Ocean acidification (OA) has altered the ocean's carbonate chemistry, with consequences for marine life. Yet, no observation-based data set exists that permits us to study changes in OA. We fill this gap with a global data set of relevant surface ocean parameters over the period 1985–2018. This data set, OceanSODA-ETHZ, was created by using satellite and other data to extrapolate ship-based measurements of carbon dioxide and total alkalinity from which parameters for OA were computed.