The 2026 Alidade Satellite update expands 30cm-resolution coverage to 37 million km², enough to distinguish vehicles and building footprints, with seamless country-wide mosaics for Japan, Nigeria, Mexico, the UAE, and Eastern South Africa. Average imagery age across the dataset is now 1.6 years, and the update is live for all customers with no API changes.
If you've built anything on top of satellite imagery, you know the pain of inconsistent resolution. You zoom into one region and get crisp rooftops. Pan over to the next and it's a blurry patchwork from three years ago. That inconsistency isn't just cosmetic: it erodes trust in whatever you're building on top of it.
We regularly refresh our Alidade Satellite imagery as new high-resolution data becomes available from Airbus. This update is one of our most significant, expanding both the depth and freshness of our coverage.
How Much 30cm Coverage Does Stadia Maps Offer?
We now offer 37 million km² of 30cm-resolution satellite imagery, enough detail to distinguish individual vehicles, building footprints, and infrastructure at high zoom levels. For applications like urban planning tools, insurance assessments, or logistics platforms, this is the difference between useful and decorative.
This release also adds seamless 30cm country-wide mosaics for Japan, Nigeria, Mexico, the UAE, and Eastern South Africa. "Seamless" matters here: no visible tile boundaries, no abrupt shifts in color or season. Just consistent, high-resolution coverage across the entire country.
How Fresh Is the Satellite Imagery?
Beyond the 30cm expansion, we've completed a full refresh of our 1.5m-resolution dataset covering the Earth's landmasses, derived from the latest SPOT Global layer. Even at lower zoom levels, you're working with current data rather than imagery that's aging out.
Freshness matters as much as resolution. Across our entire dataset, the area-weighted average age is roughly 1.6 years. Nearly two-thirds of our coverage is less than a year old, and only 7% is older than three years. That share continues to shrink with each refresh.
Combined with our 2025 satellite imagery refresh, every pixel in our dataset is still 1.5m or better, with 37 million km² at 30cm and another 7 million km² at 50cm.
What This Means for Your Stack
If you're using Alidade Satellite, these updates are already live. No API changes, no migration. The same tile endpoints now serve fresher, sharper data. Integration works the same way it always has via MapLibre, Leaflet, OpenLayers, or any other mapping library that supports raster tiles.
We don't track or profile your end users. The imagery is delivered directly, with no behavioral tracking layer between your application and the tiles.
Try It
The updated satellite imagery is available now for all Stadia Maps customers. If you're new, Get started for free and see the difference at zoom level 18.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much 30cm satellite imagery does Stadia Maps offer?
Stadia Maps offers 37 million square kilometers of 30cm-resolution satellite imagery as of the 2026 update. That is enough detail to distinguish individual vehicles, building footprints, and infrastructure at high zoom levels.
Which countries have seamless 30cm satellite coverage?
The 2026 update adds seamless 30cm country-wide mosaics for Japan, Nigeria, Mexico, the UAE, and Eastern South Africa. Seamless means no visible tile boundaries and no abrupt shifts in color or season across the entire country.
How fresh is Stadia Maps satellite imagery?
The area-weighted average age across the Stadia Maps satellite dataset is roughly 1.6 years. Nearly two-thirds of coverage is less than a year old, and only 7% is older than three years. That share continues to shrink with each refresh.
What resolution is the rest of the satellite coverage?
Every pixel in the Stadia Maps dataset is 1.5m resolution or better. Alongside 37 million square kilometers at 30cm, another 7 million square kilometers is available at 50cm. The full 1.5m dataset covering Earth's landmasses was refreshed from the latest SPOT Global layer.
Do I need to change my code to get the updated imagery?
No. The 2026 imagery update is already live for all Alidade Satellite customers. There are no API changes and no migration required. The same tile endpoints now serve fresher, sharper data, and integration works the same way via MapLibre, Leaflet, OpenLayers, or any other library that supports raster tiles.