Flightradar24

Flightradar24 is a live flight tracker on the web (flightradar24.com) and in iOS and Android apps. It shows aircraft positions and flight information worldwide.

Its main input is ADS-B: aircraft broadcast their GPS-derived position through their transponders, and a community network of more than 55,000 ground receivers on all seven continents picks up these signals. Where four or more receivers hear the same aircraft, it calculates the positions of aircraft without ADS-B by multilateration (MLAT). North American radar data, Open Glider Network data, estimations and airline and airport schedule data are added.

To cover oceans, polar regions and other remote areas that ground receivers cannot reach, Flightradar24 adds space-based ADS-B: satellites collect aircraft signals and relay them to its network. The company says it was the first flight tracker to integrate satellite ADS-B into a public platform, in 2016. It named Spire as a satellite supplier in 2020 and added Aireon data in February 2026. Satellite-tracked aircraft appear with blue icons and are shown only where terrestrial coverage is lacking. Aireon positions update in 15-minute increments.

Users can follow live flights, see flight and aircraft details, replay past flights, view airport boards and identify aircraft overhead by pointing a device at the sky. A GPS jamming map is built from the navigation integrity values that aircraft report in ADS-B messages and is updated every 6 hours. The basic service is free. Paid Silver, Gold and Business plans add longer flight history, alerts, weather layers, aeronautical charts and oceanic tracks. The App Store listing limits use of the app to entertainment purposes.