# Non-display use

Also written non-display.

*https://stockmarketstack.com/glossary/non-display-use · next to Stock Market Data APIs*

**Definition:** Market data consumed by a program rather than read by a person: an algorithm, an order router, a risk engine, an automated screener. Exchanges licence it separately from display use and price it per firm or per platform rather than per screen, usually in the thousands of dollars a month. The counter-intuitive part is that nobody looking at the data is the expensive case.

## How it works

Display use means a person looks at the number. Non-display use means software consumes it without
anyone reading it — an execution algorithm, a smart order router, a risk or margin system, an
automated screener, a matching engine. Almost every exchange schedule carries the split, licences
the two separately, and prices them on different units: display per subscriber, device or User ID,
non-display per firm, per platform or per application.

The figures come off the schedules themselves. On the NYSE pricing guide dated 14 May 2026, NYSE
Integrated is 16.00 dollars a month per non-professional device and 78.00 per professional one —
against 22,400 dollars a month for non-display use in each of three categories, plus an 8,400 dollar
access fee. Nasdaq's price list published in January 2025, with rates running through 2027, sets
Nasdaq Depth non-display over direct access at 412.00 dollars per subscriber per month for the first
39. On the OPRA fee schedule dated February 2026, non-display use is 2,000 dollars a month for each
of three categories, against 1.25 dollars a month per non-professional display subscriber. The
London Stock Exchange's Schedule A, effective 1 January 2026, starts non-display use for trading as
principal at 16,480 pounds a year at Level 1.

Two details do most of the damage. The categories are cumulative: a firm that trades on the data,
routes on it and prices risk with it can be billed in more than one category for the same feed. And
the unit has nothing to hold it down — there is no per-user counting to keep the figure small, so the
same feed that costs one retail user 15 dollars costs an automated system a five-figure sum.

## The carve-outs are narrow but real

Schedules do contain exemptions for the smallest users, and they are worth reading rather than
assuming. OPRA's fee schedule carries one: its Category 1 non-display fee does not apply in a month
where the recipient has a single User ID, is not a broker-dealer, and averages no more than 390
listed options orders a day for its own account. That is written for exactly one person with one
script, and it stops being available the moment any of the three conditions breaks.

## Why it matters here

This is the line that turns a 15-dollar-a-month subscription into a five-figure one, and it is
crossed by writing a loop rather than by signing anything. A dashboard a person reads is display
use. The same data feeding an automated entry, a live risk check or an alerting service that acts
without a person is not, whatever the vendor's checkout page asked you.

Three things follow for anything on this site. A retail API tier is sold for display and internal
use, which is why free tiers so often say so explicitly — the condition is not boilerplate. A vendor
that itemises exchange fees rather than averaging them into a plan, [Databento](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/databento)
being the clearest example here, is the shape that lets you see which category you are being billed
in. And delayed or end-of-day data sidesteps the question almost entirely, because the schedules
price the delay as its own cheap product.

[What real-time market data costs](https://stockmarketstack.com/guides/real-time-market-data-fees) has the whole fee stack and
the other words on it — professional versus non-professional, per-device counting, derived data and
redistribution, which is the sibling of this one: redistribution is about the data leaving your
organisation, non-display use is about a machine rather than a person consuming it. A public service
that also trades on the feed is usually licensed for both.

## Where you will meet this

- [Databento](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/databento.md)
- [IQFeed](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/iqfeed.md)
- [Alpaca Market Data](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/alpaca-market-data.md)
- [Cboe DataShop](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/cboe-datashop.md)
- [AlgoSeek](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/algoseek.md)
- [OneTick](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/onetick.md)
- [Twelve Data](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/twelve-data.md)

## FAQ

### Does a backtest count as non-display use?

Research on historical files is normally not what the non-display schedules are aimed at — they are written around live data driving an automated decision. But the definition is the exchange's and it is in its data policy rather than its price list, and some policies reach further than people expect. If live data is feeding anything automated, read the policy.

### Why would data cost more when no human sees it?

Because the fee is a proxy for the value of the use rather than the cost of delivery. A screen is one person; a program can act on every quote it receives, across a whole firm, which is why the charge is levied per firm or per application and not per user. Delivery costs the exchange the same either way.

## Sources

1. [NYSE Proprietary Market Data Pricing Guide](https://www.nyse.com/publicdocs/nyse/data/NYSE_Market_Data_Pricing.pdf) — New York Stock Exchange, 2026-05-14
2. [Nasdaq US Equities Price List, rates effective 2025, 2026 and 2027](https://www.nasdaqtrader.com/content/ProductsServices/PriceList/Nasdaq_US_Equities_Price_List_2025_2026_2027.pdf) — Nasdaq, 2025-01-08
3. [Options Price Reporting Authority Fee Schedule](https://cdn.opraplan.com/documents/OPRA_Fee_Schedule.pdf) — Options Price Reporting Authority, 2026-02-26
4. [London Stock Exchange Market Data, Schedule A — Price List and Data Products](https://docs.londonstockexchange.com/sites/default/files/documents/schedule-a-price-list-and-products-schedule-2026.pdf) — London Stock Exchange, 2026-01-01

*Last updated 2026-09-21. A reference page, corrected in place — not a dated post.*