GP File Documentation
Summary
A .gp file is a Guitar Pro tablature: a guitar or bass score created in Guitar Pro 7 or 8 that stores the notation (tab plus standard notation), tempo, and per-track instrument data for a song — not recorded audio. Open it in Guitar Pro 8, or free in MuseScore or TuxGuitar, which both import it. Internally the modern .gp is a ZIP archive holding an XML score; its MIME type is application/octet-stream. To get sound or sheet music out, export it to MIDI, MP3 or PDF.
Technical details
| Feature | Value |
|---|---|
| Full name | Guitar Pro 7/8 Tablature File |
| File extension | .gp |
| MIME type | application/octet-stream |
| Format type | ZIP container holding an XML tablature/score document |
| Developer | Arobas Music |
| Category | Music notation / tablature |
| Introduced | 2017 (Guitar Pro 7); current in Guitar Pro 8 (2022) |
| Container / base format | ZIP (PK archive) |
| Score document | Content/score.gpif (Guitar Pro Interchange Format, XML) |
| Byte order note | ZIP structure; score is UTF‑8 XML text |
| Magic number (hex) | 50 4B 03 04 (ZIP local file header, “PK”) |
| Contains audio | No — notation only; sound is synthesized from it |
| Predecessor formats | .gpx (GP6), .gp5/.gp4/.gp3 (GP3–5) |
| Free readers | MuseScore 4, TuxGuitar |
| Export targets | MIDI, PDF, MP3/WAV, MusicXML, GP5, GPX |
| Related extensions | .gpx, .gp5, .gp4, .gp3, .gtp, .gpif, .musicxml |
| Developer site | guitar-pro.com |
What is a gp file?
A .gp file is the native document of Guitar Pro, the guitar-tablature editor made by Arobas Music. This extension is specific to Guitar Pro 7, released in 2017, and Guitar Pro 8, released in 2022; earlier versions used numbered extensions (.gp3, .gp4, .gp5 for Guitar Pro 3 through 5, and .gpx for Guitar Pro 6). A .gp stores a full musical score for one or more instruments: guitar and bass tablature, standard notation, drums, lyrics, chord diagrams, tempo and section markers, and per-track tuning and effects.
A crucial point about the format is what it does not contain. There is no recorded audio in a .gp file. The sound you hear on playback is synthesized by the program from the notation using its built-in instrument samples, so the file is notation data, not a recording. That is why exporting a .gp to MP3 produces a rendered performance rather than a copy of an existing track, and why the file is small compared with an audio file of the same song.
The ZIP container and how to look inside
The modern .gp is a ZIP archive. Its first four bytes are 50 4B 03 04, the ZIP local-file-header signature that spells PK in ASCII, so the whole file is a standard ZIP that you can inspect by renaming it to .zip and opening it in any archiver. This is the mechanism that lets third-party software read Guitar Pro files at all: MuseScore, TuxGuitar and the alphaTab renderer unzip the container and parse the XML inside rather than reverse-engineering a monolithic binary.
song.gp (ZIP archive)
├─ VERSION archive/format version marker
└─ Content/
├─ score.gpif the score, as XML (GP Interchange Format)
├─ Preferences.json per-file Guitar Pro settings (e.g. speed trainer)
├─ BinaryStylesheet notation-display settings (key/value, binary)
├─ PartConfiguration which tracks/staves show in each view (binary)
└─ LayoutConfiguration page-layout settings for the sheet (binary)The archive holds a VERSION marker and a Content folder. The score itself lives in Content/score.gpif; the surrounding files carry display and layout preferences that are specific to Guitar Pro and are not required to read the music. Because the container is a plain ZIP, its entries can be extracted, examined and even re-packed with ordinary tools, though editing should be done in a real editor to keep the files consistent.
score.gpif: the GP Interchange Format XML
The heart of a .gp is score.gpif, an XML document Arobas calls the Guitar Pro Interchange Format. Being XML, it is human-readable: rename it to score.gpif.xml and any XML viewer will show its tree. The document describes the whole piece hierarchically. Top-level metadata (Score) holds the title, artist and album. A list of Track elements defines each instrument with its tuning, MIDI program and per-track settings. Below the tracks, the timeline is built from MasterBar, Bar, Voice, Beat and Note elements: a master bar sets time signature and key for a measure across all staves, a bar belongs to one track, a voice is an independent rhythmic line within it, a beat is a rhythmic position, and a note is a single fretted or written pitch with its string, fret and articulations.
This is the same logical model that Guitar Pro 6 used, extended with features added in versions 7 and 8. Because the notation is expressed as structured XML rather than opaque bytes, a parser can walk it to render tab, drive MIDI playback, or convert to another notation format. The tab and standard-notation views a musician sees are two renderings of this single underlying score.
.gp, .gpx and the numbered formats
Guitar Pro has changed its container several times, and the differences matter when a file will not open. The current .gp (GP7/GP8) is a ZIP wrapper around the score.gpif XML described above. The immediately preceding .gpx (Guitar Pro 6) is a different beast: it is a proprietary container that begins with the ASCII tag BCFZ, a compressed block format, with an inner BCFS file system. It carries a similar XML score internally but is not a ZIP and cannot be opened with an archiver. Older still, .gp3, .gp4 and .gp5 are fully binary formats from Guitar Pro 3 through 5, with no XML at all.
| Extension | Version | Container |
|---|---|---|
.gp | Guitar Pro 7 / 8 | ZIP + score.gpif XML |
.gpx | Guitar Pro 6 | Proprietary BCFZ/BCFS + XML |
.gp5 / .gp4 / .gp3 | Guitar Pro 5 / 4 / 3 | Binary |
Guitar Pro 8 opens all of these, but the reverse is not true: an older program cannot open a newer file, which is the usual reason a downloaded .gp refuses to load in an old copy of the software. Note also that the music-notation .gpx is unrelated to the GPS Exchange format that shares the same three letters; they are entirely different files.
Getting audio and sheet music out
Because a .gp holds notation, everything a musician wants from it is an export rather than a raw read of the file. Exporting to MIDI writes the score as a multi-track MIDI file of notes and timing, which any DAW can import; there is no live tone, only the notation played back through MIDI instruments. Exporting to PDF renders the tab and standard notation as printable sheet music. Exporting to MP3 or WAV synthesizes the playback through Guitar Pro’s soundbanks into an audio file. Exporting to MusicXML moves the score into other notation programs (Sibelius, Finale, Dorico, MuseScore) while keeping the notation editable. MuseScore 4 and TuxGuitar can perform most of these exports for free after importing the .gp.
Frequently asked questions
How do I open a .gp file for free?
Use MuseScore 4 or TuxGuitar. Both are free and open source and import Guitar Pro .gp scores for viewing and playback. Guitar Pro 8 itself is the paid native editor.
Is a .gp file audio?
No. It stores the tablature and score (notes, tempo, tracks). The program generates the sound from that notation using its instrument samples. To get an audio file, export the .gp to MP3 or WAV.
What is the difference between .gp, .gpx and .gp5?
.gp is the Guitar Pro 7/8 format (a ZIP with an XML score.gpif). .gpx is the older Guitar Pro 6 format (a proprietary BCFZ container). .gp5 is the binary Guitar Pro 5 format. Guitar Pro 8 opens all of them; older programs may not open newer files.
Is .gp the same as a GPS .gpx file?
No. The Guitar Pro .gpx (music) and the GPS Exchange .gpx (map routes) merely share letters. They are different formats and are not interchangeable in each other’s software.
References
- alphaTab — Guitar Pro 8 (.gp) format notes
- Guitar Pro — official site (Arobas Music)
- TuxGuitar — free tablature editor/player
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