Google Maps Satellite View

How to see any address from above

1. Search. Type a street address, a town, or a landmark. Coordinates work too, in any format: 40.6892, -74.0445, degrees-minutes-seconds, UTM, a Plus Code such as 8FW4V75V+9R, a geohash, or a Google Maps link.
2. Get your bearings. Place labels are on by default; turn on Roads to see street names and road lines drawn over the photo. Turn both off for a clean image.
3. Pin the building. Click the map to drop a pin and read its exact coordinates, copy them, or open the same point in Google Maps or Street View.
4. Check the date. The imagery panel updates every time you move the map. If the photo is older than you need, compare it with Google’s, which is often from a different year.
5. Share it. The address bar always holds the current view, so the copied link opens the same spot at the same zoom.

Most up-to-date satellite images: check the date

People searching for up-to-date satellite images, updated satellite images or the most recent satellite images usually want one thing: to know the photo shows the place as it is now. No free map offers a live satellite view, so the honest answer is to show the date. This map does that for every view: the imagery panel under the map gives the capture date, resolution and source of the exact photo you are looking at.

• Big cities and landmarks: usually photographed within the last one to two years, as the table below shows.
• Towns and suburbs: typically one to three years old.
• Rural and remote areas: can be several years old, and zoomed out you see a global mosaic with no single date.
• Need the latest satellite imagery? Compare with Google Maps satellite view using the link under the map. Different providers update different places, so one of them is often newer.

Because the date is always on screen, these are the most up-to-date satellite maps you can check for free without guessing: if the photo is too old for your purpose, you know straight away.

Satellite view of my location, my house or any property

• Satellite view of my location: press My location and allow access to see satellite maps of my location. The map jumps to where you are, at street level.
• Aerial view of my house: for a satellite view of my house, type your street address and press Search, then click your roof to pin it.
• Aerial view of a property by address: search the address, turn on Roads to see the street names, and check the date before relying on what you see.
• Satellite maps with street view: pin a point and press Street View here to see the same spot from the street, or use our Street View tool for any address.

How old is the satellite image?

Satellite images of major cities on this map are usually less than two years old: the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty and the Pyramids of Giza were all photographed in 2025. Rural areas can be several years older. The tool shows the exact satellite image date for any point you look at.

Most satellite maps never tell you this. The satellite imagery here comes from Esri’s World Imagery mosaic, and Esri publishes metadata for every photo in it: the capture date, the resolution, the positional accuracy, and the provider. The tool reads that metadata for the point at the centre of your screen, at your current zoom, because a single view can mix several photos taken on different days.

What we saw when we checked five places on 15 October 2026:

So well-known places were photographed within the last year or two, but there is no fixed schedule. Big cities and fast-changing areas are refreshed more often; quiet rural areas can wait several years. Esri replaces tiles as new photos arrive, so the panel may show a newer date than the table by the time you read this.

Zoomed out, below roughly city level, you are not looking at one photo at all but at a 15 m-per-pixel global mosaic assembled from many cloud-free scenes, which has no single date. The panel tells you when that is the case.

What you can and cannot see

Resolution is the size of the patch of ground one pixel covers. In most towns the imagery here is 30 to 50 cm per pixel, which in practice means:

• Clearly visible: buildings and roof shapes, driveways, gardens, swimming pools, cars (about ten pixels long), trees, paths, and field boundaries.
• Just about visible: road markings, garden furniture, people as a dark dot or shadow.
• Not visible: faces, number plates, house numbers, or anything under a roof or tree canopy.

Everything is seen from straight above, so walls and shopfronts do not appear. For the face of a building, use Street View, which shows the street-level photos instead.

Aerial views to try

Open any of these in free satellite view; each link sets the map to the spot and zoom shown, and the panel shows when the photo was taken.

• Aerial view of Statue of Liberty, New York
• Aerial view of Olvera, Andalusia, Spain (white hill town)
• Aerial view of Colorful rooftops of Burano, Venice
• Aerial view of Eiffel Tower, Paris
• Aerial view of Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
• Aerial view of Badshahi Mosque, Lahore

Satellite or aerial photo?

“Satellite view” is the everyday name, but the sharpest imagery on any map is often taken from aircraft. Commercial satellites such as those operated by Vantor (formerly Maxar) photograph most of the world at around 30 to 50 cm per pixel. Planes fly lower and can capture 15 cm or finer, so many cities and national mapping programmes use aerial surveys instead. Esri’s mosaic mixes both: in New York, for example, its metadata lists a 15 cm aerial survey from 2024 for the very closest zoom level, above 50 cm satellite imagery for everything else. The imagery panel names the source for whatever you are looking at.

Why another map shows a different picture

Google Maps, Apple Maps, Bing Maps, and Esri each license imagery from different providers and update different places at different times. The same house can appear in summer on one map and in winter on another, with or without a new extension, or with a neighbouring building that has since been knocked down. Shadows point in different directions, and tall buildings lean differently, because each photo was taken from a slightly different angle. When the date matters, the “Compare in Google Maps” link under the map opens the same point in Google satellite view so you can check both.

Google Maps satellite view, Google Earth or this map?

Use whichever photo is newer for the place you care about. This map is the quickest way to check the date, and the link under it opens the same spot in Google Maps satellite view to compare. For a Google Earth view with 3D buildings, open Google Earth on the web: Google Earth satellite view free of charge is another option. Both this map and Google Maps satellite view free of charge need no account.

Google satellite view vs Google Earth: free options

• Google satellite view in Google Maps: on a computer, click the Layers square in the bottom-left corner of the map; in the Google Maps app, tap the layers button near the top right and choose Satellite. It is the quickest Google option for one address.
• Google Earth on the web: open earth.google.com in Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari. It is free, adds 3D buildings and terrain, and its historical imagery lets you step back through older photos.
• This map: no app and no Google account, any coordinate format, and the capture date of the photo shown for every view.

When satellite view beats a regular map

• Checking what a property and its surroundings look like before you visit, rent, or buy.
• Confirming a building actually exists at an address you have been given.
• Finding the right entrance, gate, or car park on a large site for a delivery or a meeting.
• Planning a walk or hike where the map lacks detail but the photo shows tracks and clearings.
• Seeing context a map leaves out: is the place in a desert, next to water, surrounded by forest?

For the opposite job, a clean labelled map for finding your way, the interactive map is a better fit, and Driving Directions plans the route there.

Where the imagery and searches come from

The photos and their metadata come from Esri’s World Imagery service, which combines imagery from Vantor, Earthstar Geographics, government mapping agencies, and other contributors. The place-label and road overlays are Esri reference layers built from HERE, Garmin, and OpenStreetMap data. Address searches use OpenStreetMap’s Nominatim geocoder; coordinates are read in your browser and never sent anywhere. The map requests imagery tiles and metadata for the area you are viewing from Esri’s servers, as every web map does. More detail is in our Privacy Policy.