Free, open API for instant vessel sanctions screening, ownership transparency, and vetting intelligence.

No API key required. No signup. No rate limit registration.

curl https://arcnautical.com/api/v1/vessels/9034690/check

{
  "imo": "9034690",
  "sanctions": {
    "status": "RED",
    "detail": "1 match found"
  },
  "ownership": {
    "opacity": "MEDIUM",
    "score": 60
  },
  "vetting": {
    "grade": "B",
    "score": 36,
    "status": "marginal"
  },
  "checkedAt": "2026-03-22T17:45:52.419Z",
  "provider": "ArcNautical",
  "fullReport": "https://arcnautical.com/check?imo=9034690"
}

Every request screens the vessel against:

• OFAC SDN — U.S. Treasury Specially Designated Nationals list
• EU Financial Sanctions — European Union consolidated sanctions
• UN Security Council — United Nations consolidated list
• OpenSanctions Maritime — 3,700+ vessels, 3,300+ companies from aggregated global sanctions data
• GLEIF — Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation for corporate ownership chain verification
• Equasis PSC — Port State Control detention and inspection records (when available)

• 100 requests per hour per IP address
• Results are cached for 1 hour per IMO number
• No API key required

Need higher limits? Contact us for enterprise API access.

import requests

response = requests.get("https://arcnautical.com/api/v1/vessels/9034690/check")
data = response.json()

if data["sanctions"]["status"] == "RED":
    print(f"WARNING: Vessel IMO {data['imo']} has sanctions matches!")
    print(f"Details: {data['sanctions']['detail']}")

const response = await fetch("https://arcnautical.com/api/v1/vessels/9034690/check");
const data = await response.json();

console.log(`Sanctions: ${data.sanctions.status}`);
console.log(`Ownership Opacity: ${data.ownership.opacity} (${data.ownership.score}/100)`);
console.log(`Vetting Grade: ${data.vetting.grade}`);

# Check a specific vessel
curl -s https://arcnautical.com/api/v1/vessels/9811000/check | jq .

# Batch check (shell script)
for imo in 9034690 9811000 9295345 9703318; do
  echo "=== IMO $imo ==="
  curl -s "https://arcnautical.com/api/v1/vessels/$imo/check" | jq '{imo, sanctions: .sanctions.status, grade: .vetting.grade}'
  sleep 1
done

function checkVessel(imo) {
  const response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(`https://arcnautical.com/api/v1/vessels/${imo}/check`);
  const data = JSON.parse(response.getContentText());
  return data.sanctions.status; // Returns "GREEN", "AMBER", or "RED"
}

All data is sourced from publicly available databases:

• OFAC SDN List — U.S. Treasury
• EU Financial Sanctions — European Commission
• UN Security Council Consolidated List — United Nations
• OpenSanctions — Aggregated global sanctions data (maritime dataset)
• GLEIF — Legal Entity Identifier Foundation
• Equasis — Port State Control inspection data

This free API provides a traffic-light summary. For full vessel intelligence including:

• Detailed sanctions match evidence (which lists, confidence scores, matched entities)
• Complete corporate ownership chain with GLEIF parent walking
• Shell company jurisdiction detection and opacity scoring
• PSC detention history and detention probability model
• Route-level voyage risk scoring (10 intelligence signals, 500 Monte Carlo simulations)
• Downloadable PDF dossier reports
• Fleet monitoring with automated alerts
• RESTful API with webhook delivery

Visit arcnautical.com or try the interactive vessel check.

Built by ArcNautical — maritime risk intelligence for insurers, compliance teams, and fleet managers.

Contact: [email protected]

The API is free to use for any purpose. No attribution required, but appreciated.

Data sources retain their original licenses. OFAC, EU, and UN sanctions data is public domain. OpenSanctions data is licensed under CC BY 4.0. GLEIF data is subject to GLEIF terms of use.