Alpaca Market Data

Free IEX data forever, full SIP and OPRA for a flat $99 a month.

by Alpaca

Last updated

Visit Alpaca Market Data
From
$99/mo
Free tier
Yes
Latency
Realtime
Non-US markets
No

What it is

Alpaca's market data API is the data half of a brokerage: REST endpoints for bars, trades, quotes and snapshots, WebSocket streams for the live versions, and a news feed, covering US stocks and ETFs, US options and Alpaca's own crypto venue. It is sold as a subscription on an Alpaca account rather than as a standalone data product, which is both the reason it is cheap and the reason it has a signup step other vendors do not.

The equities feeds come from CTA and UTP directly, so the paid plan is the full consolidated tape rather than a resold aggregate. Options snapshots and the chain endpoint return Greeks and implied volatility alongside the quote, which is unusual at this price.

Pricing

Two plans, and the gap between them is the whole decision. Basic is free: IEX only, 200 requests a minute, 30 symbols on the stock WebSocket, and no SIP trades or quotes from the last fifteen minutes. Algo Trader Plus is $99/month flat — all US exchanges, the OPRA options feed, 10,000 requests a minute and unlimited stock subscriptions. No per-asset-class pricing and no usage meter.

Alpaca Elite waives the $99 for qualifying funded accounts, personal use only. Broker API partners are on a separate schedule entirely, from an included Standard plan up to $2,000/month for equities, with options a further $1,000 on the lower tiers.

Data & coverage

US only. Stock history goes back to 2016 on both plans; options history starts February 2024; news is Benzinga-sourced back to 2015. There are overnight and Blue Ocean ATS feeds for after-hours activity. Crypto data now comes from Alpaca's own exchange, not from a consolidated crypto tape, so treat it as venue data.

Integrations

Official SDKs for Python, Go, Node and C#, and an official MCP server that exposes bars, quotes, trades, snapshots and news to an LLM client.

Limitations

  • The free tier is one exchange. The worked example in Alpaca's own FAQ has IEX carrying 12,630 of a day's 535,136 Apple trades; free bars, volumes and VWAPs will not match anyone else's.
  • No fundamentals at all. No financial statements, no earnings, no estimates, no ratios.
  • No flat files. Backfilling years of minute bars means paginating JSON, with no bulk download and no Parquet.
  • No non-US markets, no forex, no futures, and no tier that adds them.
  • An account and its onboarding are mandatory. Alpaca's own paper-trading docs say a paper-only account holder is entitled to IEX market data only, so the $99 plan means a live brokerage account and its onboarding.
  • Redistribution is not included. Alpaca's support pages answer this in one line: you cannot redistribute Alpaca API data. Showing it to your own users is a Broker API conversation.

Alternatives

Massive (formerly Polygon.io), for full tick history, flat-file downloads and forex — at per-asset-class pricing rather than one flat fee. Alpha Vantage, if non-US coverage matters more than depth. Anyone who needs fundamentals needs a second provider regardless.

See the rest of the market data APIs.

Specs

Interfaces
API, Python, MCP server
Export
JSON
Asset classes
Stocks, ETF, Options, Crypto
Markets
US
Platforms
Web, Library
AI features
None
Capabilities
News, Options analysis
Pricing verified
Capabilities verified
Coverage verified

Also worth comparing

  • Finnhub — Real-time US quotes and a live trade stream on a free key. OHLC candles are not free.
  • IQFeed — Tick-by-tick data into a local Windows socket, with exchange fees billed on top.
  • Massive — Full-tick US equities, options and futures from a direct exchange feed.
  • Twelve Data — Global stocks, forex and crypto over REST and WebSocket, billed in credits per minute.
  • Barchart OnDemand — Seventy-odd REST endpoints covering equities, options and physical commodities.
  • AlgoSeek — Lossless SIP, OPRA and CME tick history with published per-asset-class lease pricing.

Named as a replacement for

FAQ

Is Alpaca's free market data any good?

It is real, live and unmetered enough to build against, but it is one exchange. The free plan streams IEX only, and Alpaca's own documentation compares a single Apple session — 12,630 trades on IEX against 535,136 across the consolidated tape. Bars and VWAPs from the free feed are not the market's.

Do I need an Alpaca brokerage account to use the data API?

Yes. Keys come from the Alpaca dashboard, and a paper-only account is entitled to IEX data only. Buying Algo Trader Plus means opening a real brokerage account and passing its onboarding.

How far back does the history go?

Stocks since 2016 on both plans, options only since February 2024, and news back to 2015. There are no flat-file dumps — everything is paginated JSON over REST.

Can I redistribute Alpaca market data in my own app?

No. Alpaca's support pages say flatly that you cannot redistribute Alpaca API data, and the Elite waiver of the $99 fee is marked personal use only. Serving data to your own end users is a Broker API integration, which is subscribed and priced separately.