A KML file is a file format used to display geographic data in an Earth browser such as Google Earth. It is an XML-based file format that expresses geographic annotation and visualization by storing locations, image overlays, video links, and modeling information like lines, shapes, and points. KML uses a tag-based structure with nested elements and attributes and is based on the XML standard. The KML file specifies a set of features that can be displayed on maps in geospatial software implementing the KML encoding, such as Google Earth. KML files can contain features of different geometry types and can even contain both vector and raster data. KML is an international standard maintained by the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) .

To import a KML file into Google Earth, you can select "Import KML File" or "Import KML file from Drive" in the "Projects" section of the left-hand panel. KML files can contain placemarks, lines/paths, polygons, image overlays (ground overlays), simple network links, super-overlays, and simple KML tours without audio.