--- title: How GPS actually works | daily.dev description: GPS satellites carry atomic clocks deliberately set to run slightly slower than ground clocks before launch. This compensates for relativistic effects... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/how-gps-actually-works-hbe7pj0r3 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: How GPS actually works | daily.dev og:description: GPS satellites carry atomic clocks deliberately set to run slightly slower than ground clocks before launch. This compensates for relativistic effects... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/how-gps-actually-works-hbe7pj0r3 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/HbE7pJ0R3.png og:image:alt: How GPS actually works og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # How GPS actually works **[Slidebean](https://daily.dev/sources/slidebean)** · 1 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary GPS satellites carry atomic clocks deliberately set to run slightly slower than ground clocks before launch. This compensates for relativistic effects predicted by Einstein: weaker gravity at orbital altitude makes clocks run faster, while orbital velocity makes them run slower. The net effect is a gain of 38 microseconds per day, which at the speed of light translates to ~11 km of positioning error. Engineers correct this by adjusting the satellite clock frequency from 10.23 MHz to 10.22999543 MHz, effectively baking Einstein's general relativity into everyday navigation infrastructure. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [The physics of GPS](https://daily.dev/posts/the-physics-of-gps-8zdqlhiza) · Adafruit Blog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [How Do Atomic Clocks Work?](https://daily.dev/posts/how-do-atomic-clocks-work--ebjraivg8) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [NIST Researchers Determine Rate of Time on Mars](https://daily.dev/posts/nist-researchers-determine-rate-of-time-on-mars-gbwvectoc) · IEEE Spectrum · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Quantum sensing could become the next foundation of navigation](https://daily.dev/posts/quantum-sensing-could-become-the-next-foundation-of-navigation-jo47fdluu) · The Next Web · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#signal-processing](https://daily.dev/tags/signal-processing) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/how-gps-actually-works-hbe7pj0r3) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"How GPS actually works","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-gps-actually-works-hbe7pj0r3","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-gps-actually-works-hbe7pj0r3"},"datePublished":"2026-04-14T00:31:22.418Z","dateModified":"2026-04-14T00:32:10.753Z","description":"GPS satellites carry atomic clocks deliberately set to run slightly slower than ground clocks before launch. 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