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This page lists known issues and workarounds for vector maps and WebGL features.
Browser/device support
The WebGL feature preview supports the same browsers and devices as the Maps JavaScript API.
To check whether the browser on a particular device will support WebGL, visit get.webgl.org
or caniuse.com. Please also ensure the
hardware acceleration is enabled in the browser settings, otherwise vector maps
will revert to raster.
Raster or vector?
Occasionally, a vector map may fall back to raster. When this happens, features
depending on the vector map are unavailable. Fallback to a raster map may occur
for a variety of reasons. This section shows you how to correctly configure
your web browser, and how to programmatically check whether vector map
capability is present.
Check browser capabilities on Chrome
To determine which hardware acceleration capabilities are enabled in a specific
installation of Chrome, navigate to chrome://gpu/, and ensure
that the following items are enabled (in green):
"OpenGL: Enabled"
"WebGL: Hardware accelerated"
"WebGL2: Hardware accelerated"
(These are just baseline requirements, there can be other factors which
impact support, see "Known bugs" below.)
Enable hardware acceleration
In order to support vector maps, hardware acceleration must be enabled in most
browsers. To enable hardware acceleration in Chrome and Microsoft Edge, open
Settings, select System, and ensure that Use hardware acceleration
when available is enabled.
You can programmatically check to see whether a map is raster or vector, by
calling map.getRenderingType(). The following example shows code to monitor
the renderingtype_changed event, and show an info window displaying whether a
raster or vector map is in use.
TypeScript
/** * This example creates a map with an info window that shows whether * the map render type is raster or vector. */functioninitMap(){constcenter={lat:0,lng:0};constmap=newgoogle.maps.Map(document.getElementById('map')asHTMLElement,{center,zoom:10,heading:0.0,tilt:0.0,// Map ID for a vector map.mapId:'6ff586e93e18149f',});constcanvas=document.createElement("canvas");constinfoWindow=newgoogle.maps.InfoWindow({content:'',ariaLabel:'Raster/Vector',position:center,});infoWindow.open({map,});map.addListener('renderingtype_changed',()=>{infoWindow.setContent(`${map.getRenderingType()}`);});}declareglobal{interfaceWindow{initMap:()=>void;}}window.initMap=initMap;
/** * This example creates a map with an info window that shows whether * the map render type is raster or vector. */functioninitMap(){constcenter={lat:0,lng:0};constmap=newgoogle.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map"),{center,zoom:10,heading:0.0,tilt:0.0,// Map ID for a vector map.mapId:"6ff586e93e18149f",});constcanvas=document.createElement("canvas");constinfoWindow=newgoogle.maps.InfoWindow({content:"",ariaLabel:"Raster/Vector",position:center,});infoWindow.open({map,});map.addListener("renderingtype_changed",()=>{infoWindow.setContent(`${map.getRenderingType()}`);});}window.initMap=initMap;
Mobile web support for vector maps is still experimental. Developers can use
client APIs to detect mobile web browsers and use a map ID associated with a
raster map instead of a vector map. We anticipate slower rendering performance
for some mobile devices. If you choose to use vector maps on mobile web, we
would greatly appreciate performance statistics and feedback. As above, if
Vector Maps support is not available, a vector map ID will automatically
fallback to using a raster map.
Bugs
Known bugs
There is a known issue in Chrome on some macOS devices with AMD GPUs. This can
be particularly confusing when macOS dynamically switches between GPUs on
devices with multiple GPUs, so vector maps may not be available depending on
what other apps are running, or whether an external monitor is connected.
Turning on Chrome's upcoming ANGLE Metal backend appears to fix this issue in
some cases. You can follow general rollout plans for this at
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1322521.
Reporting bugs
Please update the browser and GPU driver to the latest version before reporting the bug.
Ensure that the hardware acceleration setting at chrome://settings/system (Chrome), about:preferences#general (Firefox), edge://settings/system (Microsoft Edge) is enabled. In Safari, this setting is enabled automatically in macOS version 10.15 or newer. For older MacOS version(s), please go to the Safari advanced settings and ensure that the "Use hardware acceleration" option is enabled.
Include jsfiddle sample code link in the bug report.
Please also take a screenshot of chrome://gpu (Chrome), about:support (Firefox) or edge://gpu (Microsoft Edge), attach GPU related info in bug report if you encounter any rendering issues.
Tell us what you think!
We value your feedback as we strive to make the best vector map experience for
you and your end-users. Please let us know if:
There are any new JavaScript errors or bugs/crashes that you detect in your
web apps.
Startup latency for vector maps is significantly worse than that for raster
maps. If this is the case, metrics for startup latency regression are very
helpful. In general, we want to know if startup latency regresses beyond
acceptable thresholds.
The vector maps experience is not as smooth as it could be. If you log FPS or
jank metrics, how do they compare between vector and raster maps?
Performance differs greatly by browser.
If you have set up A/B testing for a comparison of vector maps vs. raster maps,
please share any performance feedback you acquire, as this will be very useful
to help us refine the feature.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-20 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eThis page addresses known issues and workarounds for vector maps and WebGL features in Google Maps.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eHardware acceleration must be enabled in your browser settings for vector maps to function correctly; instructions for various browsers are provided.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eYou can programmatically determine if a map is rendering in vector or raster mode using the \u003ccode\u003emap.getRenderingType()\u003c/code\u003e method.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThere are known issues with vector maps on certain macOS devices with AMD GPUs in Chrome, potentially due to dynamic GPU switching.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFeedback on performance, bugs, and user experience with vector maps is encouraged to help improve the feature.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["This document details vector map and WebGL feature support, troubleshooting, and usage. Key actions include: checking browser support via `get.webgl.org` or `caniuse.com`; enabling hardware acceleration in browser settings; using `chrome://gpu/` to verify hardware acceleration in Chrome; and programmatically checking for raster or vector maps using `map.getRenderingType()`. The document also covers mobile web support limitations, known bugs, and how to report them, including updating browsers/drivers and providing relevant diagnostic information.\n"],null,["This page lists known issues and workarounds for vector maps and WebGL features.\n\nBrowser/device support\n\nThe WebGL feature preview supports the same browsers and devices as the Maps JavaScript API.\nTo check whether the browser on a particular device will support WebGL, visit [get.webgl.org](https://get.webgl.org/)\nor [caniuse.com](https://caniuse.com/?search=webgl). Please also ensure the\nhardware acceleration is enabled in the browser settings, otherwise vector maps\nwill revert to [raster](#raster-fallback).\n\nRaster or vector?\n\nOccasionally, a vector map may fall back to raster. When this happens, features\ndepending on the vector map are unavailable. Fallback to a raster map may occur\nfor a variety of reasons. This section shows you how to correctly configure\nyour web browser, and how to programmatically check whether vector map\ncapability is present.\n\nCheck browser capabilities on Chrome\n\nTo determine which hardware acceleration capabilities are enabled in a specific\ninstallation of Chrome, navigate to \u003cchrome://gpu/\u003e, and ensure\nthat the following items are enabled (in green):\n\n- \"OpenGL: Enabled\"\n- \"WebGL: Hardware accelerated\"\n- \"WebGL2: Hardware accelerated\"\n\n(These are just baseline requirements, there can be other factors which\nimpact support, see \"Known bugs\" below.)\n\nEnable hardware acceleration\n\nIn order to support vector maps, hardware acceleration must be enabled in most\nbrowsers. To enable hardware acceleration in Chrome and Microsoft Edge, open\n**Settings** , select **System** , and ensure that **Use hardware acceleration\nwhen available** is enabled.\n\n- Learn how to [change websites preferences in Safari](https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/websites-ibrwe2159f50/14.0/mac/11.0).\n- Learn about [Firefox's performance settings](https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/performance-settings).\n\nProgrammatically check for raster or vector\n\nYou can programmatically check to see whether a map is raster or vector, by\ncalling `map.getRenderingType()`. The following example shows code to monitor\nthe `renderingtype_changed` event, and show an info window displaying whether a\nraster or vector map is in use.\n\n\nTypeScript \n\n```typescript\n/**\n * This example creates a map with an info window that shows whether\n * the map render type is raster or vector.\n */\n\n function initMap() {\n const center = {lat: 0, lng: 0};\n const map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById('map') as HTMLElement, {\n center,\n zoom: 10,\n heading: 0.0,\n tilt: 0.0,\n // Map ID for a vector map.\n mapId: '6ff586e93e18149f',\n });\n const canvas = document.createElement(\"canvas\");\n const infoWindow = new google.maps.InfoWindow({\n content: '',\n ariaLabel: 'Raster/Vector',\n position: center,\n });\n infoWindow.open({\n map,\n });\n\n map.addListener('renderingtype_changed', () =\u003e {\n infoWindow.setContent(`${map.getRenderingType()}`);\n });\n }\n\n declare global {\n interface Window {\n initMap: () =\u003e void;\n }\n }\n window.initMap = initMap;https://github.com/googlemaps/js-samples/blob/2683f7366fb27829401945d2a7e27d77ed2df8e5/samples/vector-detector/index.ts#L8-L43\n```\n| **Note:** Read the [guide](/maps/documentation/javascript/using-typescript) on using TypeScript and Google Maps.\n\nJavaScript \n\n```javascript\n/**\n * This example creates a map with an info window that shows whether\n * the map render type is raster or vector.\n */\nfunction initMap() {\n const center = { lat: 0, lng: 0 };\n const map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById(\"map\"), {\n center,\n zoom: 10,\n heading: 0.0,\n tilt: 0.0,\n // Map ID for a vector map.\n mapId: \"6ff586e93e18149f\",\n });\n const canvas = document.createElement(\"canvas\");\n const infoWindow = new google.maps.InfoWindow({\n content: \"\",\n ariaLabel: \"Raster/Vector\",\n position: center,\n });\n\n infoWindow.open({\n map,\n });\n map.addListener(\"renderingtype_changed\", () =\u003e {\n infoWindow.setContent(`${map.getRenderingType()}`);\n });\n}\n\nwindow.initMap = initMap;https://github.com/googlemaps/js-samples/blob/2683f7366fb27829401945d2a7e27d77ed2df8e5/dist/samples/vector-detector/docs/index.js#L7-L36\n```\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\nYou can also use the WebGL rendering context to check support for WebGL 2: \n\n const canvas = document.createElement(\"canvas\");\n canvas.getContext(\"webgl2\") ? console.log(\"WebGL 2 is supported\") : console.log(\"WebGL 2 is NOT supported\");\n\nLearn other ways to [programmatically detect WebGL rendering context](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WebGL_API/By_example/Detect_WebGL).\n\nMobile web support\n\nMobile web support for vector maps is still experimental. Developers can use\nclient APIs to detect mobile web browsers and use a map ID associated with a\nraster map instead of a vector map. We anticipate slower rendering performance\nfor some mobile devices. If you choose to use vector maps on mobile web, we\nwould greatly appreciate performance statistics and feedback. As above, if\nVector Maps support is not available, a vector map ID will automatically\nfallback to using a raster map.\n\nBugs\n\nKnown bugs\n\n- There is a known issue in Chrome on some macOS devices with AMD GPUs. This can be particularly confusing when macOS dynamically switches between GPUs on devices with multiple GPUs, so vector maps may not be available depending on what other apps are running, or whether an external monitor is connected. Turning on Chrome's upcoming ANGLE Metal backend appears to fix this issue in some cases. You can follow general rollout plans for this at \u003chttps://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1322521\u003e.\n\nReporting bugs\n\n- Please update the browser and GPU driver to the latest version before reporting the bug.\n- Ensure that the hardware acceleration setting at `chrome://settings/system` (Chrome), `about:preferences#general` (Firefox), `edge://settings/system` (Microsoft Edge) is enabled. In Safari, this setting is enabled automatically in macOS version 10.15 or newer. For older MacOS version(s), please go to the Safari advanced settings and ensure that the \"Use hardware acceleration\" option is enabled.\n- Include [jsfiddle](https://jsfiddle.net/L320szg9/) sample code link in the bug report.\n- Please also take a screenshot of `chrome://gpu` (Chrome), `about:support` (Firefox) or `edge://gpu` (Microsoft Edge), attach GPU related info in bug report if you encounter any rendering issues.\n\nTell us what you think!\n\nWe value your feedback as we strive to make the best vector map experience for\nyou and your end-users. Please let us know if:\n\n- There are any new JavaScript errors or bugs/crashes that you detect in your web apps.\n- Startup latency for vector maps is significantly worse than that for raster maps. If this is the case, metrics for startup latency regression are very helpful. In general, we want to know if startup latency regresses beyond acceptable thresholds.\n- The vector maps experience is not as smooth as it could be. If you log FPS or jank metrics, how do they compare between vector and raster maps?\n- Performance differs greatly by browser.\n\nIf you have set up A/B testing for a comparison of vector maps vs. raster maps,\nplease share any performance feedback you acquire, as this will be very useful\nto help us refine the feature."]]