Strait of Hormuz Live
Every vessel transiting the world's most strategic chokepoint, on one live map. Tankers loading at the Saudi, Kuwaiti, Iraqi, and Iranian terminals. Cargo ships serving Dubai and Bandar Abbas. The traffic that moves one-fifth of global oil.
Live vessel positions
Open full-screen ↗Chokepoint Intelligence
Live transit data at the Strait of Hormuz, counts, flags, vessel types, and sanctioned-vessel detections versus the IMF PortWatch baseline. Filter by vessel type and period.
How many ships pass through the Strait of Hormuz each day?
In a normal year, about 90 commercial vessels a day: the 2025 average was about 94, with 25 to 35 of them crude oil or product tankers. In 2026 traffic has been far below that. The Status today panel at the top of this page gives the number of ships that crossed the strait in the last 24 hours, from our own count, updated every 10 minutes.
Why the Strait of Hormuz matters
The Strait of Hormuz is the only sea route linking the Persian Gulf to the open ocean. Roughly one-fifth of global oil consumption and a quarter of global liquefied natural gas crosses it every day, loaded at terminals in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, the UAE, Qatar, and Iran. There is no overland alternative at the same scale. When tension flares, naval incident, seizure, mine threat, missile strike, oil futures move within minutes, before any political statement, because the freight market reads tanker movement directly.
This page exists because that flow deserves a free, public, real-time view, not buried behind a maritime-intelligence subscription. Watch the map. The ships are still moving.
What you're seeing on the map
- Every vessel currently inside the Strait of Hormuz bounding box (24°N–28°N, 54°E–58°E) with an active AIS signal.
- Vessel type tanker, bulk, container, cargo, sailing, naval, colour-coded.
- Direction and speed heading arrows show transit direction; speed colours indicate underway vs anchored.
- Live refresh every 60 seconds on the public feed.
For deeper intelligence: voyage history, sanction status, ownership chain, draught-laden classification, cargo inference, sign in to the Strait Up Maritime app.
Geography
The Strait of Hormuz lies between the Musandam peninsula of Oman and the southern coast of Iran. At its narrowest point it is approximately 33 km (21 miles) wide. International shipping uses two 3 km-wide lanes, inbound on the Iranian side, outbound on the Omani side, separated by a 3 km buffer zone. Navigable depths run 60 to 90 metres, sufficient for fully laden Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) and Ultra Large Crude Carriers (ULCCs).
About the data
Vessel positions come from terrestrial and satellite AIS reception, aggregated across multiple providers and de-duplicated. The public live feed is delayed approximately 60 to 180 seconds from broadcast and covers the public Hormuz bounding box only. Commercial users with a paid plan get unredacted access including vessel detail, voyage history, draught classification, sanctions context, and ownership chain.
AIS data is broadcast openly by vessels under the SOLAS V/19 carriage requirement. We aggregate, refresh, and visualise it, we don't operate the broadcasting infrastructure.
Frequently asked questions
How many ships pass through the Strait of Hormuz each day?
In a normal year about 90 a day (the 2025 average was about 94), 25 to 35 of them crude or product tankers. In 2026 traffic has been far below that: see Status today at the top of this page for the last 24 hours.
Is the Strait of Hormuz currently open?
Commercial traffic has been running far below normal in 2026. The Status today panel at the top of this page answers this from our own crossing count: how many ships crossed in the last 24 hours, compared with a normal day in 2025 (about 94). The live map shows every vessel in the area right now.
Why is the Strait of Hormuz so important?
It's the only sea route connecting the Persian Gulf, and its oil and LNG terminals: to the open ocean. There is no overland alternative at the required scale. Roughly 20 million barrels of oil per day pass through.
What types of ships transit the Strait of Hormuz?
Crude oil tankers dominate, loaded at Saudi, Kuwaiti, Iraqi, UAE, and Iranian terminals for Asian, European, and American buyers. Product tankers carry refined fuels. LNG carriers serve Qatar and the UAE. Container ships, bulk carriers, and general cargo serve broader Gulf trade. Naval traffic from Iran, Oman, the UAE, and rotating US/UK/French deployments operates in the area but is generally not visible on civilian AIS feeds.
How wide and deep is the Strait of Hormuz?
About 33 km (21 miles) wide at its narrowest, with 3 km-wide shipping lanes in each direction. Depths in the navigable channels are 60 to 90 metres, enough for fully laden VLCC and ULCC supertankers drawing 22+ metres.
How current is the data on this page?
The live map refreshes every 60 seconds from aggregated AIS reception. End-to-end latency from a vessel's actual broadcast to its dot moving on the map is typically 60 to 180 seconds. The hero counter above updates each time you reload the page.
Is this free to use?
Yes. The live map is free and requires no account. If you need vessel detail, voyage history, sanctions context, ownership chain, or draught/cargo inference, those sit behind a paid plan at Strait Up Maritime.
Other chokepoints we cover
The Strait of Hormuz is one of several maritime chokepoints under continuous observation across Strait Up Maritime. Each has its own live page; the same dataset powers all of them.