FILE FORMAT GUIDE

KMZ File (.KMZ): KML Package Structure & Inspection

A KMZ file is a ZIP archive containing a main KML document and optional supporting resources such as images, icons or models for geographic display.

Check supported header evidence locally. Identification is not file validation or a malware scan.

Analyze a file locally

Quick facts

Extension: .kmz
Format: KML Zipped Archive
Category: data
MIME type: application/vnd.google-earth.kmz, application/zip
Standard / developer: Open Geospatial Consortium
Open with: Python zipfile

What is KMZ?

The OGC KML 2.3 standard requires at least one KML file in a KMZ archive. The main KML file is at the archive root; doc.kml is conventional but not mandatory.

Package geographic features and their supporting resources for use in an earth browser

How to open KMZ

Listing archive entries does not render KML, resolve network links or establish that embedded resources are safe.

Python zipfileCommand-line tool and standard library

Run python -m zipfile -l map.kmz to list the package without extracting it. Confirm the presence and location of the main KML document before rendering the file in a geographic application.

Technical details

Signature: ZIP signatures such as 50 4B 03 04; not unique to KMZ
Encoding: Not applicable
Container: ZIP archive containing a root-level main KML document and optional resources
Compression: ZIP stored or Deflate methods are required minimum support; compression is optional

OGC KML 2.3

Things to check

A KMZ can reference or contain multiple resource types, so listing the archive is not equivalent to safely rendering every resource.

Related formats

ZIP Archive
KMZ applies KML-specific package rules to a ZIP archive and requires at least one KML document.
Extensible Markup Language
The main document inside a KMZ archive is KML, an XML grammar for geographic display data.

Sources & review

Fact review: 2026-09-19. Unknown fields are not inferred from the file extension.