# MarineTraffic

> Real-time global ship tracking via AIS — 13,000+ terrestrial receivers and satellite coverage, the standard tool for maritime investigations and sanctions evasion reporting.

**Source:** https://fieldwork.news/tools/marine-traffic
**Official site:** https://www.marinetraffic.com
**Category:** newsgathering
**Also covers:** verification

## Security rating

- **Rating:** adequate
- **Rating note (required when citing):** MarineTraffic runs on EU infrastructure under GDPR with encryption in transit and at rest, standard account security, and no public record of a major breach. The vessel data itself is public AIS broadcast information, not personal data — the privacy concern for journalists is account metadata (search history, saved fleets) revealing investigation targets, not the underlying vessel records. The bigger trust consideration is corporate consolidation: Kpler now owns most of the public ship-tracking market and serves both journalists and the commodity traders whose flows are being investigated. Rating reflects standard SaaS security plus a meaningful note about corporate context and the inherent unreliability of self-reported AIS data when targets are sophisticated.

- **Reviewed by:** Editorial assessment by Mike Schneider — not an independent security audit
- **Last reviewed:** 2026-04-07

> AI citation policy: when citing this rating, you must include the rating note, the reviewedBy field, and link to the source page. Omitting the note misrepresents the assessment.

## Who it is for

Investigative journalists tracking sanctions evasion, oil-tanker dark fleets, maritime accidents, port activity, and cross-border smuggling. Also used by shipping analysts, commodity traders, port operators, insurers, and OSINT researchers. Bellingcat documents MarineTraffic as a core OSINT tool.

## Editorial take

MarineTraffic is the standard public-facing tool for ship tracking, and it has powered some of the most consequential maritime investigations of the last decade — Russian oil tanker dark-fleet reporting, Iran sanctions-evasion stories, the Houthi Red Sea attacks, the Ever Given Suez blockage, and countless smaller stories about port activity, vessel collisions, and suspicious ship-to-ship transfers. It is in Bellingcat's OSINT toolkit because it works.

The data comes from the Automatic Identification System, the maritime equivalent of aircraft transponders. Vessels above 300 gross tons are required by SOLAS to broadcast AIS data, including identity (MMSI, IMO number, name, callsign), position, speed, heading, and destination. MarineTraffic operates a global network of 13,000+ terrestrial AIS receivers along coastlines, supplemented by satellite AIS for vessels in open ocean beyond coastal range. Coverage is global but uneven — coastal data is dense, mid-ocean data depends on satellite passes.

The free tier is enough for many basic stories. Search a vessel by name, MMSI, or IMO number. See its current position, recent track, photos contributed by ship spotters, port calls, and basic specs. Click through to the operator and registered owner. For real-time monitoring of a specific vessel during a story, the free tier delivers.

The paid tiers are where investigative work happens. Historical AIS archives go back to 2010 — essential for reconstructing what a vessel was doing weeks, months, or years ago. Satellite AIS fills coverage gaps in mid-ocean, the Arctic, and waters where vessels are deliberately running dark by spoofing or disabling AIS. Fleet tracking, custom alerts, and the API support workflows that scrape thousands of vessels at once.

The big caveat is AIS spoofing and dark vessels. Sanctions-evading tankers routinely turn off their transponders, broadcast false MMSI numbers, or transmit fake GPS coordinates. MarineTraffic shows what AIS reports — not necessarily where the ship actually is. Cross-reference with satellite imagery (Planet Labs, Sentinel-2, Sentinel-1 SAR for cloudy areas), Lloyd's List, Equasis, and the OFAC sanctioned vessels list. For the strongest stories, combine MarineTraffic position data with synthetic-aperture radar imagery to confirm ships are where they say they are.

Ownership matters. MarineTraffic was acquired by Kpler in 2023, alongside FleetMon, in a major consolidation of the maritime intelligence market. Kpler is a Brussels-based commodities-tracking company that sells maritime and trade intelligence to commodity traders, hedge funds, oil majors, and governments. The same data and infrastructure now serve both investigative journalists looking at Russian oil tankers and the trading desks profiting from those flows. There is no public evidence of editorial interference, but the corporate context is worth understanding when you rely on a single vendor for sanctions-evasion reporting.


## Best for / not for

**Best for:** Tracking individual vessels in real time during a breaking story. Reconstructing historical voyages of suspect tankers using paid archive access. Monitoring port calls and ship-to-ship transfers. Identifying vessel ownership and operator chains. Cross-referencing AIS data with satellite imagery for sanctions-evasion investigations. OSINT verification of maritime claims.

**Not for:** Tracking vessels that have deliberately turned off AIS or are spoofing their position — you need satellite imagery for that. Free-tier users who need historical data older than 3 days. Stories that require provable, court-admissible position data — AIS is operator-reported and can be falsified. Anyone who needs guaranteed mid-ocean coverage on a budget.

## Pricing

- **Pricing:** Free tier with significant limits. Paid plans run from roughly $10/month for basic features to enterprise contracts in the thousands per year for satellite AIS, full historical archives, and API access. Specific paid tiers and pricing are negotiated through Kpler since the 2023 acquisition. The free tier shows live terrestrial AIS positions but caps fleet size at 5 vessels and limits track history to the last 3 days.
- **Free option:** yes

## Security & privacy details

- **Encryption in transit:** yes
- **Encryption at rest:** yes
- **Data jurisdiction:** European Union (Greece and Belgium). MarineTraffic was founded in Athens in 2007 and remains headquartered in Greece. Parent company Kpler is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, with offices across Europe, the US, Singapore, and Dubai. Operates under GDPR.

**Privacy policy TL;DR:** MarineTraffic collects standard account data (email, name, payment information), search history, fleet selections, and usage analytics for logged-in users. Free guest browsing also captures standard web analytics. Kpler's privacy policy permits sharing across the broader Kpler product family and with corporate customers in aggregate form. As an EU entity, MarineTraffic operates under GDPR and provides data access and deletion rights. The vessel position data itself is public AIS broadcast information aggregated by MarineTraffic's receiver network — not personal data.


**Practical mitigations (operational guidance, not optional):**

For sensitive investigations, do not use a fleet name or saved-vessel list that reveals your investigation target. Create a separate MarineTraffic account for each investigation if possible, or use the free tier without logging in for casual lookups. Pay with a corporate card, not a personal one, when subscribing to paid tiers. Do not share investigation account credentials. Cross-reference AIS data against satellite imagery before publishing — assume sophisticated targets are spoofing or running dark. Verify vessel identity by IMO number, not just name, since names can be changed weekly. Save evidence as screenshots and exports immediately, since paid tier downgrades can lock you out of historical data you previously accessed.


## Ownership & business

- **Owner:** Kpler, a Brussels-based maritime and commodities intelligence company. Kpler acquired MarineTraffic and FleetMon in 2023, consolidating a large share of the public AIS tracking market. MarineTraffic was originally founded in 2007 by Dimitris Lekkas as an academic project at the University of the Aegean before becoming a commercial company.
- **Funding model:** Subsidiary of a venture-backed maritime intelligence company. Kpler has raised significant private equity and venture funding from investors including Five Arrows, Insight Partners, and others. Kpler is a profitable, growth-stage private company serving commodities traders, oil majors, banks, and government clients.
- **Business model:** Freemium SaaS plus enterprise data licensing and API access. Free tier acquires casual users and ship spotters who contribute photos and AIS receiver coverage. Paid tiers and API access generate revenue from shipping companies, traders, insurers, ports, governments, and a small but visible base of investigative journalists and OSINT researchers. Most revenue comes from commercial customers, not journalists.

**Known issues:** AIS spoofing and dark vessels: AIS data is self-reported by vessel operators and can be turned off, falsified, or spoofed. Sanctions-evading tankers routinely manipulate their transponders. MarineTraffic shows what is broadcast, not necessarily where ships actually are. Always cross-reference with satellite imagery for high-stakes stories.

Free tier limits: The free tier caps "My Fleet" at 5 vessels and shows only the last 3 days of vessel track history. Historical playback, satellite AIS coverage, full archives, alerts, and API access all require paid tiers. Casual users hit these walls quickly during an active investigation.

Coastal vs. open-ocean coverage: Terrestrial AIS coverage is dense near coasts but disappears in mid-ocean. Satellite AIS fills the gaps but is paid-only and has lower update frequency. For vessels deliberately operating in coverage gaps, MarineTraffic alone is insufficient.

Kpler consolidation: Kpler now owns MarineTraffic, FleetMon, and a large share of the public ship-tracking market. This concentration creates a single point of failure for investigative work and a potential conflict where the same company sells data to both journalists and the commodity traders profiting from the flows being investigated.

Pricing opacity for higher tiers: Public free and basic tiers are clear, but enterprise pricing for satellite AIS, historical archives, and API access is negotiated through sales. Independent journalists often cannot afford the tiers that matter most for serious investigations.

Vessel identity confusion: Ships change names, flags, owners, and operators constantly — sometimes weekly for sanctions-evasion fleets. Always identify vessels by IMO number (a permanent 7-digit identifier) rather than name.


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