Convert CSV to FlatGeobuf Online — Free & Instant
Converting CSV point data to FlatGeobuf gives you a compact, indexed binary format that is significantly faster than GeoJSON for large point datasets. FlatGeobuf is an OGC Community Standard supported by QGIS and GDAL, making it an excellent choice for archiving large CSV location datasets in a cloud-ready format.
File converter
When to convert CSV to FlatGeobuf
- Converting large CSV point datasets to FlatGeobuf for fast QGIS loading
- Replacing GeoJSON with FlatGeobuf in cloud-native point data workflows
How to convert CSV to FlatGeobuf
- 1
Prepare your CSV
Ensure lat/lon columns are present.
- 2
Upload and select FlatGeobuf
Drop your .csv file and click FlatGeobuf.
- 3
Download the .fgb
Open in QGIS or use in a cloud GIS workflow.
About CSV
CSV (Comma-Separated Values) files containing geometry data typically include latitude and longitude columns (or X/Y columns for projected data). Many data providers distribute point datasets as CSV because they are easy to open in Excel, Python, and R. When converting from a vector format to CSV, Maparz outputs an X (longitude) and Y (latitude) column along with all attribute data. To convert CSV to GeoJSON, your file must have columns identifiable as longitude (x, lon, lng, longitude) and latitude (y, lat, latitude).
Strengths
- +Opens in Excel, Google Sheets, any spreadsheet
- +Human-readable and editable
- +Lightweight for point data
About FlatGeobuf
FlatGeobuf is a modern, high-performance binary format for geospatial vector data, designed for efficient streaming and cloud-native workflows. Based on FlatBuffers, it supports random access via HTTP range requests, making it ideal for serving large datasets directly from object storage like S3 without a tile server. FlatGeobuf is an OGC Community Standard and is supported by GDAL 3.1+, QGIS, Mapbox, and the GeoJSON ecosystem. Its compact binary encoding is significantly faster to parse than GeoJSON for large datasets.
Strengths
- +Extremely fast read/write — binary encoding
- +Supports HTTP range requests for cloud-native access
- +OGC Community Standard
- +Compact — much smaller than equivalent GeoJSON
Frequently asked questions
Q.Which column names are recognised?
Latitude: lat, latitude, y. Longitude: lon, lng, longitude, x. Case-insensitive.