God's Eye View: what it does and what you need to run it

God's Eye View is a free web app. It shows live planes, ships, satellites, earthquakes, wildfires and public traffic cameras on a 3D globe. You can even steer it with your voice. It is open-source: anyone may read and reuse its code.

Since version 0.1.0 on 31 August 2026, it starts without a single API key. An API key is a code you get from a service so the app may use its data. The release notes confirm this. So you can start for free. Some extra services do cost money. Voice control through OpenAI is billed each time you use it. Google's own route to 3D maps needs a billing account.

We read the project's files, the licence, the release notes and the price lists. Then we installed it ourselves. The screenshots below are our own.

What is God's Eye View?

The project started as a video series by Bilawal Sidhu. He used to be a product manager at Google Maps. At first it was called WorldView. The videos showed a screen that looked like a spy satellite feed. But it was built from public data.

On 24 August 2026, Sidhu put the code on GitHub, a website where people share code. He used the MIT licence. In his Map the World newsletter, he wrote that readers kept asking for it. So he released it. Two people look after the project: Sidhu and Sameh Khamis of Halfpixel.

It is an app that runs in your web browser. It is written in plain JavaScript on top of CesiumJS, a tool for drawing 3D globes. A small Node server starts it. That server runs on your own computer. The data still comes from outside: from flight, ship and map services, and from OpenAI if you turn on voice. Any keys you add stay in a file on your computer. The server only answers your own computer, unless you choose to open it to your network.

What can you do with it today?

The README, the project's main instruction page, lists fifteen layers and map sources. Thirteen of them can work without a key. A layer is one type of data on the globe, such as planes or ships. This table shows what is on the globe and what each layer needs.

Three sets of data come with the code: 4,351 data centres, 704 dams and 712 submarine cables. Submarine cables are the internet cables on the sea floor. The camera images are placed inside the 3D scene, not shown as flat video. They cover Austin, Texas, California, London, Ontario, Finland, British Columbia, Estonia, New South Wales and Calgary.

The features make it feel like a film set:

• Click any plane. The camera locks onto it and draws its trail.
• Press Cockpit and you ride inside a real flight over real land.
• Number keys change the look of the whole planet, such as an old TV screen (CRT), night vision and a heat camera (thermal).
• A detection layer draws boxes and ID labels around everything in view.
• Share links put your camera position, layers and even a followed plane into a web address.

Voice needs an OpenAI key. With it, you can say things like "Take me to Tokyo", "How many flights are over Texas right now?" or "Outline the state of Texas". The AI helper then moves the camera, answers from the live data, or draws on the globe. The README counts 28 voice tools.

The makers add two honest notes. Read them before you get excited. Street traffic is simulated on real roads. It does not show where real cars are. Camera positions and rocket launch paths are estimates, and the app says so.

What do you need to run it?

There are two ways to install it. The easy way is Pinokio, a desktop launcher, version 8.2 or later. It works with one click on Windows, macOS or Linux.

The other way uses the terminal, the text window where you type commands. For that you need Node.js 24.14 or newer, or Node 26. Node.js is a free program that runs JavaScript on your computer. Then you type four commands:

• Download (clone) the code from GitHub.
• Run npm ci to install the parts the app needs, in the exact versions it expects.
• Run npm run doctor to check your setup.
• Run npm run dev and open localhost:4173 in a browser.

Copy and paste:

git clone https://github.com/bilawalsidhu/gods-eye-view.git
cd gods-eye-view
npm ci
npm run doctor
npm run dev

The four terminal windows in the picture are from our own run on Windows. They show the download, npm ci reporting 123 packages, the setup check ending with "Ready. Run npm run dev", and Vite showing the local address. Vite is the tool that starts the app on your computer.

Without any key, you get Esri satellite photos on a flat-looking globe. You also get the shape of the land, and every layer that needs no key. If Esri cannot be reached, the app uses OpenStreetMap instead.

You add keys inside the app, in a panel called POWER UP. You do not need to edit files. The README describes the keys as steps on a ladder:

Next to those, free sign-ups at AISStream, NASA FIRMS and TomTom turn on ships, fires and live traffic speeds. An OpenSky account lets the app ask for flight data more often. An OpenAI key turns on voice.

We installed it: here is what happened

We used the terminal way on 16 September 2026. Our laptop ran Windows 11, with an Intel Core Ultra X7 358H chip, an Intel Arc B390 graphics chip (GPU) and 31 GB of memory (RAM). It had Node.js 24.19. Every number below was measured on our machine and our internet connection. On 16 September we timed each step on its own. A single run without breaks follows below the table.

We hit two small problems. Both came from our own machine. First, Windows could not find npm, only Node. npm is the tool that installs the parts. It was not on the PATH, the list of places where Windows looks for programs. We got around it by running npm through another tool, pnpm. Most people will never need to do this. Second, the setup check treats missing npm as a blocker. It says the app cannot start. But it can: the app started normally.

Then we put npm back on the PATH and ran everything again. This time the check found npm 11.19.1 and ended with "Ready". npm ci took 4 seconds, because the parts were still saved from before. Vite was ready in under half a second. If npm is installed the normal way, with Node's own installer, neither problem happens.

One thing surprised us. npm version 11 skips the install scripts of packages by default. So the test browser that comes with the project was never downloaded. The app does not need it. The project's own tests do.

Because we timed those steps one by one, we did it again on 17 September. This time it was one run without breaks, in an empty folder: 12.1 seconds from the start of the download to the first working page. The download took 5.0 seconds and npm ci took 5.8. The server answered 1.3 seconds later. The parts were still saved from the day before, and the code was a day newer (commit 0d41b6b). So a very first install will take longer. Our 17 seconds for npm ci on day one shows that.

What you see without a key, ten seconds in

First you see a welcome panel with four missions, or starting points. We chose Live Contacts. About ten seconds later, the camera was over an airfield, following a plane. The Contacts panel listed 233 live flights and 9 military flights within 250 km. All of this worked without a key.

Ships showed "feed unavailable". That is correct, because ships need the free AISStream sign-up. A label at the top showed LOAD FAILED for a moment, while one data source gave errors. Then it went away by itself.

We only noticed one detail later, in the screenshots. On the first load, the panel named OpenSky Network as the flight source. After we pressed Reset Globe, it named adsb.lol. The app seems to switch between these two free sources by itself. That is good to know. OpenSky allows only a small number of requests without an account. It explains why the flights kept coming. We looked at which parts are live, delayed or simulated in a separate article.

Reset Globe pulled the camera back to the whole planet. Flight names (call signs) and heights (flight levels) stayed on screen. Pressing a number key switched to night vision, with sliders for gain, bloom and scanlines. We made these screenshots with an automatic Chrome browser without a visible window, at 1600 by 900 pixels. It showed every view we asked for. We did not measure how smoothly it ran (frame rates) in this first test.

In this first test without keys, we did not try Pinokio, anything that needs a key, or macOS and Linux. Since then, we have tested the Cesium ion key in a separate article.

What does it cost?

We checked the price pages of each service on 16 September 2026: Cesium ion, Google Maps Platform and OpenAI. Prices change, so check again before you rely on them.

A root request starts a 3D map session. Someone who explores 3D cities a few evenings a week stays inside Google's free amount. But billing must be switched on. So set a budget alert first, a warning that comes when you spend too much.

Voice is where the real cost is. It is billed per token, not per minute. Tokens are the small pieces of text or sound an AI reads and writes. The app uses gpt-realtime-2 as its standard model and gpt-realtime-2.1-mini as the cheaper choice. These are OpenAI's prices per one million tokens:

To make that real, we worked out one ten-minute session. Say you speak for four minutes and the assistant speaks for three. There are twenty turns. Each turn sends about 3,000 tokens of text again. Most of that is cached: reused, so it costs less. We used a common rule of thumb. A minute of speech is about 600 input tokens, or 1,200 output tokens.

At that rate, the app's built-in $5 limit lasts about two hours on standard. This is an estimate, not a measurement. The tokens-per-minute figures are not on OpenAI's current price page. They come from its older prices per minute.

The app shows your spending live, next to the microphone. It warns at $2 and closes the session at $5. That limit only works inside the app. It is not a limit at OpenAI. So set a spending limit in your OpenAI account too.

What it is not

It is not a tool for tracking people. The project says it shows events, things, buildings and systems. It will not add search by a person's name, face recognition or tracking of single people. It will also not accept code changes from others that cross that line.

It is not a source you can fully trust. The README warns that data may be late, incomplete, modelled, guessed or wrong. It says not to use it to find your way, in emergencies, or for other decisions where safety is at stake.

It is not built to be safe when shared. If you open the server to your local network, anyone who can reach it can spend money through your keys. The panel for entering keys switches itself off when the server is shared.

It is not all MIT. The code is, but the data is not. The project's DATA_SOURCES.md file lists the submarine cable data from TeleGeography as non-commercial. It advises removing that data if you use the app commercially. TeleGeography's own FAQ describes different terms, which we could not make fit together. OpenSky allows its flight data only for non-profit research and education. Cesium ion's free plan sets conditions on commercial use. If you want to build a paid product on top of this, check the licences first.

Our verdict

God's Eye View is a free way to try out map work and open-source intelligence: finding facts in public data. You do not have to talk to a sales team. We have not compared it with other tools. After installing it, we can say that setup was quick and simple on our machine. Start without keys. Add the free Cesium ion token for the 3D cities. Only add an OpenAI key if you really want to talk to it.

Two corrections to what you may have read elsewhere. Reports from late August said a Google key was needed, and that the globe stayed black without one. An early hands-on test by Firmatic said so too. That was true at the time. Version 0.1.0 changed it. Our own install confirms it: satellite photos and live planes with zero keys.

Also, the project's badges for GitHub Trending and view counts are the maker's own claims. When we looked on 16 September 2026, the project had 35,450 stars on GitHub. Stars are a bit like likes. That is a lot, whatever the rankings said.

We have since added the free Cesium ion token. God's Eye View in 3D, the free Cesium ion route that works from Europe shows what the lifelike 3D cities look like and what they cost.

Common questions: is it legal, free and easy to install?

Is God's Eye View legal to use? The app itself is open-source software under the MIT licence. It shows data that services publish for anyone to fetch. The project also sets its own limits. Its documents say it has no search by a person's name, no face recognition and no tracking of single people. What you may do with the data is a different question. Some services set limits. OpenSky, for example, allows its flight data only for non-profit research and education. Do you plan to share screenshots or recordings? Our article on licences, screenshots and video goes through the services one by one. Laws differ per country, and this is not legal advice.

Is it free? Yes, to start. You can run the app and most layers without any account or API key, like we did. Costs only come with extra keys. OpenAI bills voice control per use. The direct Google route to 3D cities is also paid per use. The cost table above lists them.

Can I download it from an app store? No. God's Eye View is a web app. It runs on your own computer and opens in your browser. You install it with Pinokio, a one-click launcher, or with the four terminal commands shown above. New versions have come out since our test. The project's README describes the current steps.

How do I use it once it runs? The first screen offers four starting points, such as Live Contacts or Space Missions. From there, you turn layers on and off in the Data layers panel. You add keys in the POWER UP panel. Our article on what is live, delayed and simulated explains how to read what you see.

How we checked

We read the project's files on GitHub: the repository, LICENSE, package.json, .env.example, DATA_SOURCES.md and the v0.1.0 release notes. We also read Bilawal Sidhu's announcement on Map the World, Firmatic's test of 26 August, and the price pages of OpenAI, Google Maps Platform and Cesium ion. We read all of them on 16 September 2026. On the same day, we took the star count from the GitHub API, GitHub's connection for programs. Prices and terms can change.

We installed the app ourselves on 16 September 2026, on the laptop described above, without any API keys. We used commit 531ef52. A commit is one saved version of the code. We timed the single run without breaks a day later, on 17 September, with the newer commit 0d41b6b.

We made the screenshots ourselves on 16 and 17 September 2026. We only changed their size. The terminal image is the one exception: it puts our four terminal windows side by side. Pictures marked as AI-generated were made by us and do not show the app.

The flight data in the app during our test came from the OpenSky Network (Schäfer et al., "Bringing up OpenSky", IPSN 2014) and from adsb.lol. The satellite photos in our screenshots come from Esri and its data partners, as named under each image.

Updated 17 September 2026. We replaced the cover screenshot with one that shows no plane ID codes. We added the services' credits to the captions. We also corrected a download (clone) time we had not measured, and added one install run without breaks. We made the cost summary and two other statements less absolute. We added an at-a-glance box, commands you can copy, source links and visible captions. We removed one decorative illustration.

Updated 4 October 2026. We added a section with common questions. We also changed two sentences on data licences to match our later research.

This review is a first look without keys, on one Windows laptop. It does not cover Pinokio, macOS or Linux, or the features that need a key. The one exception is the Cesium ion route, which we tested in a separate article.

Update, 19 October 2026: we added our own diagram to a section that did not have an image yet. It shows what this article already says. No facts changed.