Adding Basemaps from Google or Bing in QGIS

No plugin required

There is a core functionality XYZ Tile Server provider which was implemented with some other nice UX enhancements for tiled services (available since QGIS 2.18). This means, that there is no need for an external plugin although for an easy setup you can still use external plugins (see bottom of this post) and it offers various improvements over pure plugin based solutions.

In the browser panel, locate the Tile Server entry and right click it to add a new service.

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Enter the URL of the service which you would like to use, replacing x, y and z parts with curly brackets substitution as can be seen below.

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Double Click the newly created entry to add the layer to the map.

Layers added this way:

  • Load faster
  • Support reprojection
  • Support printing
  • Are cached in a powerful way
  • Are compatible with QField

Some example URLs

OpenTopoMap

https://tile.opentopomap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

(See comment below for attribution)

OpenStreetMap

http://tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

Google Hybrid

https://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=y&x={x}&y={y}&z={z}

Google Satellite

https://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=s&x={x}&y={y}&z={z}

Google Road

https://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=m&x={x}&y={y}&z={z}

(Codes for other tile types from Google found here)

Bing Aerial

http://ecn.t3.tiles.virtualearth.net/tiles/a{q}.jpeg?g=1

Configuration GUI

Since version 0.18.7 and in combination with QGIS >= 2.18.8 it's possible to use QuickMapServices as a very easy to use tool for configuring layers. Just check the "Use native renderer" checkbox (thanks @DmitryBaryshnikov)


Update 2019: No plugin needed, see new answer: https://gis.stackexchange.com/a/217670/187

Update 2015: A new plugin with even more background map options is QuickMapServices

Original: Use the OpenLayers plugin to get Google Maps, Bing, OSM or Yahoo background maps.

Note that these layers are NOT SUITABLE FOR PRINTING! (see open tickets in the answer to https://gis.stackexchange.com/a/42141/187)

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Another plugin to add basemaps in QGIS - QuickMapServices:

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QGIS Python Plugins Repository: https://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/quick_map_services/

More info about plugin:

  • http://nextgis.ru/en/blog/quickmapservices/
  • http://nextgis.ru/en/blog/quickmapservices-with-contributed-services/
  • http://nextgis.ru/en/blog/quickmapservices-in-gray/
  • http://nextgis.ru/en/blog/qms-simple-basemaps-management/

Tags:

Google Maps

Bing Maps

Qgis

Basemap

Xyz Tiles

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