Image tile layers

An image tile layer is a data layer that can access and display image tile data provided by a map tile service or a map tile package. You can learn more about the map tile services in the Portal and data services guide.

The spatial reference of the image tile layers should match the spatial reference of the basemap.

Map tile services

A map tile service is a data service that provides static pre-rendered image tiles to display at different scales.

You can use the following kinds of URLs for the source to add services to your ArcGIS Map:

Item page URL (recommended). This URL points to the specific item page of a service. It provides details about the item, such as metadata, sharing settings, and access options. You can find it by navigating to the item page on ArcGIS Online or in your portal and copying the URL from the browser address bar.
- Example: https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=9f86716d941c4410b0b406d911754b2c for items accessible via the ArcGIS Online public URL or https://yourorg.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=9f86716d941c4410b0b406d911754b2c for items within your organization.
Services URL. This URL directly points to the REST endpoint of a web service. You can find the service URL by accessing the service item in your portal and copying the URL from the item's details page (usually at the lower right).
- Example: https://tiles.arcgis.com/tiles/P3ePLMYs2RVChkJx/arcgis/rest/services/Esri_Hydro_Reference_Overlay/MapServer, which is https://yourserver.domain.com/arcgis/rest/services/YourFolder/YourMapService/MapServer

Tip

You can find curated, up-to-date, ready-to-use map tile services on ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World.
You can also find map tile services that are publicly shared or shared by your own organization on ArcGIS Online. Refer to the ArcGIS Online documentation to learn more about searching in ArcGIS Online.
You can filter the ArcGIS Living Atlas and ArcGIS Online search results by using advanced search. To filter image tile layers, use the following search condition: type:"Map Service" AND typekeywords:"Tiled". All image tile layers have this icon .
You can publish and share data online in ArcGIS Pro.
You can learn about sharing URLs here.
If your organization has disabled anonymous access, you can still share the organization's public items by sharing them through the public URL (https://www.arcgis.com) instead of your organization's URL (for example, https://yourorg.maps.arcgis.com).

Local map tile packages

Image tile layers can also access data from map tile packages stored locally.

An map tile package is a single .tpk (or .tpkx) file containing image tiles, and you can share the file as you would with any file. Compared with .tpk files, .tpkx files provide better performance on network shares and cloud store directories.