Zoom Levels and Tile Grid
Service version: 1
Last edit: 2020.08.05
On this page
- ▸ Purpose
- ▸ Zoom levels
- ▸ Tile grid
Purpose
TomTom Maps use the Spherical Mercator projection coordinate system (EPSG:3857).
Zoom levels
The world is divided into square tiles.
- Maps Raster has 23 zoom levels, numbered
0
through22
. - Maps Vector has 23 zoom levels, numbered
0
through22
.
At zoom level 0
, the entire world fits on a single tile:

Zoom level 1
uses 4 tiles to render the world: a 2 x 2 square.
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Each subsequent zoom level quad divides the tiles of the previous one, creating a grid of 2zoom x 2zoom.
For example, zoom level 22
is a grid 222 x 222, or 4,194,304 x 4,194,304 tiles (result: 17,592,186,044,416 in total).
To discover the real-world size of a single tile on a given zoom level, we can use the formula circumference of earth / 2zoom level that produces number of meters per tile side, where the circumference of the earth equals 40,075,017
meters.
The full data table of values for zoom levels is here:
zoom level | meters/pixel | meters/tile side |
---|---|---|
0 |
156543 | 40075017 |
1 |
78271.5 | 20037508 |
2 |
39135.8 | 10018754 |
3 |
19567.88 | 5009377.1 |
4 |
9783.94 | 2504688.5 |
5 |
4891.97 | 1252344.3 |
6 |
2445.98 | 626172.1 |
7 |
1222.99 | 313086.1 |
8 |
611.5 | 156543 |
9 |
305.75 | 78271.5 |
10 |
152.87 | 39135.8 |
11 |
76.44 | 19567.9 |
12 |
38.219 | 9783.94 |
13 |
19.109 | 4891.97 |
14 |
9.555 | 2445.98 |
15 |
4.777 | 1222.99 |
16 |
2.3887 | 611.496 |
17 |
1.1943 | 305.748 |
18 |
0.5972 | 152.874 |
19 |
0.14929 | 76.437 |
20 |
0.14929 | 38.2185 |
21 |
0.074646 | 19.10926 |
22 |
0.037323 | 9.55463 |
Tile grid
Tiles are called by zoom level and the x
and y
coordinates corresponding to the tile's position on the grid for that zoom level.
When determining which zoom level to use, remember that each location is in a fixed position on its tile.
- This means that the number of tiles needed to display a given expanse of territory is dependent on the specific placement of zoom grid on the world.
- For instance, if there are two points 900 meters apart, it may only take three tiles to display a route between them at zoom level
17
.
However, if the western point is on the right side of its tile, and the eastern point on its left side, it may take four tiles as shown in the following diagram:
Once the zoom level is determined, the x
and y
coordinate values can be calculated:
- The top-left tile in each zoom grid is
x=0, y=0
. - The bottom-right tile is at
x=2zoom-1, y=2zoom-1
.
Here is the zoom grid for zoom level 1
: