file_format	Supports placeholders Indicates the source of the data	Not streamable	JOSM Vespucci

TODO: Insert content from XML#Flavours (pros + cons, etc)

Osmium command line tool (use the "apply-changes" command)
pyosmium-up-to-date can download diffs and apply them to a planet file or regional extract
osmconvert
osmupdate
Osmosis (unmaintained)

JOSM file format – non-indexed xml-format similar to the API
Spaten – format by Thomas Skowron (based on PBF and WKB)
OSM Express – on-disk format based on LMDB and S2
mapsplit – compact tiled raw OSM data in pbf format suitable for editors and other applications that need fast, offline access.
Geographic Object Library (GOL) – compact single-file database that supports fast MapCSS-like queries

Application-specific formats which are not intended to carry complete OSM data: