# What is GDAL?

GDAL is a translator library for raster and vector geospatial data formats that is released under an MIT style Open Source License by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation. As a library, it presents a single raster abstract data model and single vector abstract data model to the calling application for all supported formats. It also comes with a variety of useful command line utilities for data translation and processing. The NEWS page describes the November 2025 GDAL/OGR 3.12.0 release.

Note

> The GDAL project is currently soliciting feedback to help focus activities. We would highly appreciate you fill in the survey that will provide guidance about priorities for the program's resources (open until end of December 2025). Five T-shirts will be distributed to randomly chosen respondents who leave their email!

Documentation for the latest version of GDAL is available as a PDF or a ZIP of individual HTML pages for offline browsing.

See Software using GDAL

You may quote GDAL in publications by using the following Digital Object Identifier: