ADSB.lol Live Flights Scraper

ADSB.lol Live Flights Scraper

Scrape live aircraft positions from ADSB.lol by location, callsign, ICAO hex, squawk code, or the military feed, up to a million per run. Every flight comes with its latitude, longitude, altitude, speed, heading, and raw ADS-B metadata. No API key or registration. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

ADSB.lol publishes raw ADS-B data from a global network of volunteer receivers, but querying it manually means polling a rate-limited API and stitching together JSON fragments. This Actor reads the live feed directly, filters by a radius around any point, a specific callsign, an ICAO hex address, a squawk code, or the dedicated military aircraft feed, and returns each matching flight as one flat row.

No API key, no registration, no manual polling.

Who uses it	What they scrape ADSB.lol for
Aviation enthusiasts	Watch which aircraft are overhead right now and log their tracks.
Flight tracking hobbyists	Build a personal live map of flights near an airport or along a route.
OSINT researchers	Monitor military or unusual aircraft movements in a region of interest.
Developers	Feed live ADS-B data into a dashboard, alerting system, or flight database.

What it does

This Actor collects live aircraft positions from ADSB.lol and returns each flight as a flat row with its coordinates, altitude, speed, heading, and transponder data.

• 📍 Radius search: return all aircraft within a chosen distance of a lat/lon point, up to 250 nautical miles.
• ✈️ Callsign lookup: find one flight by its callsign, such as EIN179 or BAW256.
• 🔢 ICAO hex lookup: locate an aircraft by its unique 24-bit ICAO transponder address.
• 🆘 Squawk code filter: pull aircraft broadcasting a specific transponder code, including emergency codes like 7700.
• 🛡️ Military feed: scrape the dedicated military aircraft feed for training flights, tankers, and surveillance platforms.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with ADSB.lol data

📍 Monitor flights near an airport.

An aviation enthusiast sets a 50 nautical mile radius around London Heathrow and collects every aircraft in the pattern to log arrivals and departures.

✈️ Track a specific flight.

A developer looks up a flight by its callsign to pull the latest position, altitude, and ground speed for a live status dashboard.

🛡️ Watch military activity.

An OSINT researcher runs the military feed to see which tankers and surveillance aircraft are airborne over Eastern Europe right now.

🆘 Detect emergency squawks.

A flight tracking hobbyist filters by squawk code 7700 to capture any aircraft declaring a general emergency in real time.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
Live ADS-B data	Real-time aircraft positions, altitude, speed, heading, and vertical rate from volunteer receivers worldwide.
No API key	ADSB.lol is an open data project. This Actor reads the public feed with no registration or authentication.
Five search modes	Radius, callsign, ICAO hex, squawk code, and military feed cover the most common tracking workflows.
Flat row output	Every flight is one row in a dataset, ready for CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML export and direct analysis.

How it compares

Aviation Hub bundles a static airport and airline database with live ADS-B and METAR data, while this Actor focuses exclusively on the ADSB.lol live aircraft feed with five targeted search modes.

Feature	ParseForge	Aviation Hub (straightforward_hydra)	Aviation Hub (darknezz)
Live ADS-B aircraft positions	Yes, from ADSB.lol	Yes	Yes
Radius search by lat/lon	Yes, up to 250 nautical miles	Not listed	Not listed
Callsign lookup	Yes	Not listed	Not listed
ICAO hex lookup	Yes	Not listed	Not listed
Squawk code filter	Yes	Not listed	Not listed
Dedicated military aircraft feed	Yes	Not listed	Not listed
Static airport and airline database	No, live flights only	Yes	Yes

Configure the run

Drive the Actor from a lat/lon point with a radius, a callsign, an ICAO hex, a squawk code, or the military feed, and set a maximum number of flights so only the latest positions reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
  "lat": "51.47",
  "lon": "-0.45",
  "dist": 50,
  "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
  "lat": "51.47",
  "lon": "-0.45",
  "dist": 50,
  "maxItems": 200
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.011 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$1.10
1,000 results	$11.00
10,000 results	$110.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the ADSB.lol Live Flights Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to ADSB.lol through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/adsb-lol-flights-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Check that your search parameters are valid. For radius mode, make sure the lat/lon point is within an area with ADSB.lol receiver coverage and that the radius is not too small. For callsign or ICAO mode, verify the aircraft is currently airborne and broadcasting.

Why does the run stop before reaching my max flights?

The Actor stops when the live feed has no more matching aircraft. If you set a high maximum but only a few aircraft are in the air, the run will finish early with whatever it found.

Why are some fields empty in my dataset?

ADS-B data depends on what the aircraft broadcasts and what the receiver decodes. Fields like callsign, squawk, or vertical rate may be missing when the transponder does not emit them or when reception is poor.

Why do I get an error about the radius being too large?

The ADSB.lol API caps the radius at 250 nautical miles. Set the radius input to 250 or less.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need an API key for ADSB.lol?	No. ADSB.lol is an open data aggregator. This Actor reads the public API with no registration, no key, and no authentication.
How many flights can I collect in one run?	You can set the maximum flights from 1 up to 1,000,000. The Actor stops when it reaches that count or when the live feed has no more matching aircraft.
What is the difference between the radius mode and the military feed?	Radius mode returns all aircraft near a lat/lon point, including commercial, general aviation, and military. The military feed returns only aircraft tagged as military by the ADSB.lol community, regardless of location.
Can I search by aircraft registration instead of ICAO hex?	The ADSB.lol API works with the 24-bit ICAO hex address, not the tail number. You can convert a registration to its ICAO hex using an online lookup table and then use the ICAO mode.
How fresh is the data?	The Actor pulls the live ADSB.lol feed. Positions are typically a few seconds old, depending on receiver coverage and network latency.
What export formats are supported?	You can export the dataset to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from the Apify platform, or push it to a webhook, S3, or another service.
Can I run this on a schedule?	Yes. You can set an Apify schedule to run the Actor every minute, every hour, or on a custom cron expression to build a continuous flight log.
What happens if no aircraft match my query?	The run completes with an empty dataset. This is normal when the sky is empty in your search area or when a callsign is not currently airborne.
Is there a rate limit?	The Actor respects the ADSB.lol API rate limits. It polls at a steady interval and will not hammer the server.
Can I filter by altitude or speed?	The ADSB.lol API does not support server-side altitude or speed filters. The Actor returns all matching aircraft, and you can filter the dataset afterward in your code or spreadsheet.

Related actors

Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by ADSB.lol. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.