Export a Google Maps List to CSV, JSON, KML or GPX (Free, No Extension, No Sign-In)

A free, open-source Python script that exports any Google Maps list to CSV, JSON, GeoJSON, KML, or GPX. This works on shared lists you don't own, lists you only joined, not just your own. No Chrome extension, no account sign-in, no Google Takeout, no per-export limit.

Pointing an AI coding agent at this instead? See AGENTS.md in this repo for a version written for that.

Getting started

Requirement: a Python 3.6+ interpreter installed. That's the only thing you need — "zero dependencies" here means zero third-party packages on top of that, not zero requirements at all. Every import the script makes (argparse, csv, http.cookiejar, json, re, secrets, sys, urllib) ships in Python's standard library, so there's no pip install step for the script's own code.

For humans

1. Check you have Python 3 available: python3 --version (3.6 or newer). If not, install it from python.org or your OS package manager.
2. Get the script — clone the repo, or just download gmaps_list_export.py directly:

   git clone https://github.com/ForceGT/gmaps-list-export.git
   cd gmaps-list-export

3. Grab a Google Maps list share link (open the list in Maps, Share, Copy link) and run:

   python3 gmaps_list_export.py "<share-link>" --format json,csv,kml

4. Read the output files (places.json, places.csv, places.kml by default) — see Available export formats below for what each is good for.

For AI coding agents

Full machine-oriented instructions, including when to reach for this script and how to handle its error modes, live in AGENTS.md. Short version: confirm a Python 3 interpreter is on PATH, then invoke the script directly per the usage example below — no pip install, no build step, no virtualenv required.

The problem this solves

Google Maps has no built-in export button for lists. Google Takeout only exports lists you personally created. A list someone shared with you, that you joined, is invisible to Takeout even though it shows up fine in Maps under Saved, Your lists.

Most tools that solve this are a paid Chrome extension with a free-tier cap, or a paid web app you have to hand your list's link to. This is neither. It's about 200 lines of standard-library Python you can read in a couple of minutes, run locally, and never touch again.

Usage

python3 gmaps_list_export.py "https://maps.app.goo.gl/XXXXXXXX" --format json,csv,kml

Works with a short share link (maps.app.goo.gl/...) or the long form Maps gives you from the address bar.

$ python3 gmaps_list_export.py "https://maps.app.goo.gl/XXXXXXXX" --format json,csv,kml

Resolving list...
  list id:  -mup0V4zyZUEpvJl_Tvf2UMziCBMGg
  token:    3PoDpW5u7uo
Fetching places...
  "COCO Fuel Station" - 382 places (0 missing coordinates)
  wrote places.json
  wrote places.csv
  wrote places.kml

Available export formats

Format	Use
json	Raw data, for scripting (default if --format is omitted)
csv	Spreadsheets, Google Sheets, Excel
geojson	GIS tools, map libraries (Leaflet, Mapbox, QGIS)
kml	Google Earth, Google My Maps import
gpx	GPS units, OsmAnd, Organic Maps, Garmin

Plain XML isn't offered on its own. GPX is XML, and it's the standard form for point-of-interest data, so it already covers that ground.

Output fields

Every place comes back with real coordinates, pulled directly from the same data Google Maps uses to render the list (a Takeout export can be missing coordinates for dropped pins; this doesn't have that gap):

• name: short display name, as shown on the pin label
• label: full name and address, concatenated
• address: address only
• lat / lng: coordinates
• cid: Google's internal CID pair for the place
• placeId: short-form place ID (/g/...), for looking the place up again later

Why it works

A share link is just a redirect. Following it (with a plain, unremarkable user agent) lands on a URL carrying the list's real id and share token. That URL is exactly what the list's own page uses internally to ask for its contents: the same entitylist/getlist call the page fires on load to draw itself. The response is one large nested array. The place list sits four levels down (data[0][8]), with every entry's fields at fixed positions.

This calls an undocumented Google endpoint, not a public API. It could change without notice. As of writing it needs no authentication for a publicly shared list, and returns the whole list in one response: no clicking, no hovering, no per-pin requests. The request caps at 500 entries per call (the 4i500 parameter), untested past that.

FAQ

How do I export a Google Maps list I don't own? Run this script against the share link. Ownership isn't checked, only whether the list is publicly link-shared.

How do I get coordinates from a shared Google Maps list? That's the lat / lng fields in every output format, extracted directly, no geocoding step needed.

Why doesn't Google Takeout show my saved list? Takeout only exports lists you created. A list you joined through someone else's link never appears there.

Is this free? Yes. MIT-licensed, no rate limit imposed by the script, no account, no place-count cap.

Troubleshooting

"Couldn't find a list id in the resolved URL": the link resolved to something that isn't a list (a single place, a plain map view). Open it in a browser and confirm the address bar shows something containing /placelists/list/....

Place count looks short, or coordinates are missing: the request caps at 500 entries per call, untested past that size. A bare dropped pin with no linked business can come back with lat / lng present but a thin label. That's the source data, not a bug.

json.loads or urllib.error.HTTPError: usually means the list needs the viewer signed in and added as a collaborator. Try an incognito window to check whether it's genuinely public before assuming the script is broken.