Extract text from GPS navigation logs (NMEA)
To convert NMEA GPS logs to another format, you need GPS LapTimer or other GIS software.
To convert other file formats to the "Navigation Data Log" file type, you need software like GPS LapTimer or a similar tool.
The .NMEA file is a standardized raw data log generated by GPS and GNSS receivers to record coordinate, speed, and satellite telemetry over time. Established by the National Marine Electronics Association, this format stores data in comma-separated text lines known as "sentences" (such as $GPGGA for fix data or $GPRMC for minimum specific transit data). It is heavily utilized by marine navigation systems, survey equipment, and tracking applications like SEAiq and GPS LapTimer.
While universally created by GPS hardware devices, .NMEA files present major disadvantages for the average user. The raw text format is dense, difficult to read, and completely unsupported by modern web browsers, consumer fitness platforms like Strava, and standard mapping software like Google Earth. Without specialized parsing software, the raw coordinate data remains trapped inside the log.
To make this geographical data actually usable, you need to convert the file. The best target format is GPX, which is the universal standard for sharing tracks and routes across fitness and map apps. Alternatively, convert to KML for 3D route visualization in Google Earth, or CSV for tabular data analysis. Note that converting to consumer-friendly formats like GPX will usually discard low-level satellite diagnostic data, such as Dilution of Precision (DOP) metrics and raw satellite counts.
Parsing .NMEA files is notoriously difficult because many hardware manufacturers inject their own proprietary, non-standard sentences into the log, causing basic online converters to crash or skip data. Even if standard parsing fails, we can inspect the file and often extract the core latitude and longitude data for you.
Convert.Guru analyzes your NMEA file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted TXT, LOG, TS, NMA, CSV, MP4, MOV, GPX, JPG, CDW and KML files.
If you want to convert NMEA file to GPX, KML, CSV, MP4, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG or CONF, you can use GPS LapTimer or similar software from the "GPS/GNSS Data Logging" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert DBF, XML, SQLITE, XLSX, SQL, TSV, ACCDB, YAML, MDB, CSV, ODS or JSON files to NMEA, try GPS LapTimer or another comparable tool in the "GPS/GNSS Data Logging" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our NMEA converter.