Terms of Use

Last updated: 8th of October 2026

AISHub is a community of AIS enthusiasts, researchers and developers who share data from their own receivers. Together, members cover coastlines around the world, and every member gets free access to AISHub in return. Anyone with an AIS receiver can join. These terms are short. They explain the few rules that keep AISHub fair for everyone who contributes.

These terms apply to new members from the day they join, and to existing members from 1 January 2027.

In short

  • Sharing data: only real data from your own AIS receiver. You keep your rights, allow us to combine and share the data, and can stop at any time.
  • Using data: we encourage you to build new websites, apps, analyses, research and your own products with AISHub data, including for commercial use. Credit the people who make it possible with "Data: AISHub contributors" and a link to https://www.aishub.net.
  • Raw data: passing on the raw data to others, for free or for money, is not allowed. Anyone who needs it is welcome to join AISHub with their own station.
  • Everyone: the data comes from volunteers, is provided as is and must not be used for navigation.

1. Who runs AISHub

AISHub is operated by Astra Paging Ltd ("we", "us"), a company registered in Bulgaria under number 119063656. We look after the network and its servers. The data comes from our members.

2. Sharing your data

  1. Share at least one raw AIS feed in NMEA format from a receiver you operate. Every station helps, wherever it is.
  2. Share only data you receive yourself, so that everyone can trust the data. We do not accept synthesized or artificially generated data, scraped or stolen data, or data taken from public AIS services.
  3. You keep all rights to your own data and can stop sharing at any time.
  4. By sharing, you allow us to collect, combine, store and distribute your data, and to license the combined data to third parties. This permission is free, worldwide and non-exclusive, and it continues for data you have already shared if you stop.
  5. Your station's location and statistics are shown on the AISHub map. Your name and email address are never made public. See our Privacy Policy for details.

3. Using AISHub data

  1. Map and statistics. Every member gets free access to the AISHub map and to statistics for their own station.
  2. API access. Members whose station meets our quality standards also receive an API key for the combined data. The standards: coverage of at least 10 vessels and at least 90% uptime, both averaged over the last 7 days, no more than 60 seconds downsampling and no more than 10 seconds message delay.
  3. API limit. The API allows at most one request per minute.
  4. Your key only. Your API key is for you only. Do not share it.
  5. Credit the contributors. Wherever the public or your customers can see AISHub data or work based on it, for example on a website, in an app, in a report or in a research paper, display "Data: AISHub contributors" with a link to https://www.aishub.net, clearly visible near the data. No credit is needed for internal use that only your own team sees.
  6. Your own work. You may show ships on a website or app, and create your own work based on the data, such as research, maps, statistics, port calls or trade flows. You may also sell that work, with the credit above.
  7. Raw data. Passing on the raw data to others, for free or for money, is not allowed. Raw data means AIS messages and vessel positions, live or historical, including tracks. If you break this rule, we may suspend your API key immediately.

4. General

No warranty. AISHub data comes from volunteer stations. It may be incomplete, delayed or wrong. Do not use it for navigation or safety decisions. The data is provided as is, and to the extent the law allows, we are not liable for any loss caused by its use or by technical failures.

Suspension. If you break these terms, we may suspend your API key or membership. In most cases we will first contact you and give you 30 days to fix the problem.

Changes. We may update these terms. We will announce changes that affect you at least 30 days in advance, by email or on this website. If you keep sharing or using the data after that, the new terms apply.

Governing law. These terms are governed by the laws of Bulgaria.

Thank you for sharing your station and helping to keep AISHub open.