The Best Luggage Trackers (AirTag & Beyond)

A luggage tracker is the difference between "the airline lost my bag and shrugged" and "my bag is sitting in a service room in Lisbon, aisle 3." For the price of a nice lunch you drop a coin-sized tag in your suitcase and get to watch it not make your connection in real time. Deeply useful. Occasionally infuriating. Always better than flying blind.

Which luggage tracker you want comes down almost entirely to the phone in your pocket. Apple's Find My network and Google's Find My Device network are what make these tags actually work, and they do not play nicely across the fence.

How to pick the best luggage tracker for your phone

• iPhone: an AirTag or an AirTag-compatible tag rides Apple's enormous Find My network, which is why it pings so often in airports and cities.
• Android: a Samsung SmartTag or a Google Find My Device tag is the equivalent. An AirTag on Android is mostly a paperweight.
• Either: Tile works cross-platform on its own network, which is smaller, so expect fewer pings off the beaten path.

Luggage tracker FAQ

Are luggage trackers allowed on planes?

Yes. AirTags and similar trackers use tiny coin batteries the FAA and TSA are fine with in carry-on and checked bags. Airlines walked back their brief 2022 panic about them, and several now use tracker data to reunite people with bags faster.

Does an AirTag work in checked luggage?

It does. It pings off any nearby iPhone in the Find My network, so it goes quiet in an empty cargo hold and lights back up the moment your bag rolls past people again, usually at the next airport.

AirTag or Tile for luggage?

On an iPhone, AirTag wins on network size alone. On Android, skip the AirTag and go Samsung or Tile. A tracker is only as good as the crowd of phones quietly relaying its location.

The luggage trackers we would actually drop in a bag are ranked below.