Home › Free market data APIs
Free and near-free market data APIs (2026)
What each free tier really includes, with sources. Highlights checked 2026-10-16:
- Alpaca: the free Basic plan is real-time from IEX only. Historical SIP data is free if your request ends at least 15 minutes ago. Algo Trader Plus ($99/mo) adds full SIP and OPRA (docs).
- Massive (formerly Polygon): free tier is end-of-day at 5 req/min; Starter $29/mo is 15-min delayed with the full-market snapshot (pricing).
- Databento: $125 new-customer credits for historical data (terms).
- SEC EDGAR: free official filings and XBRL data APIs.
| Field | SEC EDGAR APIs | Alpha Vantage API | Alpaca Trading API |
|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Market data APIs | Market data APIs | Broker APIs |
| Assets | US filings/XBRL fundamentals | stocks | US stocks, ETFs, options, crypto |
| Live vs paper | data only | data only | live and paper |
| Order approval / safety | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Pricing / free tier | free | free tier | free IEX feed; $99/mo SIP+OPRA |
| Rate limits | unknown | unknown | 200 req/min (free); up to 10,000 req/min Algo Trader Plus |
| Official / community | official | official | official |
| Last checked | 2026-10-16 | 2026-10-16 | 2026-10-16 |
| Source | www.sec.gov | www.alphavantage.co | aifinhub.io third-party |
| Field | Massive (Polygon) API | Databento | yfinance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Market data APIs | Market data APIs | Market data APIs |
| Assets | stocks, options, indices, forex | US equities, US futures, US options, crypto, FX | stocks, options chains |
| Live vs paper | data only | data only | data only |
| Order approval / safety | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Pricing / free tier | free tier: end-of-day data, 5 req/min, no card; Stocks Starter $29/mo (15-min delayed, includes full-market snapshot); Developer $79/mo; real-time only on Advanced | usage-based; $125 new-customer credits for historical data (not live), per Databento user agreement | free (unofficial Yahoo scraper); Reddit notes greeks/IV unreliable |
| Rate limits | unknown | no hard limits on historical | unknown |
| Official / community | official | official | community |
| Last checked | 2026-10-16 | 2026-10-16 | 2026-10-16 |
| Source | massive.com | databento.com | github.com |