KML vs KMZ: What's the Difference?
I get some version of this question in my inbox every time someone downloads a map from me: you
open the file and it ends in .kmz, not .kml. Wrong format? Did something break? No — you’re
looking at the exact same thing, just packed slightly differently, and it takes about two minutes
to explain why.
The short answer
A KMZ file is a KML file, zipped. KML (Keyhole Markup Language) is the actual map data — pins, names, descriptions, colors. KMZ is that same KML file compressed into a single .kmz archive, usually along with the custom icons it uses. Unzip a .kmz and you’ll find a doc.kml inside — same tags, same structure, same everything.
Why does KMZ exist if KML already works?
Because a plain .kml file can only point at an icon somewhere online — it can’t carry the icon itself. KMZ can. Every Local Pins map uses its own colored pin icons for each category — waterfalls, restaurants, viewpoints — and those icons travel inside the KMZ archive, not as separate downloads or broken links to some other server. One file, everything it needs, nothing left to load.
It also keeps the download small and single: one .kmz instead of a .kml plus a folder of image files you’d have to keep together yourself.
Do they open the same way?
Yes. Google Earth, Google My Maps, Organic Maps, Maps.me, and every other OpenStreetMap-based map app read .kmz exactly like they read .kml — same import button, same result. The only difference is what’s inside the box, not how you open it.
Which one do you get from Local Pins?
Every Local Pins download is a .kmz file — never a bare .kml. That’s deliberate: it’s the version that includes the color-coded icons for each category and stays a single, self-contained file from download to import. Open it in whichever map app you already use, and every pin — icon and all — is right there.