Query ADS-B Exchange aircraft data via its RapidAPI listing
domain: rapidapi.com (adsbexchange.com) · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
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Steps
Create a RapidAPI account and subscribe to the "ADSBexchange.com" API listing on the RapidAPI Hub, selecting a plan.
Retrieve your x-rapidapi-key from the RapidAPI dashboard code snippets for the subscribed API.
Call the desired endpoint (aircraft by ICAO hex, by registration, or within a lat/lon/radius) using the RapidAPI gateway host shown in that endpoint's code snippet.
Send both x-rapidapi-key and x-rapidapi-host headers on every request.
Parse the JSON response's aircraft array for state fields (hex, flight, alt_baro, ground speed, lat/lon).
Known gotchas
RapidAPI access and ADS-B Exchange's own direct Enterprise API (gateway.adsbexchange.com) are separate products with different auth headers (x-rapidapi-key vs api-auth) - don't mix them.
Plans are metered per request/month with no ongoing free tier; exceeding quota errors out rather than throttling gracefully.
Data includes crowdsourced/unfiltered aircraft that some other providers block - confirm this fits your use case before relying on it.
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