An open, royalty-free 3D file format (maintained by the Khronos Group) designed specifically to load fast in web browsers, game engines, and AR/VR applications - which IFC was never built for. glTF strips a model down to lightweight geometry, materials, and textures, dropping the rich parametric and classification data that IFC carries.

In a BIM workflow, glTF is typically an export target at the end of the pipeline: a coordinated federated model gets converted to glTF so a client or site team can view it smoothly on a phone or in a VR headset, without needing heavyweight BIM software.