Rates of ice sheet thickening or thinning in Greenland are measured using the coffee-can technique. This entails computing the difference in the vertical velocity of markers anchored in firm and the long-term rate of snow accumulation. The velocities are obtained from repeat surveys using the Global Positioning System (GPS). With corrections for densification and along-slope flow, this difference is the local mass balance. For two sites in western Greenland (Camp Century, and a site just south of the EGIG line (Crawford Point)) results show ice sheet thinning. A third west Greenland site (inland from Upernavik) is close to balance. Two sites, Dye-2 in western Greenland and Summit, are thickening slowly.