Basemaps

A basemap is a crucial component of any map, providing essential context, spatial features, and the visual foundation for your creations. CARTO Builder supports three different type of basemaps: CARTO, Google Maps and Custom.

Admin users can configure the basemap options available in Builder. The availability of basemap types depends on the organization-level configuration. For more details on configuring and managing basemaps, refer to this section.

CARTO basemaps

Select CARTO in the menu to see different basemap options. They include:

• Voyager: Basemap with colors to clearly differentiate natural and cultural features.

• Positron: Light basemap with dark-colored text.

• Dark Matter: Dark basemap with light-colored text.

You can manage the CARTO basemap layers to hide and show water, buildings, roads, and more.

Google Maps basemaps

Select Google Maps in the menu to see different basemap options. They include:

• Roadmap: Displays the default road map view.

• Satellite: Displays Google Earth satellite images.

• Hybrid: Displays satellite imagery with overlays of road names, city names, and other labels.

• Terrain: Displays a physical map based on terrain information.

• Positron, Voyager, and Dark Matter: New versions developed for Google Maps.

• 3D Tiles: Displays Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles, a high-fidelity, mesh-based representation of the world built from aerial and satellite imagery. To see this basemap in its full glory, switch to 3D map view. Coverage varies by region — see Google's Photorealistic 3D Tiles coverage for the latest list of supported areas.

Layers using the height styling attribute may render with visual artifacts when overlapping 3D buildings. Adjust the layer's elevation or styling if needed.

For Self-Hosted deployments, Google Maps API Key must be added to the configuration to enable the use of Google Maps within the organization. Learn more in this section.

Custom basemaps

CARTO supports custom basemaps set up at the organization level by Admin users. When custom basemaps are available, they will be displayed under the Custom tab section of basemaps.

To learn more about how you can upload custom basemaps to the CARTO platform and the supported formats, check this page. For a step-by-step guide on custom basemaps, check out our tutorial in the Academy.