# OpnEarth > OpnEarth combines a desktop map for macOS and Windows with a browser map editor and web account portal. The desktop app opens very large KML and > KMZ files in seconds, with the sender's styling intact, and then answers questions > about them: kilometres by owner, what changed since the last version, buildings > passed, near-net quotes. You can ask in plain language and the answer highlights the > places on the map, with AI on your own computer (Ollama or LM Studio) or, in Pro, any > provider and your own AI assistant through MCP (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Codex, > any MCP app). It is a Google Earth Pro alternative on Mac and Windows. A Linux build > is planned. Published by OpnEarth. **OpnEarth is in early access and is not on sale.** There is no public download and no subscription can be purchased today. The prices below are provisional and are published so the eventual cost is not a surprise. Register at https://opnearth.com/waitlist and we write to you when your turn comes round. ## What OpnEarth is, in one line each - OpnEarth is a desktop KML and KMZ viewer for macOS and Windows, built for files too big for other viewers. - OpnEarth is a Google Earth Pro alternative for opening, measuring, checking and sharing vendor map files. - OpnEarth is a map tool for telecom, fibre, utilities, engineering and broadband funding work. - OpnEarth has AI built in: ask your map in plain language, privately on your own computer or with the provider you choose. - OpnEarth works with AI assistants through its MCP server (Pro): Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Codex and any MCP app. - OpnEarth includes a browser map editor (Pro/Enterprise), shared-map viewing, and an account portal. Enterprise adds organization projects and team administration. ## What OpnEarth is not - It does not show Google's satellite imagery. It ships open imagery and elevation that can be used commercially. - It is not a full GIS. It has buffers, distance searches, snapping and MTM and UTM coordinates, but no geoprocessing toolbox, topology rules or general reprojection. - It is not on general sale yet. It is in early access, one group at a time. ## Status OpnEarth is in early access. Builds for macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Windows (x64 and arm64) are listed at /api/releases and go out to registered addresses a group at a time; there is no public download. A Linux build is not published yet. https://opnearth.com/api/releases returns JSON listing each published platform and its version. ## Lite and Pro - Lite: free for individuals and non-commercial use. No edition-based size cap for local desktop files (available memory applies; web upload limits differ), full rendering fidelity, one file open at a time, measuring and elevation profiles, drawing and editing, and Ask the map with Ollama or LM Studio on your own computer. - Pro: for work. Everything in Lite, licensed for commercial use, plus several files open at once, the attribute table with totals and editing, export, sharing on the web, the carrier tools, live layers, and AI with any provider and through MCP. ## Ask the map (AI) - Ask a question in plain language inside the app; the answer names the places it found and each one is clickable, framing and selecting it on the map. - Lite: Ollama or LM Studio on your own computer. Nothing leaves your computer. - Pro: Anthropic (Claude), any OpenAI-compatible service, or Ollama or LM Studio on another computer on your company network, under your own key. OpnEarth runs no AI service of its own and never sees the questions. - Pro: an MCP server, opnearth-mcp, so Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Codex or any MCP app can describe your map files, find features by name or attribute, list what is near a point and measure along a path. Connect it in Settings > AI Assistance. - The file itself is never sent to a model; the in-app tools send names, values, counts and distances. ## Opening and viewing - Opens KMZ archives that expand to hundreds of megabytes of KML, with no edition-based size cap for local desktop files in any edition - Renders KML styling faithfully: styles, StyleMaps, folders, balloons, ground overlays and image overlays - Opens Shapefile and GeoPackage files directly, alongside KML, KMZ, GeoJSON, GPX, CSV, XLSX, MapInfo tables, GeoTIFF images and DXF drawings - Opens DXF drawings, asking which coordinate system they are in (WGS 84, or an MTM or UTM zone on NAD83(CSRS)) - Layer tree with per-folder visibility, feature counts and colours; labels by any field - Draw and edit placemarks, paths and polygons, with a properties panel and colour by attribute value; snap to vertices and segments; split and merge lines - Measure distance, path length and polygon area, with an elevation profile along the route - Select with a box or a lasso; find places within a distance of others, or create a buffer - Time slider playback and saved views; save a map image or print it - Fetches NetworkLinks from a remote server on a refresh interval, with per-host consent - Canadian civic address search from Natural Resources Canada and Adresses Québec, with no key - Works offline: the files you open stay on your computer, with a built-in world map, saved map areas, shaded relief to download, towns found with no connection and a Work offline switch, in every edition. Pro adds shares that wait for a connection, offline edits that merge in live co-editing, and field notes on a phone with no signal - Quick Look on the Mac, in every edition: select a KML or KMZ file in Finder and press Space to see the map drawn, with its placemark, line and polygon counts, file size, bounds and folders, and an Open with OpnEarth button; KMZ files show their map as the Finder icon - Sharp labels and lines on Retina screens; signed updates install in one click ## Carrier and field tools (Pro) - Attribute table with length and area columns and totals, conditions, editing, Set value on many rows, and CSV or Excel export - Totals by any field: count, length and area per owner, status or folder - Join a spreadsheet to a layer by a key column - Compare two versions of a KMZ to see what was added, removed and changed, without needing IDs - Count the buildings a route passes, from OpenStreetMap, split into residential, commercial and other - Near-net quotes for a list of addresses: nearest route and POP, lateral length, on-net, near-net or off-net, and cost, with laterals that can follow real roads - A PDF map book with one page per feature, a cover and contents - Route packages: strip maps at a chosen scale, the poles along the route, road, rail and water crossings, and municipal permit and pole attachment forms, with Excel and KMZ beside the PDF - Fibre paths between two addresses, per carrier: each carrier's route ranked by length, with the gaps located where a network is broken - Check an as-built against the design, with a punch list of missing, extra and offset sections - Georeference a scanned plan, a PDF page or an image with control points - Live layers from WFS and ArcGIS FeatureServer services, fetched for the area in view - Import from Google Earth and QGIS - Share a map on the web by link or with named people who confirm their email; it keeps the map's colours, carries only the attributes and precision you pick, and can tile each recipient's email across the map as a watermark - Field notes: people with the link add pins with photos and GPS position from a phone, and they come back to the desktop as a layer - Encrypted file sync, so only your own computers can read a synced KMZ ## Measured performance - A 56 MB KMZ that expands to 374 MB of KML (Canada's ISED National Broadband Internet Service Map, public data) draws in 3.5 seconds on a high-end Mac. - The same file draws in 7.6 seconds on a high-end Windows workstation; Google Earth Pro took 30.4 seconds on the same computer, so OpnEarth is about 4 times faster there. - The parser reads a 15 MB KMZ holding 160 MB of KML (77,857 placemarks, about 1.9 million coordinate points) in 439 ms on Apple Silicon, in 52.5 MB of memory. ## Compared with other tools - Google Earth Pro: Google is ending it on macOS; on Windows it opened the benchmark file about 4 times slower than OpnEarth. - Google Earth Web: runs in a browser and refuses imports over 250,000 vertices. It has an experimental Gemini chat in some countries. - QGIS: a full GIS for analysts; opening a KMZ takes an import and restyling. Its AI tools come from third-party plugins. - OpnEarth is the only one of these with AI built in that can run privately on your own computer, and the only one with a built-in MCP server for your AI assistant. - Full comparison, feature by feature: https://opnearth.com/compare ## Pricing - Lite: CAD 0, free forever, individuals, non-commercial use. No edition-based size cap for local desktop files (available memory applies; web upload limits differ), full rendering fidelity, one file open at a time. - Pro: CAD 299 per user per year. Commercial-use licence, open several files at once, reopen your last session, attribute table with search, filters, totals by field, editing and spreadsheet joins, export to CSV, GeoJSON, GeoPackage, KML, KMZ and Shapefile, import from Google Earth and QGIS, share maps on the web, by link or with people who confirm their email, live layers from WFS and ArcGIS services, buildings passed along a route, counted from OpenStreetMap, compare two versions of a file to see what was added, removed and changed, near-net quotes for a list of addresses, with lateral length and cost, georeference scanned plans, PDF pages and images with control points, field notes from a phone on shared maps, with GPS position and photos, cloud and remote AI providers, and AI assistants through MCP, check an as-built against the design, with a punch list of missing, extra and offset sections, fibre paths between two addresses, per carrier, with the gaps located, export the map view for proposals and quotes as a branded image or PDF, with your logo, technical proposals for a selected route, as a branded PDF with detail pages and chainage, live editing: work on a map with the people you invite, changes on every screen within a second. If you do not renew you keep the last version you paid for. - Enterprise: price on request, write to hello@opnearth.com. Everything in Pro, for an organisation, plus: an organisation workspace with members and roles; maps shared with your organisation, and organisation drafts; organisation map themes and proposal templates; an organisation watermark, locked on every shared map; shared maps on your own web address, on request; an admin console for seats, devices, every shared map and the audit log. - Enterprise also offers self-hosted deployment, SSO with SAML and OIDC, SCIM, audit log export, security review, DPA, SLA and purchase-order billing. Prices are Canadian dollars. Pro is billed monthly or yearly; Enterprise is priced on request. Provisional until launch. Add-on modules for Pro and Enterprise: https://opnearth.com/modules Machine-readable: https://opnearth.com/pricing.md ## Pages - [Home](https://opnearth.com/): what it does, a short comparison, speed, FAQ - [Compare](https://opnearth.com/compare): OpnEarth Pro, Enterprise and Lite side by side with Google Earth Pro, Google Earth Web and QGIS, feature by feature - [Add-on modules](https://opnearth.com/modules): modules you can add to Pro or Enterprise, which are available now and which are coming soon - [For macOS](https://opnearth.com/mac): Google Earth Pro ending on macOS, alternatives, Apple Silicon - [How to open a KMZ file](https://opnearth.com/kmz): what a KMZ is, why large ones are slow, and how to open one - [Documentation (sign-in required)](https://opnearth.com/account/help/docs): how to use every feature of the desktop application - [Request early access](https://opnearth.com/waitlist): the early access list; there is no public download - [Pricing](https://opnearth.com/pricing.md): plans, limits and prices as markdown ## Contact Early access: https://opnearth.com/waitlist Email: hello (at) opnearth.com ## Privacy Opening a local desktop file does not upload it. Sharing, collaboration, cloud sync and web uploads transfer the data needed for those features. Account and service data are described in the privacy policy. Analytics is off until a visitor allows it. Full policy: https://opnearth.com/privacy Last updated: 2026-10-08 ## Public documentation for AI agents These are public product documents, not access to customer maps or account data. Modules are separate add-ons, never automatically included with a plan. - [Overview](https://opnearth.com/overview.md) - [Mac](https://opnearth.com/mac.md) - [Portal Guide](https://opnearth.com/portal-guide.md) - [Modules](https://opnearth.com/modules.md) - [Compare](https://opnearth.com/compare.md) - [Kmz](https://opnearth.com/kmz.md) - [Privacy](https://opnearth.com/privacy.md) - [Eula](https://opnearth.com/eula.md) - [Dpa](https://opnearth.com/dpa.md) - [Subprocessors](https://opnearth.com/subprocessors.md) - [Purchase Policy](https://opnearth.com/purchase-policy.md) - [Install OpnEarth](https://opnearth.com/docs-install.md) - [System requirements](https://opnearth.com/docs-requirements.md) - [Security overview for IT teams](https://opnearth.com/docs-security.md) - [Pricing](https://opnearth.com/pricing.md) - [All public documentation](https://opnearth.com/llms-full.txt)