The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) provides free and open access to biodiversity data to anyone, anywhere. It realizes this mission by mobilizing technologies and skills to enable data-holding institutions to standardize and publish biodiversity data and by integrating these data into a unified resource that facilitates free and open access. The work of GBIF is distributed across the global biodiversity data community, directed and funded by the world's governments. By August 2026, the twenty-fifth year since GBIF was established, it has data providers in more than 120 countries and provides access to over 3.8 billion data records, which have become fundamental inputs underpinning global biodiversity research and policy. Yet despite these successes, global biodiversity infrastructure needs are larger now than they were twenty-five years ago. Biodiversity data needs are changing and growing, driving ongoing development of the GBIF infrastructure and community. This article offers a historically informed overview of GBIF. It introduces the GBIF community, services, and infrastructure, illustrating how these have developed and continue to evolve in response to the needs of the growing community that they serve. Ultimately the article aims to enrich the depth of engagement across the GBIF community, strengthening its capacity to respond to biodiversity data needs in the next twenty-five years and beyond.