GEOtop is a model that simulates energy and water balances at the land surface. It includes the following components: 1) Meteo data inputs such as temperature, precipitation, and radiation that can come from measurements or be modeled. 2) An energy balance model that solves the heat equation for snow and soil and accounts for phase changes. 3) A water balance model that solves for soil moisture and flow. This is solved separately from energy and can become decoupled at small time steps. 4) The model compromises between precision, spatial scale, and simulation time by allowing some numerical instability and mass loss to enable larger time steps. Users can control parameters to balance these tradeoffs.