Geo Measure
Any area. Any distance. On a map.
How many acres is that field? How far is the walk to the station? How much fence does the new lot need? Geo Measure answers on a map: tap the corners, read the number. It has been doing that since 2011. Today it keeps several measurements in one file as layers, measures a boundary while you walk it with the phone in your pocket, computes on the same earth model surveying software uses, and gets the numbers out as GeoJSON, KML, GPX, CSV or a PDF report.
Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision
Free: one complete measurement in every file, routing along roads included. No account. More measurements in the same file, printing and the PDF report, KML, GPX and CSV, and walking the boundary are Geo Measure Pro, one purchase in the app for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Vision Pro, shared with your family. Bought Geo Measure before it was free? Pro is yours.
See it in action
Recorded in the app. Interface shown in English.
Tap the corners. Read the number.
Tap the map to drop a point, and again for the next corner. The outline closes itself and the number updates with every point. Drag a pin to move it, with a loupe that shows exactly where it sits. Tap the small dot on an edge to bend the edge around a curve. Tap a pin and delete it from its callout. Every step is undoable, on the Mac with ⌘Z, and the outline warns you when it crosses itself.
Along roads and paths
A straight line is the wrong answer for a walk. Pick Walking, Cycling or Driving and every tap follows the paths and roads to it, the way you would really go, with Apple Maps’ travel time beside the distance. Drag a point and the route finds its way again; an area drawn along roads closes along them too. Straight lines are still one tap away, and an area starts with them, because fields and lots are measured corner to corner. Routing is free, as often as you like.
Walk the boundary
Some edges are easier to walk than to find on a satellite map: a field line under trees, a fence through a wood. On iPhone and iPad, choose Walk the Boundary, put the phone in your pocket and walk it. Geo Measure keeps a point every few meters, with the screen locked too, and leaves out the positions a phone gets wrong: a jump out and back, the drift between tall buildings, the wander while you stand still on a call. The bar shows the distance and the area so far, and when you come back to where you started it offers to finish. Every walk is also saved as a file of its own, so it is never lost, even if iOS closes the app on the way round. On the Mac and Vision Pro, Track My Position adds points as you move. Walking the boundary comes with Geo Measure Pro.
Layers, as in a drawing app
The north field, the fence line and the sprinkler’s reach belong together, so with Geo Measure Pro a document holds as many measurements as you like. Each one is a layer with a name and a color: hide it with the eye, drag it above or below the others, zoom the map to it. Hidden layers stay out of the totals, the pictures and the prints, and stay in the file. Distances give you the length of every leg and its bearing; circles take a radius and give you diameter, circumference and area.
The right number
Areas and distances are computed on the WGS84 ellipsoid, the way surveying software does it, so a plot in Norway and a lot in Kenya are both right, and a state-sized quadrangle comes out within a hundredth of a percent of the geodesic answer. Acres, hectares, ares, square feet, square yards, square meters, square miles, square kilometers and tsubo; kilometers, miles, meters, feet, yards and nautical miles. The number shows the digits that mean something: four significant figures by default, up to six if you need them, whether it is 0.261 miles or 103,786 square miles. Settings can also write each shape’s name and value on the map, and the length of every side.
Every point, exactly
Open the points table under the map and every point is a row: its coordinates in decimal degrees or in degrees, minutes and seconds, the leg to it, its bearing and the distance so far. Pick a row and the map shows the point; pick a pin and the table scrolls to it. Type a new coordinate straight into the cell, nudge a corner north, south, east or west by a meter or a foot, delete several points at once, copy the lot to a spreadsheet, or add the point where you stand.
In and out
Export GeoJSON or a picture of the map, free. With Geo Measure Pro: KML for Google Earth, CSV for a spreadsheet, GPX for a GPS, and a PDF report with the map, the numbers and every point, printed or saved. The print sheet shows the page as it will print, with the map style, the labels and the tables you choose, before you print it. Import GeoJSON, KML and GPX: a parcel from a county GIS, a boundary from Google Earth, a track from a watch. The document itself is GeoJSON, so anything that reads GeoJSON reads it.
Files that show what is in them
In Files and the Finder every Geo Measure document shows its own shapes, in their colors, with the first one’s number at the foot, and Quick Look opens it without the app: the shapes, the scale and a list of every measurement. The pictures are drawn on your device from the file itself.
Made for the Mac
On macOS 15 and later Geo Measure opens with a welcome window: a new measurement, the sample, and your recent files with their thumbnails. Documents open in windows, autosave and keep versions. The menu bar has the whole app in it: ⌘1, ⌘2 and ⌘3 start an area, a distance or a circle, ⌃⌘1, ⌃⌘2 and ⌃⌘3 pick Select, Add Points or Freehand, ⌥-drag traces an edge, ⌘] and ⌘[ move a layer up or down, ⌥⌘P shows the points table, ⌘0 fits the map to the shapes, ⌘F searches for a place, a mountain or a lake, ⌘, opens the settings. Drop a file on the map to import it, double-click a layer to zoom to it, and type in the points table like a spreadsheet: ↑ and ↓ move between rows, ⌥ with an arrow nudges the point.
On iPhone, iPad and Vision Pro
The same app and the same file. On iPhone and iPad it opens on a start screen: measure an area, measure a distance, walk the boundary, open a file or the sample, or pick up a recent one. On the phone the map fills the whole screen and everything else floats on it in glass: the document at the top, the map controls on the right, the tools by your thumb and one sheet at the bottom with the number. Choose Select to look around without adding points by mistake, Add Points to draw, or Freehand to trace an edge with a finger or the Pencil. Files live in Files and iCloud Drive, so the lot you outlined on the phone opens on the Mac.
It is made for iPhone Duo too. Closed, the map controls and the tools sit in the strip down the side of the outer display, under the time, so the map keeps its full width; open, the larger display gets the iPad’s layout, with the panel beside the map.
No file handy? Try these
Real documents, free to use. Download one and open it with Geo Measure.
- LaGuardia Airport: the airport’s outline in forty-five points, 646.5 acres.
- Central Park, three shapes: the park as an area, Fifth Avenue as a distance, the reservoir as a circle.
- Richmond, Virginia: a six-point loop around the Fan and Carytown, 3,108 acres.
- Colorado: the four corners of a state, 66 million acres.
- The Mist Trail: a walk in Yosemite drawn along the path, 3.49 miles and two hours on foot.
- Jaipur: a short route through the old city, as a distance.
Yours stays yours
Geo Measure has no account, no server and no tracking. Your measurements are files on your device, and in your iCloud Drive if you put them there; your walks stay on your device too. The only network traffic goes to Apple: to Apple Maps for the map tiles it draws, the place search you type, and, when you measure along roads or paths, the points of each leg for directions; and to the App Store for Geo Measure Pro. Free, with one optional purchase and no subscription. In English, German, French, Spanish and Japanese.
Questions people ask
How do I measure the area of a field or a lot on a map? Open Geo Measure, choose Measure an Area (on the Mac, New Measurement), find the place by search or by scrolling, and tap each corner of the field. The area appears after the third point and updates as you add or move corners. Switch the unit on the number itself.
Is it free? Yes. Every file holds one complete measurement, an area, a distance or a circle, with routing along roads, the points table, every unit, GeoJSON and pictures of the map. Geo Measure Pro, one purchase in the app with no subscription, adds more measurements in the same file, printing and the PDF report, KML, GPX and CSV, and walking the boundary.
I bought Geo Measure before it was free. Do I pay again? No. Pro is yours: Geo Measure checks your earlier purchase with the App Store and unlocks it. If it does not show, tap Restore Purchases in Settings.
Can I measure a field by walking around it? Yes, with Geo Measure Pro. On iPhone and iPad choose Walk the Boundary, put the phone in your pocket and walk the edge; the screen can be locked. Finish when you are back at the start. Every walk is also kept as its own file.
How accurate is it? The math is the same as surveying software: distances by Vincenty’s formulae on the WGS84 ellipsoid, areas by spherical excess on the earth’s authalic sphere, checked against GeographicLib to a hundred-thousandth. The limit is where you put the pins, which on a satellite map at street zoom is a meter or so; a walked boundary is as good as the phone’s GPS, a few meters under open sky.
Can I get the shape into Google Earth or a GIS? Yes. GeoJSON for QGIS and everything web is free; KML for Google Earth, GPX for a GPS or a watch and CSV for a spreadsheet come with Geo Measure Pro. Import works the other way round for GeoJSON, KML and GPX.
Does it work without a connection? The measurements do; the map needs a connection to load new tiles. Your files never need one.
Is there a web version? Yes, Geo Measure on geosq.com measures the same way in any browser. The app adds documents, layers, walking the boundary, export and the Mac menus.
What is Geo Measure for Mac? The same app on its own Mac-only record, sold since 2013 and free now too, with a Geo Measure Pro of its own, for people who only want the Mac app or already own it. The app on this page covers iPhone, iPad, Mac and Vision Pro with one Pro. Nobody needs both.
Can it measure along a road or a trail? Yes. Choose Walking, Cycling or Driving and the line follows the paths and roads between the points you tap, with the travel time. Choose Straight for a line as the crow flies.
What changed lately? The newest work is written up in the 4.0 post.
Is there a manual? The Geo Measure guide covers every tool, menu, setting and Mac shortcut.