Tool
rtl_433
Receives and decodes transmissions from ISM-band devices such as weather sensors, remote controls, doorbells and alarm sensors, using RTL-SDR or SoapySDR receivers or recorded I/Q files, and emits decoded fields as JSON, CSV, MQTT and other outputs. For signals no built-in decoder recognizes, a pulse analyzer reports OOK/FSK timings and hints for a flexible -X decoder that slices frames into bits; its analysis guide leaves mapping those bits to values to the analyst, working from known readings.
- Targets
- Protocol
- Category
- Protocol analysis tools
- Relationship
- Foundation tool
- Sources reviewed
Requirements & limits
- Live reception needs an RTL2832-based RTL-SDR dongle or a SoapySDR device; the README names LimeSDR, PlutoSDR, HackRF One and SoapyRemote among actively tested devices, and rtl_tcp servers are accepted. Without a receiver, it reads recorded CU8, CS16 or CF32 I/Q and AM sample files, and -S saves captured signals as files.
- Written in portable C99 and built with CMake; RTL-SDR and SoapySDR libraries are optional at build time, and OpenSSL is needed only for TLS outputs. Packages exist for Debian/Ubuntu (rtl-433), FreeBSD and Homebrew; release 25.12 (2025-12-12) ships Linux, macOS arm64 and Windows binaries, and the reviewed master commit is dated 2026-10-11.
- At review the README listed 380 device protocols numbered up to 386, 44 of them disabled by default and enabled with -R or a configuration file. Built-in decoders cover those listed models only; for other signals the analyzer and flex decoders frame OOK/FSK pulses and slice them into bits, and do not infer field meanings or protocol semantics.
- GPL-2.0. The optional HTTP API output listens on 0.0.0.0:8433 by default.
About this entry
The description was reviewed against primary sources.
Primary sources
- README.md GitHub · merbanan/rtl_433 · Revision 80f7bcc
- docs/ANALYZE.md GitHub · merbanan/rtl_433 · Revision 80f7bcc
- docs/BUILDING.md GitHub · merbanan/rtl_433 · Revision 80f7bcc
- COPYING GitHub · merbanan/rtl_433 · Revision 80f7bcc
- https://github.com/merbanan/rtl_433/releases/tag/25.12
More in Protocols
- Blackbox Protobuf · Tool
- furiousMAC Continuity · Tool
- opendbc · Tool
- FISSURE · Tool
- friTap · Tool
- pbtk · Tool