# What to use instead of the Robinhood API

Robinhood has no REST API for stocks, and its Trading MCP trades only a separate account. What reads or trades the rest, and what each route leaves out.

*https://stockmarketstack.com/alternatives/robinhood-api*

## The subject

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Product | Robinhood API |
| Status | restricted |
| Website | https://robinhood.com |
| Category | Brokerage Account Aggregation APIs |

The private endpoints behind Robinhood's own app, wrapped by unofficial libraries such as robin_stocks; Robinhood does not allow trading APIs on an account without its written authorization.

## Replacements

*Ordered by how much of the original’s job each one covers, closest first. Paid placement does not affect this order.*

1. [SnapTrade](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/snaptrade.md) — Reads positions, balances and transactions from a Robinhood account through Robinhood's own sign-in screen. Read-only there; free for five accounts on Build.
2. [TradersPost](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/traderspost.md) — Places stock orders on a Robinhood account, IRAs included, from TradingView webhooks. It says it is not affiliated with Robinhood, so read both firms' terms.
3. [Plaid Investments](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/plaid-investments.md) — Robinhood holdings and investment transactions for an app that serves many users. Read-only, and production access is an application, not a sign-up.
4. [Sharesight](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/sharesight.md) — If the point was your own returns — syncs a Robinhood account through SnapTrade into money-weighted performance and tax reports, with no code at all.
5. [ib_async](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/ib-async.md) — For code that places its own orders at another broker — a Python client for Interactive Brokers' full API, orders to streams, through TWS or IB Gateway.
6. [Lumibot](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/lumibot.md) — A Python strategy framework whose ten broker classes, Alpaca, Interactive Brokers, Schwab and Tradier among them, run the same code in a backtest and live.

## The product

"The Robinhood API" means three different things, and only one of them is what most people
searching for it want.

**The private endpoints.** Robinhood's app talks to Robinhood's servers over an HTTP API that has
never been published. Community libraries wrap it — the best known is robin_stocks, whose PyPI
listing calls it "A Python wrapper around the Robinhood API", MIT-licensed, version 3.4.0 dated 18
May 2025 — and they sign in with your own username, password and second factor. Robinhood's help
centre, in its article on third-party connections read on 9 October 2026, is direct about this:
"We don't allow trading APIs to be linked to your Robinhood account without written authorization
from Robinhood. We also don't allow third-party applications to control or take action on your
Robinhood app." The same article says official third-party services never ask for your Robinhood
login credentials. Section 29 of the brokerage customer agreement, revised 1 October 2026, adds
that you may not use Robinhood's API package or build products on it without its express written
consent. That is the subject of this page, and the reason it is marked as restricted.

**The Crypto Trading API.** On 30 May 2024 Robinhood launched an official REST API for Robinhood
Crypto customers in the US: crypto market data, crypto holdings and crypto orders, with keys from a
credentials portal. It is the only thing on Robinhood's developer documentation site, which on 9
October 2026 held crypto pages and nothing else. It does not reach stocks or options. The crypto
side of this question belongs to our sister site, CryptoMarkets.tools, and is not answered here.

**The Trading MCP.** On 27 May 2026 Robinhood launched Agentic Trading: an AI agent connects to a
Model Context Protocol server Robinhood hosts and trades in a dedicated account. It launched in
beta for equities only; the help pages read on 9 October 2026 say an external agent can place long
equity, options and crypto orders. The agent gets read access to every Robinhood account you
hold, including account numbers, positions, balances and order history, but trades only in an MCP
account, which counts towards Robinhood's limit of ten self-directed individual accounts and is
funded separately. Trade approvals are on by default for the agents built into the app and off by
default for external ones. The customer agreement says access is for your own personal use only,
and that Robinhood may handle and route orders from these API products differently from app
orders, "which may result in adverse execution quality and/or speed".

So the official answer to "Robinhood API for stocks" is narrower than the question: a tool
interface built for AI agents, trading one ring-fenced account. A REST client of your own against
your main account, which is what a robin_stocks script was, has no sanctioned equivalent.

## What to use instead

Split the job before choosing. A script against the private API usually did one of four things.

**If an AI agent is the point.** Robinhood's own Trading MCP is the sanctioned route, and nothing
in this catalogue replaces it. What an MCP server is and what it licenses is in [financial MCP servers,
and the licence behind them](https://stockmarketstack.com/guides/mcp-and-financial-data).

**If you were reading the account.** Positions, balances and history for a dashboard, a
spreadsheet or an app are the part with clean routes. [SnapTrade](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/snaptrade) sends the user
to Robinhood's own website to sign in and accept a Robinhood access agreement, then serves the
account over a documented REST API; its Robinhood page lists the connection as read-only, and its
free Build tier covers five connected accounts for development. [Plaid
Investments](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/plaid-investments) is the same job for an app with many users: Plaid's own
coverage file, generated 18 September 2026, flags Robinhood for investments, holdings and
transactions, and production access is an application with a compliance review. The two are set
against each other in [SnapTrade vs Plaid Investments](https://stockmarketstack.com/compare/snaptrade-vs-plaid-investments),
and the code path is in [read a brokerage account from code](https://stockmarketstack.com/how-to/read-a-brokerage-account-from-code).

**If you were tracking your returns.** A script that pulled trades to compute performance can be
replaced by a tracker that does it for you. [Sharesight](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/sharesight) syncs Robinhood through
SnapTrade and reports money-weighted returns, dividends and tax.

**If you were placing orders from a signal.** [TradersPost](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/traderspost) lists Robinhood
as a connection: stocks only, including short sales and the Traditional and Roth IRAs it added on
12 August 2024, with no options or crypto, no bracket, OTO or OCO orders, and no paper trading on
Robinhood. Its Robinhood connection page states that TradersPost "is an independent third-party platform
and is not affiliated with Robinhood". Read that next to the help-centre sentence on trading
APIs above and ask both companies before connecting an account you care about.
[SignalStack](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/signalstack) names Robinhood in its integration list as well.

**If your code places its own orders.** That needs a broker with a documented trading API, which
Robinhood does not offer for stocks. [ib-async](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/ib-async) is the Python client for
Interactive Brokers' API — orders, positions, history and streaming data through TWS or IB Gateway.
[Lumibot](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/lumibot) is a strategy framework with ten broker classes, so the same strategy
runs in a backtest and live. Neither is an argument for any particular broker, and this page does
not choose one.

## What you give up

**A REST client against your main account.** Nothing official replaces what robin_stocks did.
The Trading MCP trades only the MCP account and is shaped as tools for an agent, not as endpoints
for a script; SnapTrade and Plaid read the main account and cannot write to it.

**Orders and data in one place.** A robin_stocks script read the account and placed orders on the
same session. Every legitimate route on this page does one half: SnapTrade, Plaid and Sharesight
read, TradersPost writes, and the MCP does both only inside the agent's own account.

**The account, if you leave.** ib-async and Lumibot answer the question properly only at another
broker. That is a new account, a transfer, and whatever kept you at Robinhood in the first place;
the code becomes simple and the move does not.

## Migration notes

**Stop storing the password.** A script that logs in with your username and password is the case
Robinhood's help centre warns about: official services do not ask for them. Every route on this
page signs in on Robinhood's own screen or does not touch Robinhood at all.

**The MCP is not a drop-in for a script.** It authenticates through the agent host, exposes
tools rather than endpoints, and works against a separately funded account. A strategy that ran
against your main account will run against a smaller one, and trade approvals on external agents
start switched off, so turn them on while you test.

**Read-only feeds are not real time.** SnapTrade's daily plan syncs once a day and its real-time
plan fetches on request; Plaid's holdings mostly update overnight. If the old script polled
positions every minute, the replacement will not.

**Pull the history first.** Plaid returns up to 24 months of investment transactions, and
Sharesight's card notes that SnapTrade pulls historical trades when the account is first connected. Robinhood's own account
statements and tax documents remain the record if the two disagree.

## FAQ

### Does Robinhood have an API for stocks?

Not a REST API you write a client against. Read on 9 October 2026, Robinhood's developer documentation covers only crypto, and its help centre says trading APIs may not be linked to an account without Robinhood's written authorization. Since 27 May 2026 there is an official Trading MCP for AI agents, which trades stocks, options and crypto, but only in a separate account opened for the agent.

### Is robin_stocks allowed?

Not on Robinhood's stated terms. robin_stocks is an MIT-licensed Python library that calls the private endpoints behind Robinhood's app and signs in with your own username and password. Robinhood's help centre says official third-party services never ask for those credentials and that trading APIs need its written authorization, and its customer agreement bars using its API package without express written consent.

### Can I trade on Robinhood from Claude or ChatGPT?

Yes, through Robinhood's own Trading MCP, which its help pages list for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Codex, Cursor, Grok and others. The agent can read every Robinhood account you hold but trades only in a dedicated MCP account you fund separately, and trade approvals are off by default on that account type.

### Can SnapTrade or Plaid place trades on a Robinhood account?

No. SnapTrade's Robinhood page lists the connection as read-only and answers no to whether it supports placing trades. Nothing in Plaid's investments API places an order at any broker. Both read holdings and transactions; neither writes.

### Does the Robinhood Crypto Trading API work for stocks?

No. Robinhood announced it on 30 May 2024 for Robinhood Crypto customers in the United States, and it covers crypto market data, crypto holdings and crypto orders only. A key for it is created on a credentials portal available only in a desktop browser.