MBTiles

MBTiles is a specification for storing tiled map data in a single SQLite database file. It was designed to simplify the distribution and offline use of map tiles by encapsulating all tiles and metadata in one portable file, typically with the .mbtiles extension. The database follows a simple schema: at minimum a tiles table containing zoom_level, tile_column, tile_row, and tile_data, where tile_data holds the binary image data of a single tile (usually PNG or JPEG). The tile_row field uses the TMS coordinate scheme (origin at the bottom) though many clients adapt coordinates to the slippy/mapbox convention.

In addition to tiles, an MBTiles database commonly includes a metadata table with key-value pairs for properties such as name, description, attribution, minzoom, maxzoom, and format. Some MBTiles variants also include UTFGrid grids to support interactivity, stored in extra tables such as grids and grid_data.

MBTiles is an open specification developed by Mapbox and has broad support in GIS and mapping tools. It is widely used for offline maps on mobile devices and in workflows that require easy distribution of large raster tile sets. Many software packages can generate MBTiles from raster or vector tiles, and libraries exist for reading MBTiles in web and mobile apps (for example, in GIS applications, tiling tools, and web map libraries). MBTiles is a container format rather than a tiling protocol, and it relies on external software to serve or render the tiles.