Free flight trackers: what the free versions of the big apps can do

A flight tracker is part of the basic kit of almost every spotter. You usually don’t have to pay for it. Flightradar24, FlightAware, AirNav Radar, Plane Finder and ADS-B Exchange all have a free version. Still, the stores advertise Silver, Gold, Premium and Business, and you quickly wonder whether the free version is enough for everyday spotting. This overview shows you what the free versions of the big flight trackers can really do, where they stop and how you get the paid features without signing up for a subscription. The information comes from the providers’ store descriptions, FAQs and subscription pages (as of October 2026). Providers change their plans regularly, so check the current status briefly before deciding.

The short answer

For a normal spotting day, a free flight tracker app is almost always enough. Live map, flight number, route, aircraft type, registration and your airport’s arrivals board come without a subscription from all the big services. You pay for four things: a longer look back at past flights, additional data fields such as serial number or squawk, alerts and map layers and an ad-free experience. If you don’t regularly need any of these, you save the subscription. If you do, you can often unlock the features for free with your own ADS-B receiver.

Important up front: No subscription makes more aircraft visible. All tiers of a service access the same position data. Aircraft whose owners have blocked their display, as well as blocked military and government flights, are missing from commercial trackers even in the most expensive subscription. The background is explained in Why an aircraft doesn’t show up on Flightradar.

Flightradar24 free: the best spotter map without a subscription

For many spotters, Flightradar24 is the app that opens first at the fence, and the free version is surprisingly complete. According to the store description, you get without a subscription:

• the live map with all the aircraft the service receives,
• flight details with route, departure time, estimated arrival, aircraft type, speed, altitude and photos,
• the sky view: You point your phone at an aircraft in the sky and get the flight and a photo displayed,
• a 3D view from a pilot’s perspective and 3D models with liveries,
• airport boards with arrivals, departures, flight status, aircraft on the ground, delay statistics and weather,
• playback of past flights, up to seven days back according to Flightradar24,
• search by flight number, airport or airline and simple filters by airline, type, altitude or speed.

The limits lie in the account limits and the pro data. Without a subscription, the number of bookmarks and of devices logged in at once is tight. The aircraft’s serial number and age, vertical speed, squawk and alerts are only unlocked by Silver, and weather layers, aeronautical charts and extended Mode S data only by Gold. Ads come on top. In the US App Store, Silver was last listed from $2.99 per month; in Germany, prices depend on the store.

For spotters, that means: Watching the approach, identifying an aircraft in the sky and checking in the evening which registration landed on 26R at 2:37 p.m. all work for free. How to use the map is shown in the Flightradar24 guide, and the subscription tiers are explained in detail in Flightradar24 Silver, Gold and Business.

FlightAware free: the best planner without a subscription

FlightAware from Houston, part of Collins Aerospace since 2021, sets a different focus. The service is built around flights, flight plans and airports, and the map is one tool among several. According to the store listing, the app is free and contains ads. Without a subscription, you get:

• flight search and flight status with scheduled and estimated times,
• airport pages with arrivals, departures, scheduled flights and aircraft on approach,
• the live map and a weather radar,
• status alerts for departure, arrival, cancellation, gate change, delay and diversion,
• saved favorite aircraft and airports.

According to the FAQ, the last seven days of flight history can be viewed. If you create a free account, FlightAware updates the pages more often; without signing in, updates come one to four times a minute. The ads can be removed in the app through a small one-off item, according to the US store for $1.49 per month or $8.99 per year. The Aviator packages in the store are aimed at general aviation pilots and are hardly relevant for spotters. The actual premium subscriptions mainly extend the history to three, five or eight months and bring unlimited alerts.

At the spot, FlightAware is strongest the evening before: On the airport page, you see which rotations are scheduled and whether the expected long-haul jet is running on time. More in the FlightAware guide and in the head-to-head Flightradar24 vs. FlightAware. How reliable the estimated times are is covered in How accurate are ETA predictions?.

AirNav Radar free: a solid map with ads

AirNav Radar, often still known in the scene by its old name RadarBox, combines volunteer receivers, satellite ADS-B, MLAT and government data. For free, you use the live map, flight search, the flight card with flight details and data source, and airport lists, though with ads and limited scope. How much satellite ADS-B is visible without a subscription is determined by the provider. According to the FAQ, AirNav even charges separately for certain satellite data.

The three paid tiers Spotter, Pilot and Business differ in ad-free use, history, playback, map layers, weather layers and export. In October 2026, the subscription page listed annual prices of $24.50 for Spotter, $79.50 for Pilot and $399.50 for Business. According to the FAQ, new subscriptions start with a seven-day trial. If you use AirNav Radar as a second map, the free version serves you well. What the tiers bring exactly is explained in RadarBox (AirNav) explained, and the use in Using AirNav RadarBox.

Plane Finder free: ad-supported with an optional subscription

Plane Finder from the British developer Pinkfroot used to be a paid app. Today the basic version is a free, ad-supported app, and extra features come through the Plane Finder Premium subscription.

Plane Finder offers several map styles, an AR view and a 3D mode. Which filters and extras are unlocked without a subscription is determined by the provider and occasionally shifted with updates. The easiest way is to try out what your free account can do. Details are in Plane Finder at a glance and Plane Finder explained.

Community maps: completely free and unfiltered

A completely different category is the maps built directly on the data of volunteer networks. They have no subscription tiers, and they forgo the targeted filtering that commercial services build in at owners’ request.

• ADS-B Exchange at globe.adsbexchange.com is the best-known unfiltered map. It is free to use in the browser and shows ads. Since the takeover by JETNET, ADS-B Exchange sells data products to businesses; the map itself remains free. Tracks, replay and heatmap are available there without a subscription. Everything else is in ADS-B Exchange explained.
• adsb.fi, adsb.lol and airplanes.live use the same tar1090 interface, run without an account and without a subscription and offer no premium tiers. Which of them has the most feeders in your region is compared in Unfiltered community trackers compared.
• OpenSky Network is a nonprofit association from Burgdorf, Switzerland, with a research focus. Besides the live map, there is a REST API with a daily quota: 400 credits anonymously, 4,000 with an account. More in OpenSky Network explained.

The price of freedom: The community maps are less comfortable. Flight plans, delay predictions and pretty airport boards like those on Flightradar24 or FlightAware are largely missing. As a second map for military, government and business aircraft, though, they are unbeatable, especially if you are specifically looking for tankers or helicopters. Finding helicopters on the flight tracker is worthwhile for that, too.

The free versions compared

Service	Included for free	Free history	Main limits without a subscription	Ads
Flightradar24	live map, sky view, 3D, airport boards with ground traffic, simple filters	7 days	few bookmarks and devices, no alerts, no serial number and no squawk	yes
FlightAware	flight status, airport pages, map, weather radar, status alerts	7 days	short history, limited alerts, less frequent updates without an account	yes, can be switched off in the app
AirNav Radar	live map, flight card, airport lists	limited	playback, layers, weather and export in the subscriptions	yes
Plane Finder	live map, map styles, flight details	limited	premium extras only with a subscription	yes
ADS-B Exchange	unfiltered map, tracks, replay, heatmap	replay in the browser	little flight-plan convenience	yes
adsb.fi, adsb.lol	unfiltered tar1090 map without an account	via tracks and replay	no flight plans, little convenience	no

The table summarizes the providers’ information as of October 2026. For AirNav Radar and Plane Finder, the providers give no exact history duration for the free tier, which is why it says “limited.” A broader look at all services including subscriptions is given by the flight tracker apps comparison.

When the free version is no longer enough

Whether a subscription makes sense is decided not by the price but by your spotting style. Most casual spotters miss nothing in the free version. Three situations change that.

For the last point, there are trial periods: Flightradar24 offers a free trial for Silver and Gold, and AirNav Radar seven days to try out according to the FAQ. Cancel in time, otherwise the subscription renews automatically. Whether Flightradar24 pays off for you specifically is answered by Flightradar24 subscription: what’s worth it for spotters?. How a subscription fits into the total cost of the hobby is shown in What does plane spotting cost?.

The feeder route: premium without a subscription fee

The big services build their receiver networks largely with volunteers and say thanks with premium accounts. If you run your own ADS-B receiver and share data, you get:

• at Flightradar24, an upgraded account without a subscription fee,
• at FlightAware, a free Enterprise account, whose value the provider puts at $99.95 per month,
• at AirNav Radar, a Business account, according to the FAQ within 24 hours of the first data,
• at Plane Finder, Premium on all platforms.

All accounts are valid only as long as your station transmits. A single receiver can supply several networks at once, so you collect several premium accounts with the same hardware. FlightAware puts the parts for a Raspberry Pi, USB receiver and antenna at around $100 or €80. You’ll find the build instructions in Building an ADS-B receiver yourself, and the setup in Setting up PiAware and Setting up fr24feed. What the networks give back in each case is compared in What feeders get in return.

The best free combination for the spot

In practice, many spotters use not one tracker but two or three, each for its strength. A proven free split:

• The evening before: FlightAware for the airport page. Which rotations are coming, which type flies when, are there delays? At Frankfurt Airport or Munich Airport, you can see early on whether the trip is worth it.
• At the spot: Flightradar24 for watching the approach and the sky view. At the Munich Airport visitors’ hill or the Zeppelinheim viewing platform, you can tell in good time what is about to pass over you.
• For special things: ADS-B Exchange or adsb.fi in the browser when military, government or business aircraft are in the area.
• After spotting: the seven-day history to match photos without a securely read registration. How to do that systematically is explained in Matching sightings with ADS-B logs and flight tracker history.

What the symbols and colors on the maps mean is covered in Symbols, colors and data fields on flight tracker maps. And if you want alerts for specific aircraft without signing up for a subscription, you’ll find ways in Setting up notifications for aircraft, types and airlines.

What to watch out for with free trackers

• Ads eat battery and data. Ad banners and video overlays keep loading in the background. On long spotter days, a power bank belongs in your bag, and abroad it’s worth keeping an eye on your data volume.
• Creating an account is worth it. On Flightradar24 it gets you bookmarks, on FlightAware more frequent updates. Both cost nothing.
• Cancel subscriptions through the store. If you subscribed in the App Store or on Google Play, you cancel there too. Deleting the app does not end a subscription.
• No guarantee of completeness. Even the best free map shows only what a receiver hears. Older transponders without ADS-B only appear if enough stations are in range for an MLAT calculation. The technology behind it is explained in Flight tracking with ADS-B for spotters.
• Package contents change. Providers keep shifting which feature sits in which tier. What is free today can be behind the subscription tomorrow, and vice versa.

Conclusion

The free versions of the big flight trackers are not a come-on but full-fledged tools. Flightradar24 delivers the most comfortable spotter map for free, with sky view and airport board, FlightAware the best planning and status data including status alerts, and AirNav Radar and Plane Finder solid alternatives with ads. The community maps like ADS-B Exchange, adsb.fi and adsb.lol round out the picture with unfiltered traffic, entirely without paid tiers. You pay for history, extra data, alerts and an ad-free experience, and if you set up a receiver of your own, you often get exactly that as a gift. Which other apps belong in a spotter’s basic kit is shown in the plane spotting apps comparison.