Is aisstream.io down? Status and alternatives

aisstream outage record checked 11 October 2026; Open Waters AIS and aisstream documentation checked 8 October 2026; other provider details last checked 4 September 2026

When an aisstream.io client goes quiet, the first question is whether aisstream is down or your connection is. This page answers it live, from a world-wide aisstream subscription we hold as one of our upstreams. Below that are aisstream's recent outages and the alternatives that keep a vessel feed running, starting with Open Waters AIS: an aisstream-compatible stream plus historical vessel tracks over REST.

Is aisstream.io down right now?

Checking aisstream.io…

Last message: –
Vessels, last 30 min: –
Messages, last 24 h: –

Measured from one world-wide aisstream subscription on one key, updated every 5 seconds from /v1/stats. A world-wide subscription normally hears something every few seconds, so five quiet minutes means aisstream has stopped delivering. If it is delivering here and not to you, the problem is more likely your key, filters, or connection count.

Outage record

5–17 August 2026: Connections and subscriptions were accepted, but no messages arrived, from 13:31 UTC on 5 August (#257, #269) until about 17 August (#273).
19–22 August 2026: Silent again from 06:18 UTC on 19 August until 22 August (#279). aisstream's statement in that thread attributes the outage to a bug in circuit-breaker logic added to handle a sharp rise in load, and says its small team had limited internet access at the time.
Early September 2026: Stale subscriptions held accounts at the three-connection limit and refused new connections with HTTP 429 for days, until aisstream restarted its load balancer and deployed a fix (#292).
September 2026: Connections closing immediately with code 1006 on every attempt (#291). On 14 September aisstream said in that thread that it was very close to bandwidth capacity.

aisstream.io publishes no status page or uptime guarantee, and its issue tracker had 211 open issues on 11 October 2026. By its own account it ran for nearly four years before these outages, and it remains one of our upstreams: when it delivers, Open Waters AIS carries its positions.

Why people look for an alternative

Most people arrive here because an aisstream client stopped receiving data. In the August outages, the connection opened and the subscription was accepted, then nothing arrived and no error frame was sent. From the client, that looks the same as a filter that matches no vessels.

A live map or fleet monitor needs timely positions and a connection that says when it fails. Historical analysis needs recorded positions for specific vessels, places, and dates. A streaming API alone does not provide the past: your application must store the feed or use a provider with an archive.

aisstream.io offers a free WebSocket feed. Its current documentation describes subscription confirmations and connection limits, but no durable replay or uptime guarantee. Look for an alternative when your project needs a stream that reports its own failures, historical queries, different coverage, or commercial terms.

What to look for in a replacement

Real-time tracking. Decide whether you need a continuous stream or periodic REST lookups. Check position age, reconnect behaviour, and coverage for the vessels you follow.
Historical analysis. Check available dates, sampling, gaps, vessel identifiers, and export formats. A current position snapshot does not replace a historical track.
Coverage you can see. Terrestrial AIS reaches roughly 40 nautical miles from a receiver. Ask where the receivers are, and whether the service shows you per-station health so a gap is distinguishable from an outage.
A license. If you display, store, or redistribute the data, you need written terms. Most commercial APIs forbid public display or redistribution outright.
Failure that announces itself. An ack, a heartbeat, a close code, a status page.
Someone to email.

The alternatives

1. Open Waters AIS

An open AIS network for real-time vessel tracking and historical analysis, with an aisstream-compatible stream and a REST API for vessel tracks.

Real-time tracking: WebSocket push, bounding box or MMSI list. /v0/stream is aisstream-compatible: change the hostname, use your Open Waters AIS token as APIKey, and aisstream-ts, the official Go/Python/JS examples, and signalk-aisstream run unmodified. /v1/stream is the native API and needs no token to subscribe. REST vessel lookups support applications that poll rather than keep a stream open.
Historical analysis: Vessel tracks return recorded positions for a requested time range as GeoJSON or GPX. Each request can span up to 366 days; that is a query limit, not a guarantee of a year of coverage. Available dates and detail depend on the vessel, source, and access tier. For a historical project, send us your vessels, area, and dates to check the fit.
Coverage: live from the Norwegian and Finnish coastal authorities and from volunteer receivers; worldwide terrestrial via the AISHub snapshot, which runs about a minute behind (/v1/stats reports each source's current delay); aisstream.io itself as an upstream when it is up. Every event names its source and station, and /v1/stations shows each source's message rate and age, so you can tell a gap from a fault.
Price: free without a token (2 streams, 20 msg/s, about 10°×10°); free personal token in one click, never expires (2 streams, 50 msg/s, about 20°×20°, or 50 vessels by MMSI anywhere); contributor tier is earned by contributing a receiver; free access is for personal use; commercial products should contact us for terms and a quote.
License: per source, published, with the attribution string you must carry. Norway NLOD, Finland CC BY 4.0, volunteer receptions CC0 with the aggregate under ODbL, AISHub with attribution. Code is MIT.
Operations: subscription ack, heartbeat, close reasons, documented limits per token rather than per IP, a public status page at status.openwaters.io, and hello@openwaters.io answers.
Honest limits: standard access is best effort. Coverage and latency vary by source; AISHub positions are typically about a minute behind. Historical tracks only contain positions the network holds, and gaps remain gaps. Check the required vessels and dates before relying on the data; contact us about bulk datasets or contractual requirements. This is not a global satellite feed or a service for safety of navigation.
Best for: developers building vessel tracking, fleet monitoring, and marine apps; analysts and researchers reconstructing vessel movements over time.

Field-by-field comparison of Open Waters AIS and aisstream.io, or read the API reference.

2. AISHub

A community AIS network built by receiver operators. Contribute your station’s receptions and get access to the combined data. Open Waters AIS contributes to AISHub and uses its aggregate for much of our worldwide terrestrial coverage.

Protocol: a REST API with snapshots in JSON, XML, or CSV, queried at most once a minute. The worldwide snapshot refreshes about once a minute, so positions are typically about a minute behind.
Coverage: worldwide terrestrial coverage contributed by receiver operators. Their shared receptions are an important part of the coverage available through Open Waters AIS.
Price: free API access for contributors whose stations meet the published requirements: a seven-day average of at least 10 vessels and 90% uptime, with at most 60 seconds downsampling and 10 seconds message delay. See how to join AISHub.
License: AISHub publishes terms for contributors and data use. Credit AISHub contributors and check the terms for your project, including any redistribution.
Honest limits: the API provides periodic snapshots rather than a push stream. API access requires an operational receiver meeting the contribution requirements. AIS data is not for safety of navigation.
Best for: receiver operators who want a worldwide view of vessel traffic while contributing to a shared community network.

3. Open government feeds directly (Digitraffic, Kystverket, BarentsWatch, EuRIS)

The sources Open Waters AIS is built on, available to anyone.

Protocol: Finland pushes over MQTT/WSS; Norway is a raw TCP socket of tagged NMEA; BarentsWatch is JSON and Kafka behind a free OAuth client; EuRIS is a REST bounding-box endpoint for EU inland waterways.
Coverage: Finnish waters, the Norwegian coast to about 60 nm plus the EEZ and Svalbard, and 13 countries of European rivers and canals (anonymised: no MMSI or name).
Price: free, no registration except BarentsWatch.
License: CC BY 4.0, NLOD 2.0, and an attribution string for EuRIS. Redistribution explicitly allowed.
Honest limits: three protocols, three reconnect loops, your own dedupe, and nothing outside those waters.
Best for: Nordic-only projects and anyone who wants to own the whole pipeline.

4. VesselFinder API

Protocol: REST, credit-based, built for per-vessel lookups. A raw TCP/UDP feed exists on quote, priced by area and traffic density.
Coverage: global terrestrial plus satellite.
Historical analysis: Historical datasets for vessels, ports, or areas, delivered as CSV or XLS. Confirm the dates and resolution available for your request.
Price: €330 for 10,000 credits, €625 for 20,000, €1,470 for 50,000. A terrestrial position is one credit, satellite ten.
License: the terms ban competing vessel-tracking services and AI training; external display is allowed only where your order says so.
Honest limits: polling a bounding box through credits gets expensive fast.
Best for: looking up a handful of known vessels, or satellite positions on demand.

5. Datalastic

Protocol: REST with credits and a historical data API; check the plan and date range for your project.
Price: Starter €199/month for 20,000 credits, Growth €569 for 80,000, Developer Pro €679 unlimited. Two-week money-back trial.
License: the terms ban exposing the data in a public-facing application.
Honest limits: no WebSocket, no public maps.
Best for: a backend that needs history and is willing to pay for it.

6. Kpler AIS (MarineTraffic, Spire Maritime, exactEarth, FleetMon)

The commercial layer consolidated into one company between 2021 and 2025.

Protocol: GraphQL, raw NMEA streams, Snowflake.
Coverage: terrestrial and satellite coverage; confirm latency and coverage for your required area.
Price: contact sales for a quote matched to coverage, history, delivery, and usage rights.
License: no redistribution, no access through any third-party software or aggregator.
Best for: fleets and analysts evaluating contracted terrestrial and satellite data.

Also seen: MyShipTracking (REST from €90/month, public or third-party use of the data prohibited) and Marinesia (the cheapest paid API found, about €14 a quarter as of August 2026, REST polling only, and the one service an aisstream user reported actually migrating to).

At a glance

	Push stream	Historical data	Coverage	Free tier	Redistribution	Status page
Open Waters AIS	yes, aisstream-compatible	vessel tracks, subject to recorded coverage	Nordic live, world via AISHub (~1 min behind), volunteers	yes, no account	yes, per-source license published	yes
aisstream.io	yes	no	global terrestrial, when up	only tier	confirm reuse terms	no
AISHub	no (≤1/min)	current positions, not an archive	worldwide terrestrial, ~1 min behind	contributors only	check AISHub terms	no
Government feeds	MQTT/TCP	varies by agency and dataset	Finland, Norway, EU inland	yes	yes	per agency
VesselFinder	quote	historical datasets	global + satellite	no	no	no
Datalastic	no	historical API	global	trial	no public display	no
Kpler	raw NMEA	historical products; contact sales	global + satellite	no	no	enterprise

Which one

Your aisstream client stopped and you want it back this afternoon: Open Waters AIS /v0/stream. One hostname.
You run a receiver and want the world: AISHub offers aggregate access to qualifying receiver operators. Open Waters AIS contributes to that network and combines its coverage with other sources through streaming and snapshot APIs. You can contribute to both; choose the access that fits your project.
Finland or Norway only: go direct to Digitraffic or Kystverket, or use Open Waters AIS for one protocol and the license carried through.
A few known ships, occasionally: VesselFinder credits.
Historical vessel movements or research: Start with Open Waters AIS vessel tracks and check the vessels and dates available. Compare Datalastic, VesselFinder, or government archives when you need a different region, time span, or delivery format.
A fleet and a procurement department: Kpler.

Switching from aisstream.io to Open Waters AIS

Get a personal token for personal use, or contact us for commercial access.
Replace wss://stream.aisstream.io/v0/stream with wss://ais.openwaters.io/v0/stream.
Put the token in APIKey. The compatibility endpoint accepts: BoundingBoxes, FiltersShipMMSI, FilterMessageTypes, and the MessageType / MetaData /Message frame shape.

Before

wss://stream.aisstream.io/v0/stream

After

wss://ais.openwaters.io/v0/stream

Get a token

Check your client against both providers’ current limits and control messages before migrating. Open Waters AIS personal limits are per token (2 concurrent streams, 50 messages a second, about 20°×20°), so a world-sized bounding box is refused with a message that says so instead of silently throttled. Where aisstream's decoder was wrong (Valid: true on out-of-range values, message 27 labelled 23), /v0 reproduces it on purpose so nothing breaks; /v1 gets it right. The full list is in the API reference.

When you have a minute, move to /v1/stream: no token for subscribing, one JSON event per message with source, station, the raw sentence and the decoded fields, an ack when your subscription is live, a heartbeat, and a close reason when we close.

FAQ

Can I get historical AIS data from Open Waters AIS?

Yes. The vessel-track REST endpoint returns recorded positions over a requested time range as GeoJSON or GPX. A request can span up to 366 days, but available history depends on the vessel and source. Check coverage for your dates; contact us about commercial historical analysis or bulk dataset needs.

Is aisstream.io down?

The status at the top of this page measures it live from a world-wide aisstream subscription we hold as one of our upstreams. If aisstream is delivering there but not to you, check your key, filters, and open connections: aisstream allows three subscribed connections per account and three open connections per IP, and stale connections have held accounts at that limit before.

Is there a free alternative to aisstream.io?

Open Waters AIS is free without an account and speaks the same protocol. AISHub is free if you run a receiver. The Finnish and Norwegian government feeds are free and open.

Can I use aisstream.io data commercially?

Confirm reuse terms with aisstream before building a commercial product on its feed. Open Waters AIS publishes source terms and attribution requirements; contact us about commercial access and any sources your product needs to exclude.

Does Open Waters AIS have the same coverage as aisstream.io?

Not yet in the same way. Open Waters AIS is live in Norway, Finland, and wherever volunteer receivers are, and carries worldwide terrestrial positions from AISHub that run about a minute behind. It also uses aisstream.io as an upstream when aisstream is up, but compare your actual vessels and regions before switching.

Questions, or a source we missed? hello@openwaters.io.