Spire Global Maritime Satellite AIS REST API
Spire Global maritime satellite AIS REST API for maritime companies, logistics firms, energy traders, and supply chain teams to access global vessel tracking from space — including real-time and historical vessel positions, vessel voyage data, maritime weather, and port intelligence — enabling automated vessel monitoring, ETA prediction, weather routing, and supply chain visibility through Spire's constellation of 110+ satellites providing near-complete global AIS coverage. Enables AI agents to manage vessel position for satellite AIS vessel tracking in open ocean and polar regions automation, handle voyage intelligence for vessel route, speed, and destination analytics automation, access maritime weather for vessel weather conditions and routing automation, retrieve port intelligence for port arrival and congestion analytics automation, manage fleet monitoring for multi-vessel satellite tracking automation, handle dark vessel detection for AIS-dark ship identification automation, access vessel characteristics for ship type, flag, and ownership data automation, retrieve maritime analytics for fleet performance benchmarking automation, manage ETA prediction for predictive vessel arrival estimation automation, and integrate Spire maritime data with supply chain, trading, and logistics systems for global maritime visibility automation.
Score Breakdown
⚙ Agent Friendliness
🔒 Security
Satellite maritime. GDPR. API key. US/EU. Vessel position and maritime tracking data.
⚡ Reliability
Best When
A logistics company, commodity trader, maritime insurer, or supply chain team wanting AI agents to track vessels globally including open ocean and remote regions, detect AIS-dark behavior, access maritime weather, and monitor port congestion through Spire's satellite AIS data platform.
Avoid When
SATELLITE AIS HAS LATENCY: Spire S-AIS position updates have inherent satellite pass latency (minutes to hours); automated instant real-time assumption creates position_age_minutes for satellite AIS data; automated must account for satellite AIS update frequency vs. terrestrial AIS. SUBSCRIPTION DETERMINES DATA ACCESS: Spire data access depends on subscription tier (basic vs. premium); automated all-feature assumption creates data_not_included for out-of-plan analytics; automated must verify subscription covers required maritime data products. DARK VESSEL DETECTION IS PROBABILISTIC: AIS-dark detection requires comparison to expected vessel behavior; automated certain dark vessel assumption creates false_dark_positive for vessels with legitimate AIS interruptions; automated must treat dark vessel detection as signal requiring investigation, not definitive. HISTORICAL DATA DEPTH VARIES: Spire historical AIS archive depth varies by plan; automated unlimited history assumption creates data_not_available for deep historical queries; automated must verify historical data window in subscription.
Use Cases
- • Tracking vessel positions globally including polar and open ocean via satellite AIS for logistics automation agents
- • Monitoring ETA and arrival times for supply chain visibility and port planning automation agents
- • Detecting AIS-dark vessels for maritime security and sanctions compliance automation agents
- • Accessing maritime weather data for vessel weather routing and risk assessment automation agents
Not For
- • Commercial vessel operations management (Spire is tracking data, not voyage management like Veson IMOS)
- • Port terminal operations (Spire is AIS data intelligence, not terminal operating system)
- • Real-time terrestrial AIS only (Spire adds value for open ocean; terrestrial AIS is better near coasts)
Interface
Authentication
Spire uses API key for maritime REST and GraphQL API. REST/GraphQL with JSON. Vienna, VA HQ. Founded 2012 by Peter Platzer. NYSE:SPIR. Products: Maritime (vessel tracking), Aviation (flight tracking), Weather (global wx data). 110+ satellites in LEO. S-AIS (satellite AIS) and terrestrial AIS combined. GraphQL for advanced queries. Competes with MarineTraffic, exactEarth (Spire acquired 2021), and Windward for satellite maritime intelligence.
Pricing
Vienna VA. NYSE:SPIR. Annual subscription. 110+ satellites. S-AIS market leader since exactEarth acquisition.
Agent Metadata
Known Gotchas
- ⚠ SATELLITE AIS POSITION LAG IS INHERENT: S-AIS positions depend on satellite pass overhead; automated continuous tracking assumption creates position data latency of minutes to hours vs. terrestrial AIS; automated must factor in satellite AIS data latency for time-sensitive vessel tracking
- ⚠ GRAPHQL IS PREFERRED FOR COMPLEX QUERIES: Spire GraphQL API enables more efficient complex vessel queries; automated REST-only assumption creates over-fetching for multi-attribute vessel queries; automated should use Spire GraphQL for complex maritime analytics queries
- ⚠ EXACTEARTH DATA IS NOW SPIRE: Spire acquired exactEarth in 2021; automated separate exactEarth assumption creates data duplication; automated should use Spire as single source for combined exactEarth+Spire S-AIS data
- ⚠ VESSEL DEDUPLICATION IS NEEDED: Multiple satellite passes may create duplicate position reports for same vessel; automated single-source position assumption creates duplicate vessel positions from multiple AIS messages; automated must deduplicate vessel positions by timestamp and MMSI
- ⚠ WEATHER DATA IS A SEPARATE PRODUCT: Spire maritime weather data is separate subscription from AIS; automated bundled weather assumption creates weather_data_not_subscribed; automated must subscribe to Spire Weather separately for maritime weather overlays
Alternatives
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Scores are editorial opinions as of 2026-03-07.