MSFS 2024 EFB Guide: Everything You Need to Know About the Electronic Flight Bag

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 introduced something that did not exist in MSFS 2020: a built-in Electronic Flight Bag. The EFB is a tablet-style tool that handles flight planning, weight and fuel management, airport information, charts, checklists, and weather — all from inside the cockpit. No more alt-tabbing to external tools for basic planning.

If you have been ignoring the EFB or finding it confusing, this guide walks you through every feature worth knowing. We will cover each built-in app, the flight planning workflow, how to use charts and checklists, the Navigraph and SimBrief integration, VR considerations, and tips that are not obvious.

How to Open the EFB

Press TAB on your keyboard. That is it. This works both on the World Map screen before you load into a flight and inside the cockpit during a flight.

You can also click the EFB icon in the toolbar at the top of the screen. The icon looks like a small tablet.

The EFB appears in one of two forms depending on the aircraft:

• Physical tablet — Some aircraft have a modelled EFB tablet mounted in the cockpit, typically on the side console or near the windshield pillar. You can interact with it directly by clicking on the screen.
• 2D pop-out panel — For aircraft without a physical mount, or when you press TAB, the EFB appears as a floating 2D window that overlays your view.

Both modes give you access to the same features. You can toggle the physical tablet on or off in aircraft that support it, so it does not clutter the cockpit when you do not need it.

Opening the EFB on Xbox and PS5

There is no TAB key on a controller, so on console you open the EFB from the toolbar: bring up the toolbar and select the tablet icon. In aircraft that have a physical EFB mounted in the cockpit (like the Cessna 172), you can also point the controller cursor directly at the tablet screen and use it there.

Two console-specific things to know:

• On Xbox, controller input on the 2D pop-out EFB is unreliable — buttons on the pop-out often do not respond to the controller cursor. The dependable workarounds are using the cockpit-mounted tablet instead, or plugging in a USB mouse, which the Xbox version supports.
• On PS5, keyboard support is inconsistent as of early 2026: a connected keyboard generally works for text entry (typing ICAO codes and waypoints into the EFB) but key bindings such as TAB may not register, so treat the toolbar as your primary way in.

The Three Core Apps

The EFB home screen shows app icons you can tap to open. The built-in MSFS 2024 EFB ships with three core apps:

1. Planner App — Flight planning, route building, airport information, charts, weather, and the map
2. Aircraft App — Checklists, mass and balance (fuel, passengers, cargo), and aircraft performance data
3. Pilot Book App — Your flight logbook, showing completed flights in chronological order

If you install third-party EFB apps (like Navigraph Charts or SimBrief Dispatch), they appear as additional icons on the home screen. Since Sim Update 3, the home screen also shows a tooltip if an app is not compatible with the aircraft you currently have selected.

Let us go through each core app in detail.

Planner App: Flight Planning and Navigation

The Planner App is where you spend most of your time before a flight. It is the EFB's equivalent of the World Map flight planner, but accessible from inside the cockpit.

Building a Route

Open the Planner App and you will see a map with search fields for your departure and arrival airports. Type in the ICAO codes (for example, EGLL for Heathrow or KJFK for JFK) and the EFB will plot a direct route between them.

From here, you can add detail to your route:

• SID (Standard Instrument Departure) — Select a departure procedure from your origin airport
• STAR (Standard Terminal Arrival Route) — Select an arrival procedure for your destination
• Enroute waypoints — Add intermediate waypoints, airways, or let the auto-route function fill in the gap

A practical tip: select your SID and STAR first, then use Auto-Route to connect the enroute portion. The auto-routing works best when it has fixed endpoints to connect. If you let it generate the entire route from scratch, it sometimes produces odd results.

Since Sim Update 3, you can also enter coordinates directly using formats like 5500N/04000W, and the Route page shows speed and altitude restriction details for each waypoint.

The Map

The Planner map is more than a route display. You can toggle various layers to show or hide:

• Airways (both high and low altitude)
• Radio navaids — VORs, NDBs, and their identifiers
• Landing aids — Localizer beams and their frequencies
• Airspaces

Clicking on a radio navaid on the map shows its frequency, range, and coordinates. Clicking on an airport brings up its information panel.

Since Sim Update 2, the map includes a retractable map pane that gives you more room for the route details without losing situational awareness. Sim Update 4 improved the map further so it centres on your aircraft position when you first open the EFB without a flight plan, and centres on the flight plan when one exists.

Vertical Situation Display

Sim Update 2 added a Vertical Situation Display (VSD) to the Planner App. This gives you a graphical side-view of your planned vertical path along the route, including:

• Your predicted climb, cruise, and descent profile
• Wind data along the route
• Nearby facilities and airspaces (via right-click)
• Procedure constraints (altitude and speed restrictions)

This is extremely useful for checking whether your planned cruise altitude makes sense and whether your descent planning lines up with the arrival procedure.

Performance-Based Planning

Also introduced in Sim Update 2, you can now choose between different climb, cruise, and descent profiles for aircraft that support performance data. The EFB calculates:

• Predicted fuel usage based on your selected performance profile
• Recommended cruise altitude (or you can use the AUTO cruise altitude option)
• ETE (estimated time enroute) calculations

Since Sim Update 4, performance calculations use up to 24 hours of weather forecast data for improved accuracy. You can also configure RVSM rules, cruise step size, cost index, and fuel bias for turbojet and turbofan aircraft.

For aircraft that lack built-in performance data, the EFB allows expanded manual performance inputs so you can still get useful predictions.

Sending the Route to Your Aircraft

Once you are happy with your route, scroll to the bottom of the Route page. You will find buttons to:

• Send to Avionics — Loads the flight plan into your aircraft's FMS/GPS
• Send to ATC — Files the flight plan with the sim's ATC system
• Send to Avionics and ATC — Does both at once

You can also go the other direction: Request from Avionics pulls the current route from your aircraft's FMS back into the EFB. This is useful if you programmed the FMS directly (or if a third-party aircraft like the PMDG 737 has its own FMC with a route already loaded).

Important: The EFB's auto-routing does not always generate correct routes. Always verify your route on the map before sending it to avionics. Check that the SID connects to your first enroute waypoint, that the airways make sense, and that the STAR connects to your approach. Sending a broken route to the avionics will cause problems with LNAV tracking and ATC instructions.

Airport Information

Click on any airport on the map (or search for it by ICAO code) and an information panel opens with several tabs:

• General Info — Airport name, ICAO code, elevation, and basic details
• Weather — Current METAR data decoded into readable format. Since Sim Update 1, there is also a TAF hour selector that lets you browse the Terminal Aerodrome Forecast and see predicted weather for the next 24 hours
• Runways — All runways with lengths, surface types, and current wind relative to each runway so you can pick the best one
• Frequencies — Tower, ground, approach, ATIS, and all other radio frequencies for the airport
• Charts — Departure charts (SIDs), arrival charts (STARs), approach plates, and airport diagrams

The charts viewer supports mouse wheel zooming (added in SU1) and has a spring-back feature so charts snap back into view if you scroll too far. Since Sim Update 3, clicking on a chart name opens the preview directly.

OFP (Operational Flight Plan)

The OFP page shows a summary of your flight plan with performance predictions based on your selected profiles. Since Sim Update 2, this page was revamped to display detailed calculations. Think of it as a simplified version of a SimBrief OFP — it shows your route, fuel requirements, times, and waypoint data in a printable format.

Aircraft App: Checklists, Fuel, and Payload

The Aircraft App covers everything related to your specific aircraft.

Checklists

The built-in checklists are one of the most useful features for anyone learning a new aircraft. They walk you through each phase of flight:

• Preflight inspection
• Before engine start
• Engine start
• Before taxi
• Before takeoff
• After takeoff / climb
• Cruise
• Descent / approach
• Landing
• Shutdown and securing

Each checklist step shows a subject (for example, "Parking Brake") and an expectation (for example, "Set"). You can work through them item by item, ticking off each one as you complete it.

Standard vs Expert Mode

The EFB offers two levels of checklist detail:

• Standard — Shows the essential items. Good for when you know the aircraft and just need a reminder of the flow.
• Expert — Shows additional technical and operational detail. Better for learning a new aircraft or practicing a more thorough procedure.

You can switch between these modes directly on the checklist page.

Camera and Instrument Highlighting

This is the feature that makes EFB checklists genuinely useful for beginners. When you are working through a checklist item, the EFB can:

• Move the camera to point at the relevant instrument or switch
• Highlight the control so you can see exactly which knob, lever, or button the checklist is referring to

This means you do not need to memorize where every switch is before you can follow a procedure. The sim shows you. It is essentially a built-in interactive tutorial for every aircraft that has checklists configured.

Mass and Balance

The Mass and Balance section is where you set your aircraft's load before a flight. It contains several tabs:

• Seats — Set passenger numbers and weight distribution
• Cargo — Set cargo weight in the forward and aft holds
• Fuel — Set fuel quantity in each tank

After making your changes, press Load in Aircraft to apply them. The sim will adjust the aircraft weight and balance accordingly.

Since Sim Update 4, value labels appear on the load sliders to make it clearer what you are setting, and the Max Zero-Fuel Weight from the aircraft configuration is properly enforced.

A quick note: some users find the EFB's fuel and payload interface more cumbersome than the old MSFS 2020 weight and balance panel. If you prefer the simpler approach, the free Legacy Weight and Balance add-on by Got Friends brings back the old-style interface. But for most users, the EFB approach works well once you learn where things are.

Aircraft Performance Data

The Aircraft App also provides takeoff and landing performance calculations where supported. Since Sim Update 3, EFB takeoff and landing performance data was added for additional aircraft. This includes calculated V-speeds based on your current weight and configuration.

Pilot Book App: Your Logbook

The Pilot Book App is straightforward. It displays your completed flights in chronological order — departure and arrival airports, aircraft used, flight time, and date. If you are a career mode player, this ties into your overall progression. For free flight users, it is a nice record of where you have been.

The logbook data here is the same data the sim records internally. For more advanced logbook analysis (charts, maps, statistics), third-party tools like FlightLog Analyzer offer deeper insights.

Navigraph and SimBrief Integration

One of the biggest additions to the MSFS 2024 EFB is the integration with Navigraph and SimBrief. These appear as separate apps on the EFB home screen once installed.

SimBrief Dispatch

SimBrief Dispatch is available as a free beta app within the EFB. This means you can generate a SimBrief flight plan from inside the cockpit without alt-tabbing to a browser. The basic SimBrief features — route generation, fuel calculation, and OFP creation — are free to use.

Once you generate a plan in SimBrief, you can load it into the EFB's planner and from there send it to your aircraft's avionics.

Navigraph Charts

Navigraph Charts appear as a separate beta app in the EFB, giving you access to one of the largest aeronautical chart libraries available. This includes Jeppesen-style approach plates, SID/STAR charts, airport diagrams, and taxi charts.

Important: While SimBrief's basic features are free, accessing Navigraph Charts requires a paid Navigraph subscription. Check navigraph.com for current pricing. Without a subscription, the Charts app will have limited functionality.

The benefit of having charts directly in the EFB is significant. Instead of printing charts or having them open on a second monitor, you can pull them up on the tablet right next to your instruments. This is especially helpful during approach briefings.

How to Set It Up

The Navigraph apps are installed through the Navigraph Hub application. Once installed, they appear automatically on the EFB home screen. You will need to sign in with your Navigraph account the first time you use them.

Note that the integration is still in beta, so you may encounter occasional issues with chart rendering or flight plan imports. These are actively being improved with each sim update.

Using the EFB in VR

The EFB works in VR, but there are some things to know.

In aircraft that have a physical tablet mount in the cockpit (such as the Cessna 172 and many other GA aircraft), you can lean in and interact with the mounted tablet directly. This works well because the tablet stays in a fixed position in 3D space.

For the pop-out 2D panel version, things were initially more awkward in VR. However, since Sim Update 2, you can freely reposition and move the EFB panel in VR, which significantly improved the experience. You can place it wherever is comfortable — off to the side, below the glareshield, or wherever works for your setup.

VR controllers can interact with cockpit elements including the EFB, and the input is less finicky than it was in MSFS 2020.

If you find the built-in VR EFB interaction still limiting, there are community workarounds including third-party in-game panels that provide a more VR-friendly interface.

Aircraft-Specific EFB Differences

The built-in MSFS 2024 EFB is universal — it works with every aircraft in the sim. However, there are important differences to understand:

Default Aircraft

All default MSFS 2024 aircraft use the built-in EFB. The checklists, mass and balance, and performance data are tailored to each specific aircraft. A Cessna 172's checklist is completely different from a Boeing 787's checklist, even though they both appear in the same Aircraft App interface.

Third-Party Aircraft with Custom EFBs

Several major third-party developers have their own EFB implementations:

• Fenix A320 — Has its own EFB with a performance calculator, ground services page, SimBrief/Navigraph integration, and aircraft state management. The Fenix EFB can even broadcast to a local webpage for control from a real tablet or smartphone.
• PMDG 737/777 — Has its own EFB with a detailed map, performance data, and configuration options.
• FlyByWire A32NX/A380X — Has the flyPadOS with ground services, pushback control, fuel boarding simulation, and deep SimBrief integration.

When flying these aircraft, you typically use the developer's custom EFB for aircraft-specific functions (performance calculations, ground services, aircraft configuration) and may still use the built-in MSFS EFB for general flight planning and map features. The two can coexist.

How to Tell Which EFB You Are Using

If you press TAB and see the standard MSFS EFB interface with the Planner, Aircraft, and Pilot Book apps, you are using the built-in EFB. If you see a completely different interface (like the Fenix flyPad or PMDG EFB), the aircraft developer has replaced the default with their own. Some aircraft have both — the custom EFB on the physical tablet mount and the default MSFS EFB accessible via TAB.

Tips and Lesser-Known Features

Pop Out to a Second Monitor

You can pop the EFB out of the sim window and move it to a second monitor. This is very useful for multi-monitor setups where you want charts or the map visible at all times. The free MSFS Pop Out Panel Manager add-on makes managing pop-out panels much easier, remembering size and position between flights.

Use a Physical iPad as Your Real-World EFB

The in-sim EFB handles flight planning beautifully, but during the flight itself you often want to glance at charts or a checklist without obscuring the cockpit view. The realistic solution is what real pilots do: keep a physical tablet next to your monitor running Navigraph Charts (subscription) or a saved PDF of your approach plate.

Most simmers settle on an Apple iPad (10th gen, Wi-Fi, 64GB) — Navigraph runs natively on iOS, the screen is bright enough to read in a daylit sim room, and it's the same hardware the airlines use as standard EFBs (Boeing, easyJet, BA all run iPads in the flight deck). Mount it next to your monitor with the Lamicall Tablet Stand (~£20, 67k+ reviews) and your sim setup starts looking suspiciously like a real airline cockpit. Android tablets work too — Navigraph supports both — but iPad is the standard the community has converged on.

The Stopwatch

Since Sim Update 3, the EFB map includes an always-visible stopwatch with start, stop, and reset controls. This is useful for timing holding patterns, procedure turns, or any other timed manoeuvre. No more looking at a real-world clock or installing a third-party timer.

Use the Online Planner for Complex Routes

The MSFS 2024 online flight planner at planner.flightsimulator.com shares many features with the EFB planner but is generally considered more user-friendly for complex route planning. You can plan your route on the website, save it, and then load it into the EFB. For long-haul flights with multiple airways and constraints, the online planner's larger screen and keyboard input make the process much smoother.

Locked Waypoints

Since Sim Update 3, waypoints that are locked (part of a SID, STAR, or approach) display with a padlock icon on the map. This visual distinction helps you understand which parts of your route are fixed procedure waypoints and which ones you can freely edit.

Check the Route Before Sending

This bears repeating because it is the single most common source of EFB frustration: always verify your route on the map before sending it to avionics. The auto-routing can produce routes that look reasonable in the text list but have odd waypoint connections when visualized on the map. Spending thirty seconds checking the map can save you from dealing with a broken flight plan mid-flight.

Environment Page

The EFB has an Environment page that shows facilities and runway information linked to your ATC flight plan. This is useful for confirming that the runway and approach you have planned matches what ATC will assign you.

Third-Party EFB Apps

Because the MSFS 2024 EFB has an open API, third-party developers can create custom apps that run inside the EFB. The SDK allows apps built with JavaScript and JSX templates. This means the EFB ecosystem will grow over time with community-built tools — from VFR navigation aids to custom calculators and utilities. Check flightsim.to for available EFB add-on apps.

Common Questions

Does the EFB work with all aircraft?

Yes. The built-in EFB is available for every aircraft in MSFS 2024, both default and third-party. Some third-party aircraft add their own custom EFB on top of or instead of the default one, but pressing TAB will always give you access to the standard MSFS EFB.

Can I use the EFB in Career Mode?

Yes. The EFB is fully functional in career mode. You use it to plan your assigned routes, manage fuel and payload, and run through checklists just as you would in free flight.

Why does the auto-route give me a weird flight plan?

The EFB's auto-routing algorithm does not always find the optimal route. It can select airways that do not make geographic sense or miss obvious direct connections. The best approach is to set your SID and STAR first, then auto-route only the enroute portion. Always check the result on the map.

Can I import a SimBrief flight plan without Navigraph?

SimBrief Dispatch is available as a free app within the EFB. You do not need a paid Navigraph subscription to use SimBrief's basic flight planning and OFP features. The paid subscription is only required for the Navigraph Charts app.

How do I get rid of the EFB tablet in the cockpit?

In aircraft that have a physical EFB mount, you can toggle the tablet visibility. Some aircraft have a clickable mount bracket or a setting in the Aircraft App. If the 2D panel is showing, pressing TAB will close it.

Is the EFB the same as the World Map planner?

They share the same underlying flight planning system, but they are different interfaces. The World Map planner is what you see before loading into a flight. The EFB planner is available inside the cockpit. Changes made in one are reflected in the other. The online planner at planner.flightsimulator.com is a third interface to the same system and is considered the most feature-complete of the three.

What Is Next

Now that you understand the EFB, put it to work. If you are new to flight planning in MSFS 2024, start with a short IFR flight — pick two airports about 200nm apart, build the route in the EFB, send it to avionics, and fly the plan. You will immediately see how the EFB ties together departure procedures, enroute navigation, and arrival procedures into a single workflow.

For deeper dives into specific topics covered by the EFB, check out these related guides:

• SIDs and STARs Explained — Understanding the procedures you select in the EFB
• SimBrief to FMC Workflow — A detailed walkthrough of external flight planning
• Reading Approach Plates — Making sense of the charts you view in the EFB
• MSFS 2024 Beginner Guide — If you are just getting started with the sim