AIS Nearby API: Ships Within a Radius as JSON

An AIS nearby API lists ships whose last position falls inside a circle around a lat/lon — the practical way to watch a port approach without a separate geofence path. On Vessels API that is GET https://vessels-api.com/api/V1/vessels/nearby with header X-API-Key. Required: latitude, longitude. Optional: radius (nautical miles, default 50, max 200), limit (default 50), max_age_minutes (default 1440 = 24h, max 10080 = 7d).

Starter is $19.99/mo (2,500 calls) with a 7-day trial. Envelope: {status,success,message,data}. MCP: https://mcp.vessels-api.com (tool catalog includes nearby). Docs: vessels-api.com/docs (Nearby vessels).

Use cases

• Port approach. Center on the harbor (docs fixture: Buenos Aires -34.60, -58.38, radius=30) and alert when distance_nm drops.
• Traffic density. Plot data.vessels[]; weigh each row with position.age_minutes (a ship at 15 knots covers ~15 NM per hour).
• Freshness. Tighten max_age_minutes for time-critical boards; the default 1440 drops vessels that stopped reporting.

Request: 30 NM off Buenos Aires

curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  "https://vessels-api.com/api/V1/vessels/nearby?latitude=-34.60&longitude=-58.38&radius=30"

Response: official nearby fixture

{
  "status": 200,
  "success": true,
  "message": "OK",
  "data": {
    "center": { "latitude": -34.60, "longitude": -58.38 },
    "radius_nm": 30,
    "max_age_minutes": 1440,
    "total": 12,
    "vessels": [
      {
        "imo": null,
        "mmsi": "258785000",
        "name": null,
        "ship_type": null,
        "position": {
          "latitude": -34.603722,
          "longitude": -58.381592,
          "timestamp_utc": "2026-02-09T10:30:00Z",
          "age_minutes": 12
        },
        "distance_nm": 5.2,
        "speed_knots": 15.5,
        "course_degrees": 145.0,
        "navigational_status": "Underway using engine"
      }
    ]
  }
}

There is no /geofence route. Nearby is the radius query. Live-position on a single IMO is a different Professional+ path.

Go live

List nearby AIS with a Vessels API key →