Convert KML to Shapefile
Turn KML files from Google Earth or Google Maps into a complete Shapefile, right in the browser — with folder detection, automatic splitting of mixed geometry types and optional reprojection. Runs server-side; the file is deleted automatically afterwards.
A single .kml file, no sidecar files.
What you get
A ZIP with a complete Shapefile — .shp, .shx, .dbf and .prj. The four files belong together: passing on the .shp alone means passing on geometry without attributes and without a coordinate system. If your KML mixes geometry types, you get one set per type (_points, _polygons, …) in the same ZIP, because a single shapefile can only hold one geometry type per layer.
Field names get cut to ten characters
The attribute table of a Shapefile is a dBASE file from the eighties, and it allows at most ten characters per field name. Your KML's description becomes descriptio; if two truncated names collide, a digit is appended. Values are never lost — only the names shorten. If you need the full names, GeoJSON or GeoPackage are the better targets.
What does not survive the trip
- Styles, icons and folder colours — Shapefile has no concept of styling.
- HTML formatting inside description balloons becomes plain text.
- Nested folder structures are flattened to layers.
- KML timestamps are stored as plain dates, because Shapefile has no native datetime type.
Geometry and attribute values come through completely — what is lost is presentation, not data.
Reprojection
By default the result stays in EPSG:4326, exactly as KML stores it. If your GIS work needs a projected system — UTM for measuring in metres, a national grid for official workflows — enter it as the target CRS and the coordinates are transformed before writing. Areas and lengths measured in unprojected WGS 84 degrees are not areas and lengths; that is the usual reason to reproject here.
Related conversions
- Convert KMZ to Shapefile
- Convert Shapefile to KML — the other direction
- KML to GeoJSON (German)