The monitoring of sea level changes with satellite altimetry is relatively recent (since the early 1990s). This technique allows determining the sea surface height with respect to a reference ellipsoid or with respect to the geoid (the equipotential surface or the Earth’s gravity field that best fits the mean sea level). The latter is known as the dynamic ocean topography. Satellite altimeters cover the ocean areas with repeated tracks at repetition rates of some days up to a month and permit the estimation of sea surface heights to an accuracy of 1 to 2 cm. Geographical averaging of individual sea surface heights allows estimating a global mean sea level value, and further constructing a global mean sea level time series. As the satellites follow the same ground tracks in every repetition, it is also possible to infer local or regional sea level time series to analyse the sea level variability at short spatial scales and at different time scales. The accuracy of the global mean rate of sea level rise inferred from satellite altimetry is assessed to be about 0.4 to 0.5 mm/yr. The estimated sea level change trends differ with respect to the used data sets, the considered time span, and the processing strategies and methods.