How to Create an Elevation Profile in Google Earth Web and Earth Pro

Which elevation question are you asking?

An elevation profile is only one possible answer. Name the quantity first so a point readout, a route, and a terrain summary do not get mistaken for one another. For a broader choice among line, area, and routed measurements, use the Maps and Earth measurement guide.

For one location, the Google Earth coordinates guide explains how to find, enter and copy latitude and longitude. A point value cannot reveal the terrain between two endpoints.

Create an elevation profile in Google Earth on the web

Google added Elevation Profile to current Google Earth on April 30, 2026. It is listed as a regular feature in the release notes, not as an Experimental tool. The documented computer workflow is:

1. Open Google Earth on the web on a computer and frame the public or fictional terrain you want to examine.
2. Start Measure for a temporary line, or choose Path or polygon when you want a project feature you can name, save, and edit.
3. Click the start of the transect, then add at least one more point. With two points placed, the Elevation Profile chart appears in the inspector.
4. Add vertices where the line must bend. The chart changes as you draw or edit the line.
5. Double-click the last point or choose Done to finish. Wait for the completed result before transcribing values: Google says the initial elevation resolution can depend on zoom and is refined when drawing finishes.
6. Record the product, line definition, date, units, displayed minimum and maximum, and the fact that the terrain values are estimates.

Measure and a saved project path can reach the same kind of chart, but they serve different working habits. Use Measure for a quick disposable transect. Use a project path when classmates need to inspect or revise the same geometry. If the starting material is a public My Maps line, the My Maps export and Earth handoff guide explains the difference between viewing, copying, and downloading it; verify that the intended path arrived before profiling it.

These steps are for a computer. Before planning a phone or tablet activity, check whether the required profile controls are available on the class device.

Create an elevation profile in Google Earth Pro

Earth Pro uses its own installed desktop interface. It is not the same product as the current cloud Professional plan. The Earth web, mobile, and Pro comparison covers that naming and the wider file differences.

1. Open Google Earth Pro and go to the terrain you need.
2. Draw a path or open an existing path. If you started with Tools → Ruler, save and name the path so it appears under Places.
3. Select the path, then choose Edit → Show Elevation Profile.
4. Read the chart in the lower half of the 3D Viewer. Move the pointer over the profile to relate a chart position to the path; click and drag across a portion when you need to inspect a subsection.
5. If elevation reads 0, make sure the Terrain layer is on.
6. Set units under Tools → Options on Windows or Google Earth → Preferences on Mac, then record the same method and limitation details used for a web profile.

Do not install Pro solely because an old tutorial says the web lacks profiles. Choose Pro when its saved Places workflow, local files, or profile interactions suit the task; choose the web when the inspector and current project workflow suit it.

Google Earth web vs Earth Pro profile workflow

Neither workflow is a complete copy of the other. Choose between Google Maps, My Maps, and Earth for the whole project before treating one matching feature as product parity.

How to read the chart without overreading it

The profile is a two-dimensional section through estimated terrain beneath your chosen line. A high point on the chart corresponds to a high sampled part of the terrain; it is not automatically a summit, building top, bridge deck, road surface, flight altitude, or a value recorded by a GPS device.

Current Earth’s Advanced measurements can add summary statistics. For a line between two points and for longer paths, the documentation lists minimum, median, and maximum terrain elevation and slope. Median means the 50th percentile of the sampled values; it is not the arithmetic mean and not the elevation halfway along the line. Those summaries are useful for comparison, but they do not promise every local extreme or cumulative climbing.

A controlled example: two lines across one fictional ridge

Suppose a class studies a fictional public landform called Pine Ridge. Group A draws a direct west-to-east transect across the high point. Group B uses the same endpoints but adds a middle vertex that diverts into a shallow saddle. The numbers below are invented for method practice; they are not observed Earth values or a real location.

The groups should not average the two profiles or argue that one is the “true” ridge. They asked different spatial questions by drawing different lines. That is precisely why vertices belong in the method record.

Why a profile is missing, zero, flat, or surprising

Avoid “fixes” that merely make the picture look persuasive. Moving endpoints, adding vertices, changing units, or zooming to a different context changes the method or presentation. Record the change and rerun both comparison lines the same way.

Make a profile reproducible

Use this checklist before students compare results or a researcher returns later:

• Product and surface: Earth on the web on a computer, or Earth Pro with its version recorded.
• Line identity: a named saved path, or a written description of the temporary Measure line.
• Start and end: non-sensitive public landmarks or source-backed coordinates, in the correct order.
• Vertices: every deliberate bend and why it was added.
• State: drawing finished; in Pro, intended path selected and Terrain on.
• Units: distance and elevation units copied with the values.
• Outputs: chart minimum/maximum and any separate median or slope statistics labeled by name.
• Date and context: observation date plus enough view/zoom context to repeat the method.
• Limit: one sentence saying the values are inferred terrain estimates, not route, survey, engineering, legal, or navigation authority.

For a graded map, apply the research-question, citation, accessibility, and presentation checks in the student map project framework. A screenshot alone is weak evidence if it omits the path and method.

Classroom activity: compare public transects

Choose a public park, broad landform, or wholly fictional terrain—never a student home, private routine, or sensitive field site. Give pairs the same public start and end markers. Half draw the direct line; half add one agreed vertex around a ridge or through a valley. Each pair records units, maximum and minimum, the number of vertices, and one uncertainty.

Then ask: did the terrain change, or did the sampling line change? That question turns a chart-reading exercise into spatial reasoning. The mapping lesson ideas collection can place the transect in science, geography, history, or literature, while the teacher workflow guide covers account, privacy, and accessible alternatives.

Make the evidence accessible: repeat key values in a table, describe the overall rises and falls in words, do not encode meaning by color alone, and offer the path description alongside the image. If Earth is unavailable, students can still compare teacher-provided fictional path/profile pairs on paper.

What the profile cannot establish

Google describes current Earth measurements as inferred estimates and says they may contain errors. Use a profile to explore terrain, compare deliberately controlled transects, and form questions. Do not use it as the sole evidence for:

• cumulative ascent or descent that the interface does not document;
• a terrain-following walking, cycling, driving, or trail distance;
• the altitude captured by a GPS device or embedded in a KML track;
• a road surface across bridges and tunnels, the top of buildings or vegetation, or obstacle clearance;
• property boundaries, grading plans, drainage design, earthworks, construction quantities, aviation, emergency routing, or another legal or safety decision;
• a raw series of sampled elevations unless a separately documented export method actually supplies it.

For source tables and citations, use the mapping research guide. Choose a specialist analysis tool when a consumer terrain estimate cannot support the decision.