Upload OBJ files and pick an output format — GLB is selected by default. Batch supported, free up to 400 MB per file.
For the most common job, use the dedicated OBJ to GLB converter.
.obj model. A 3D preview window renders the mesh directly in the page so you can confirm it loaded before converting; the tool reads the single .obj geometry file.Wavefront OBJ was first developed by Wavefront Technologies for its Advanced Visualizer animation package in the late 1980s, and it remains one of the most universally supported 3D formats. It is a plain-text (ASCII) format that stores geometry: vertex positions, texture coordinates, vertex normals, and the faces that connect them, where each face can be a triangle, a quad, or a larger polygon. That simplicity is its strength and its limitation. OBJ has no scene graph and no animation, and it stores no textures inline — material definitions live in a separate companion .mtl file, which in turn points to external image files.
That split is exactly why people convert away from OBJ. The moment a model has to ship somewhere — a website, an AR viewer, a game engine, or a 3D printer — three loose files (.obj, .mtl, and the texture images) are awkward to move and easy to break. Converting consolidates or retargets the geometry into the format the destination actually speaks:
.glb packs the mesh, physically-based materials, textures, and any animation into a single binary file — ideal for <model-viewer>, WebXR, Unity, Unreal, and Three.js. The .gltf variant keeps that data as readable JSON for editing and debugging.| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Full name | Wavefront OBJ (.obj) |
| Origin | Wavefront Technologies, for The Advanced Visualizer (late 1980s) |
| Encoding | Plain-text ASCII (uncompressed) |
| Geometry type | Polygon mesh — faces may be triangles, quads, or n-gons |
| Stores | Vertices, texture coordinates (UVs), vertex normals, faces |
| Materials & color | External .mtl file referencing external texture images |
| Animation / scene graph | None |
| Standardized? | De-facto industry format; no ISO or vendor-committee standard |
| Opens natively in | Blender, Maya, 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, ZBrush, MeshLab, most 3D apps |
| Format | Origin | Stores | Materials & color | Animation / scene graph | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OBJ | Wavefront Technologies, late 1980s | Geometry (text) | External .mtl + image files |
No | Universal mesh interchange |
| GLB / glTF | Khronos Group, glTF 2.0 (ISO/IEC 12113:2022) | Geometry + PBR + textures (+ animation) | Embedded (binary GLB or JSON glTF) | Yes | Web, AR, game engines |
| STL | 3D Systems, 1987 | Triangle geometry only | None | No | 3D printing / slicers |
| 3MF | 3MF Consortium, 2015 (ISO/IEC 25422:2025) | Geometry + print metadata | Embedded, multi-material + color | No | Modern color 3D printing |
| PLY | Stanford, ~1994 | Geometry + per-vertex attributes | Per-vertex color (no texture maps) | No | 3D scans, point clouds, research |
This converter works from the .obj geometry file alone, so the mesh — vertices, UVs, and normals — transfers, but surface colors and texture maps do not. OBJ keeps its look in a separate .mtl file that points to external image textures, and those companion files aren't part of the conversion here. If you need materials and textures to travel with the model, load the full .obj + .mtl + image set in a desktop tool such as Blender and export to GLB or glTF from there. Converting to STL drops color and UVs by design; PLY keeps per-vertex color but not texture-image maps.
Both are glTF 2.0; the difference is packaging. A .gltf file is human-readable JSON that describes the scene and usually references geometry buffers and textures as separate external files. A .glb packs all of that — JSON, binary mesh data, and any textures — into one self-contained binary file. For shipping a finished model to a website, AR viewer, or game engine, GLB is the simpler choice because it is a single portable file; glTF is handy when you want to inspect or hand-edit the scene description.
Both produce a printable mesh, but they differ in what they carry. STL (the 1987 stereolithography format) is geometry only and is supported by virtually every slicer, which makes it the safe default for a single-material print. 3MF, standardized as ISO/IEC 25422:2025, is an XML-and-ZIP package that can store color, multiple materials, and print metadata in one file — a better fit for multi-material or color printing on slicers and printers that support it. If you have an STL and want to go the other way, our STL to OBJ converter turns it back into an editable OBJ mesh.
Web and AR runtimes are built around glTF. A .glb is a single binary that embeds geometry, PBR materials, and textures, so it loads cleanly in <model-viewer>, WebXR, Three.js, Unity, and Unreal without the loose .mtl and image files an OBJ depends on. That single-file portability — plus glTF being designed specifically for efficient runtime loading — is why most AR frameworks and 3D web embeds expect GLB rather than OBJ.
For mesh-to-mesh conversions the vertices and faces are rewritten faithfully, so the shape is preserved. What can change is the surrounding data: quad and n-gon faces are triangulated for formats like STL, smoothing-group and material information may not map onto a format that has no concept of it, and STL specifically discards UVs and color. In our testing, converting an OBJ to GLB produced a single self-contained binary that carried the mesh — vertices, faces, and normals — intact, while the material and texture data that lives in a separate .mtl did not travel.
OBJ is one of the most widely supported 3D formats: Blender, Autodesk Maya and 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, ZBrush, and MeshLab import it directly, and both Windows and macOS can preview it. Because it stores only geometry, some of those apps won't show the intended surface look unless the .mtl file and its textures sit alongside the .obj. If your destination is a printer, a web viewer, or a game engine rather than a modeling app, converting to STL, GLB, or glTF is usually smoother than opening the raw .obj.
Neither — OBJ is uncompressed plain text. Every vertex coordinate is written out as human-readable numbers, which makes .obj files easy to inspect and edit but larger than binary formats for the same mesh. Because it stores exact coordinates rather than re-encoding them, moving geometry in and out of OBJ does not degrade the mesh the way a lossy image or video codec would. Converting to a binary target like GLB, or a zipped package like 3MF, typically produces a much smaller file for the same model.
Vertex normals written directly in the .obj (the vn lines) transfer with the geometry. Smoothing-group information and non-triangular faces are handled per target: STL is triangle-only, so quads and n-gons are triangulated and smoothing groups are baked into flat facets. GLB and glTF keep normals and preserve the mesh topology more faithfully, which is one reason a converted GLB looks better for shaded viewing than an STL of the same model.
No. OBJ conversion on this page runs entirely in your browser using three.js loaders and exporters — the file is parsed, converted and downloaded on your own device. That means no upload wait, no account, and no watermark; it also means very large meshes are bounded by your browser's available memory rather than an upload limit.