Adding OpenStreetMap WMS layer to QGIS

Question

I'm trying to add Openstreet Map (OSM) to QGIS3 (Ubuntu 16.04) as a background WMS layer. I found a list of OSM WMS Servers, and a WMS tab in the new Data Source Manager (Ctrl+L).

But after clicking the new button and entering the URL http://www.osm-wms.de to Create a New WMS Connection, I get a new connection called osm, which cannot be used. I can't expand the connection in the index pane as with other things like PostGIS, or add anything from that connection.

Can someone provide some pointers on how to manually add the WMS layer (ideally without using plugins)?

• JGH: the URL is not the WMS URL, but a web app. Reading it, they mention using 129.206.228.72/cached/osm? Note that the latest news is 6 years old, so the data might not be up to date

Answer 1

There is now a plugin called QuickMapServices.

It provides map layers really easily :

Add the plugin Chose the plugin from the Plugins Window Chose the plugin from the Plugins Window

Add a layer

Now You can add OpenStreetMap layer from the Web tab. Now You can add OpenStreetMap layer from the Web tab.

• Donny V.: Did this used to have Google Maps?
• Francois: In previous versions you could easily add Google Maps layer with OpenLayer Plugin, as pointed out in this post : gis.stackexchange.com/questions/12814/…
• Donny V.: Looks like they removed Google Maps layers because of Google's changes to their Maps Platform. When you bring in the data it has disclaimers on every tile.
• Max N: QuickMapServices is not available in the plugins search

Answer 2

Mode 1:

The URL http://www.osm-wms.de that are you using is no a WMS server. To add a new WMS layer you have to config a server and connect to it. OSM information is used in many servers over Internet. Here you can see a short list of them https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WMS#OSM_WMS_Servers.

Choosing one of this servers, you have to look for a services's URL for that server.

For example, in case of terrestris one of the URL is:

http://ows.terrestris.de/osm/service

With this URL you can config your "New WMS Connection" in QGIS 3.0 from the dialog "Data Source Manager | WMS", and after stablish a connection choose one of the different maps that server exposes.

In this server there are two maps with OSM information.

Create a New WMS Connection

Mode 2

Currently many plugins for QGIS 2.18 make that config for you with many WMS servers. For example QuickMapServices are developed for Qt4 and Python 2.7 so is no trivial to migrate it to QGIS 3.0 that uses Qt5 and Python 3.6. So If you can wait a few weeks in the near future must appear an automatic way to load OSM info in QGIS 3.0 with a new plugin or an update of one of the existing.

• AndreJ: Note that most QMS sources use tile based services, not WMS.
• Cary H: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tiles for reference. But no '$' symbols in the URL. Also - https://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=y&x={x}&y={y}&z={z}