# ThetaData

Every OPRA quote and trade, with greeks computed per tick, from $40 a month.

*https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/thetadata · Stock Market Data APIs*

## Facts

### At a glance

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Vendor | ThetaData |
| Category | Stock Market Data APIs |
| Job | options |
| Website | https://www.thetadata.net |
| Pricing model | subscription |
| Free tier | true |
| Open source | false |
| Licence | none |
| Self-hosted | false |
| Tested hands-on | false |
| Last updated | 2026-09-26 |

### Pricing

| Tier | USD | Period |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free | 0 USD | month |
| Options Value | 40 USD | month |
| Options Standard | 80 USD | month |
| Options Pro | 160 USD | month |
| Stocks Value | 30 USD | month |
| Indices Value | 30 USD | month |
| Options Data - business use | 2000 USD | month |

### Coverage

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Asset classes | options, stocks, etf, indices |
| Markets | us |
| Works outside the US | false |
| Data latency | realtime |
| Platforms | library, cli |
| AI features | none |

### Interfaces

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| API | true |
| Webhooks | false |
| Scripting | none |
| Python | true |
| Spreadsheet add-in | true |
| MCP server | true |
| Export | csv, json |

### Capabilities

Yes: options_analysis

No: charting, screening, scanning, backtesting, automation, live_trading, paper_trading, portfolio_tracking, broker_import, tax_reporting, alerts, news

*Verified: pricing 2026-09-26; capabilities 2026-09-26; coverage 2026-09-26.*

## What it is

ThetaData is a US options data vendor that also sells stocks, indices and interest rates. Its
claim is completeness on the options side: it takes every [NBBO](https://stockmarketstack.com/glossary/nbbo) quote and every
trade [OPRA](https://stockmarketstack.com/glossary/opra) disseminates, where many vendors filter quotes to survive the message
rate, and it computes Black-Scholes [greeks](https://stockmarketstack.com/glossary/greeks) and implied volatility for each tick
against the underlying's price at that moment.

The architecture is unusual. The REST API is not a hosted HTTPS endpoint: you run the Theta
Terminal, an auto-updating Java JAR, and it serves the API on localhost while speaking a
proprietary compressed protocol upstream. The Python library is the one client that skips it.

## Pricing

Each asset class is a separate subscription at Value, Standard or Pro, plus a free end-of-day
level. Options run $40, $80 and $160 a month, or $32, $64 and $128 billed annually. Stocks are
$30, $80 and $160; indices $30, $50 and $100; interest rates a single $30 plan.

Tiers differ in history depth, granularity and concurrency — 2, 4 or 8 simultaneous requests,
set account-wide by your highest tier, so a second asset class adds data but no throughput. There
is no per-request rate limit on paid plans; excess requests queue, 16 deep by default.

Payments are non-refundable and not pro-rated. The individual plans itemise no OPRA or exchange
fee; the business plans are listed separately at $2,000 a month for options, $1,500 for stocks,
$500 for indices and $250 for rates, each 20% less billed annually.

## Data & coverage

Options cover every US equity and index option on OPRA, including SPX, VIX, XSP and NDX, with
Global Trading Hours sessions. Standard adds trades and first-order greeks; Pro adds second- and
third-order greeks, greeks computed on trades, and an unlimited trade stream. An options
subscription does not include index underlying prices — those are the separate indices plan.

Stock real-time data is Nasdaq Basic, not the [consolidated tape](https://stockmarketstack.com/glossary/consolidated-tape):
the CTA and UTP feeds arrive 15 minutes delayed. UTP-listed history starts June 2012; CTA-only
names such as SPY start 1 January 2020. Index data comes from the Cboe Global Indices Feed, with
RUT and DJX history ending 1 July 2024. The rates plan carries SOFR and eleven Treasury
maturities back to 1970. No futures, no non-US listings.

## Integrations

REST returning CSV, JSON, NDJSON or HTML, described by a published OpenAPI 3.1 file; streaming
over a single local WebSocket that your code must fan out itself; an official Python library on PyPI as `thetadata` (1.0.11, 23 September 2026, Python
3.12+) returning Polars or Pandas frames; an Excel add-in on Standard and Pro, unsupported in desktop
Excel for Mac, capped at one million rows and without streaming; and an MCP server served by the Terminal over SSE,
subscription required.

## Limitations

- The individual licence is personal investing only. Any business use, including an app that
  shows the data to others, is the business plan at 12 to 50 times the price.
- Greeks use the European Black-Scholes model on American-style equity options, ignore dividends
  unless you pass one, and use SOFR as the rate. Deep in- or out-of-the-money contracts return a
  rising `iv_error` rather than a clean solve.
- Greeks are computed per request on the server, so they are slower than quote requests.
- NDX underlying history starts 11 May 2026, so historical NDX option greeks before then need a
  price you supply yourself.
- Extended-hours SPX, VIX, DJI and RUT option data has a gap from 2019 into 2022, which the vendor
  attributes to the source it bought that history from.
- Flat files are limited to "professional users" and the latest seven calendar days.
- The vendor's pages disagree with each other: the FAQ still says there are no API keys and no
  flat files, both of which the docs now document; the free-tier limit reads 20 requests a minute
  in one place and 30 in another; and the indices Value delay is a day on the pricing page and 15
  minutes in the docs. Trust the docs.

## Alternatives

[ORATS](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/orats) sells options data with the volatility surface already smoothed, at a
higher entry price. [Cboe DataShop](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/cboe-datashop) sells OPRA history from the exchange
group by the file. [Massive](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/massive) and [Databento](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/databento) sell raw options
ticks alongside equities from a hosted endpoint. The rest are in
[market data APIs](https://stockmarketstack.com/categories/market-data-apis).

## FAQ

### Does ThetaData have a free tier?

Yes, but it is end-of-day only. A free account gets daily stock and option summaries from 1 June 2023, one day late, with one concurrent request. Intraday data, real-time snapshots and greeks all start at the paid tiers, and there is no free trial of those.

### Do I have to run the Theta Terminal?

For the REST API, the Excel add-in and the MCP server, yes. They all talk to a Java 21 program on your own machine at 127.0.0.1:25503, which in turn talks to ThetaData's servers. The official Python library, pip install thetadata, is the exception and connects over gRPC without it.

### How far back does ThetaData options history go?

It depends on the tier. The subscriptions page in the docs gives 1 January 2020 for Value, 1 January 2016 for Standard and 1 June 2012 for Pro, where the pricing page rounds these to 4, 8 and 12 years. Historical greeks need an underlying price, so for underlyings that trade only on the CTA tape, such as SPY, they start in 2020.

### Can I use an individual ThetaData plan for a business or an app?

No. The individual terms license the data for personal investing only and exclude any trade, business or professional use. A firm, a fund or a product that shows the data to others needs the business plan, from $2,000 a month for options — see [redistribution](/glossary/redistribution) and [professional subscriber](/glossary/professional-subscriber) for why the line sits there.

## Also worth comparing

- [IVolatility API](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/ivolatility-api.md) — Options chains with raw IV, greeks and IVX surfaces over REST, US history to 2005.
- [LiveVol](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/livevol.md) — Cboe's browser options platform - scanners, skew, earnings moves, option tape to 2011.
- [Market Chameleon](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/market-chameleon.md) — Earnings-move statistics and option strategy screeners in a browser. No API.
- [Option Samurai](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/option-samurai.md) — US options strategy scanner you configure, with an Excel and Sheets add-in. No API.
- [OptionStrat](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/optionstrat.md) — Option P&L visualizer, target-price optimizer and unusual-flow feed. No API.
- [ORATS](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/orats.md) — Smoothed options greeks and IV surfaces over REST, end-of-day back to 2007.