--- title: "Strait of Hormuz: daily ship and tanker transits | Helious" description: "How many ships are getting through the Strait of Hormuz: 1 on the latest measured day against a pre-war normal of 85 a day, with the tanker split and a year of history." source: Helious canonical: "https://helious.io/data/hormuz" --- # Strait of Hormuz: how many ships are getting through A fifth of the world's oil goes through one narrow channel. This is the daily count of ships crossing it, measured against what a normal day used to look like, so you can see how much is actually moving. ## Latest reading *1* ship got through That is 27 Sep 2026, the newest day anyone has measured, 5 days ago. Before the war a normal day was about 85. The last week has averaged 3.1 a day, roughly 96% below normal. The weekly measurement is late The count due 2026-09-29 has not been published; the last one was 2026-09-29. 2026-09-27 is still the newest day anyone has measured, and every figure on this page is worked out from it. This is a delay at the source, not a gap in our collection. There are reports of GPS jamming, AIS spoofing and vessels going dark because of the conflict in the region, which makes the measurement harder to take at exactly the moment it matters most. - Ships that day 1 On 27 Sep 2026, the newest day measured. - Tankers that day 1 The ships carrying oil. This is the market number. - Average this week 3.1/day The last seven measured days, so one odd day does not mislead. - Average this month 3.7/day The last thirty measured days. Slower to turn. - Normal before the war 85/day The typical day across the year before the closure. This line does not move. - Below normal 96% How far this week sits under that normal. - Independent count · No independent week to compare against yet. - Age of this reading 5 days The record publishes weekly, so the newest day is always a few days back. Daily crossings of the Strait of Hormuz Showing 30 days 3 months 1 year Everything 05010015085/Normal FlowAll vessels 1Tankers 17-day avg 3.1 28 Sep 202528 Nov27 Jan 202629 Mar29 May28 Jul27 Sep Hover any day to see the exact figures. The pale dashed line marked **85/Normal Flow** is a normal day before the closure, drawn to the same scale so the drop is its real size. - All vessels Every commercial ship crossing the narrows. - Tankers The ones carrying oil. This is the number that moves markets. - Cargo ships Container ships and bulk carriers, carrying everything else. - Everything else Tugs, service vessels and anything not classed as tanker or cargo. - 7-day average The last week smoothed, so one quiet day does not read as a trend. - 30-day average The last month smoothed. Slow to turn, and hard to fool. - 6-month average Half a year smoothed. It shows the regime rather than the week. ## What crossed on 27 Sep 2026 Every ship counted that day, split by what it was carrying. - Tankers 1 The parts add up to 1, which is the whole day. Every ship counted is in exactly one of them. ## What is happening in the Gulf right now Everything above this point is the weekly transit count. What follows is a live regional reading, refreshed every half hour, and it measures a **different thing**. The two must never be added together. ### Ships moving in the Gulf right now: 134 Of those, 7 are tankers. This is every commercial ship under way anywhere in the Persian Gulf in the last half hour, and it is the typical level over a day rather than one snapshot. **None of these ships has passed through the strait**, and many never will: plenty work between Gulf ports and never approach the narrows. It tells you how busy the region is, not how much is getting out. ### Waiting at port: 29 outside, 51 inside Anchored or stopped, not under way. The busiest is Jebel Ali with 51. The side matters more than the total: ships stacked up **outside** the strait are waiting to get in, ships stacked up **inside** it cannot get out. A single congestion figure would hide which way the squeeze runs. ## How this is counted, in plain terms You do not need any of this to read the chart. It is here so you can check the numbers instead of taking our word for them. ### What counts as a ship getting through A crossing is one commercial ship passing the narrowest part of the strait, seen from satellites tracking the position each ship broadcasts. Every voyage in or out of the Gulf has to cross the same line, so the measuring stick never moves. Sitting near the strait, queueing at anchor, or turning back before crossing all count for nothing. ### One ship, one count Once a ship crosses it cannot count again for two days, however many times it goes back and forth. A slow passage or a ship loitering on the line is one crossing, not five. The whole record is built on that single rule, which is what makes today comparable with any day before it. ### Why the count is a floor Every number here comes from ships that were broadcasting their position. Through 2026 a large share of tankers have crossed with the transponder switched off, and they are invisible to this kind of measurement. So the honest reading is "at least this many got through". Watch which way the line moves rather than the level itself. ### Why the number sometimes does not change for days The measurement publishes once a week, on a Tuesday, covering up to the previous Sunday. Between publications the newest measured day stays where it is, normally two to nine days back. A repeated number means no new measurement has been published, not that nothing moved at sea. Every figure here is stamped with the day it measures and how old that day is. ### Why the "normal" line never moves It is the typical day across the twelve months before the closure was declared, and it is fixed. If we recalculated it on a rolling basis it would sink towards the disruption the longer the disruption lasted, and a strait running at one percent of normal would slowly appear to recover while nothing changed at sea. ### What happens to a day with no signal If the listening equipment heard less than half a day of signal, that day is recorded as missing. Silence is a measurement problem, and calling it "no ships crossed" would be the easiest way to publish something false. On the chart the line breaks and a faint dashed one carries the shape across. ### Why any of this moves markets Roughly a fifth of the world's oil goes through this strait. Fewer tankers means less crude reaching buyers, which pushes the oil price up, keeps inflation stickier for longer, and makes it harder for central banks to cut interest rates. That chain is why a count of ships ends up on a trading desk. ### Tankers, cargo and everything else Each ship is classed from the type it broadcasts. Tankers carry the oil and are the reason this page exists. Cargo ships carry everything else, and their count says more about ordinary trade than about energy. "Everything else" is tugs, service boats and anything that fits neither. ## The numbers View the last 30 measured days as a table Last 30 measured days DAYALL SHIPS TANKERSCARGO 27 Sep 2026 1 1 0 26 Sep 2026 4 1 3 25 Sep 2026 3 2 1 24 Sep 2026 5 3 2 23 Sep 2026 4 1 3 22 Sep 2026 3 1 2 21 Sep 2026 2 0 2 20 Sep 2026 1 0 1 19 Sep 2026 6 1 5 18 Sep 2026 7 2 5 17 Sep 2026 3 0 3 16 Sep 2026 1 0 1 15 Sep 2026 2 1 1 14 Sep 2026 2 0 2 13 Sep 2026 8 1 7 12 Sep 2026 2 1 1 11 Sep 2026 8 3 5 10 Sep 2026 5 1 4 9 Sep 2026 3 0 3 8 Sep 2026 6 2 4 7 Sep 2026 5 2 3 6 Sep 2026 6 2 4 5 Sep 2026 2 0 2 4 Sep 2026 2 0 2 3 Sep 2026 2 1 1 2 Sep 2026 3 1 2 1 Sep 2026 4 1 3 31 Aug 2026 3 1 2 30 Aug 2026 6 2 4 29 Aug 2026 3 1 2 This page draws 400 days, and the record goes back to 24 Aug 2025. The full daily history, the live Gulf readings and the independent comparison all come through the [Helious API](https://helious.io/developers/), and through MCP at [api.helious.io/mcp](https://api.helious.io/mcp) if you want your own tools to read it directly. [Get the data through the API →](https://helious.io/developers/) ## How this page is built If the listening equipment heard less than twelve hours of signal on a given day, that day is recorded as missing rather than as zero crossings. The line breaks and a faint dashed one carries the shape across. We never write a made-up number into the record. The normal line does not move. It is the median day across the twelve months before the closure was declared. A rolling normal would sink toward the disruption the longer it lasted, and the strait would appear to recover while nothing changed at sea. Only ships broadcasting their position can be counted, which is why the crossing count is a floor. A large share of tanker traffic now crosses with transponders off, so independent trackers see more hulls than any count of this kind can, and the section above puts our number and theirs side by side rather than hiding the difference. Helious also runs an independent shore-based receiver across the narrows, built to give a same-day count. It has no coverage over the Gulf right now, so it contributes nothing today and this page falls back to the weekly satellite record. Any day it does measure is labelled as measured live. ## FAQ ### How many ships pass through the Strait of Hormuz each day? Before the closure the strait carried about 85 commercial crossings on a typical day. On 27 Sep 2026, the newest day measured, this count recorded 1 crossing, of which 1 was a tanker. Over the last seven measured days it has averaged 3.1 a day, about 96 percent below normal. ### Why has the count not changed for several days? The measurement publishes once a week, on Tuesdays, covering data through the preceding Sunday. Between publications the newest measured day stays the same and normally runs two to nine days behind, which is why every figure here is stamped with the day it measures and how old that day is. A repeated number means no new measurement has been published, not that nothing moved at the strait. A scheduled publication can also be missed outright, and one is missed right now: the update due 2026-09-29 has not appeared, so the reading is older than the normal ceiling. When that happens this page says so at the top rather than leaving the age to imply it. ### How is a crossing measured? A crossing is one commercial ship passing the narrows, established from the position each ship broadcasts and picked up by satellite. A ship counts once per two days however many times it recrosses, and is classed as tanker, cargo or other from its broadcast type. Sitting near the narrows or queueing at anchor counts for nothing. Because the count only sees ships that are broadcasting, and a large share of tanker traffic now crosses with transponders off, read it as a floor rather than a total. ### Why is the independent count so much higher? Because it does not depend on ships broadcasting their position. Independent trackers work from other evidence and can see hulls that have gone dark, which an AIS-derived count structurally cannot. The gap between the two counts measures how much traffic is deliberately hiding. ### Have the ships in the live Gulf count passed the strait? No. The live Gulf count covers every ship under way anywhere in the Persian Gulf over the last half hour, which is a gauge of regional activity. A ship in it may be working between Gulf ports and may never approach the narrows. Nothing joins the crossing count without crossing the measurement line inside the strait itself, and the two figures must never be added together. ### Why does the count of ships waiting at port matter? Ships anchored outside the strait, at Fujairah or Sohar, are generally waiting to get in. Ships stopped inside it, at Jebel Ali or Bandar Abbas, may be unable to get out. Splitting the two shows which direction the pressure runs, where a single congestion total would hide it. Ships under way past a port are excluded from both. ### Why does the daily count matter for markets? Roughly a fifth of the world's oil moves through the strait. Fewer tankers means less crude reaching the market, which pushes the oil price up and keeps inflation stickier. That is a bearish input for bonds, and for equities it means the rate headwind stays higher for longer. ### Can I use this data? Yes, free to cite and embed with a link back to this page. The full daily record, the live Gulf readings and the independent comparison all come through the [Helious API](https://helious.io/developers/) and through MCP at api.helious.io/mcp, which is where the whole history lives rather than a sample of it. What it means for prices: [the inflation tracker](https://helious.io/inflation). What it means for rates: [the Treasury curve](https://helious.io/rates) and [the FOMC](https://helious.io/fomc). The reading posts to the [terminal feed](https://helious.io/) twice a day, 8:30am and 3:30pm ET, beside the [economic calendar](https://helious.io/calendar).