Agentifact assessment — independently scored, not sponsored. Last verified Mar 6, 2026.
Alpaca Data API
Standalone market data API for US stocks and crypto with historical bars, quotes, trades, and WebSocket streaming
Viable option — review the tradeoffs
You need real-time and historical market data for US stocks and crypto to power trading bots, dashboards, or analysis tools without managing multiple exchange feeds.
Reliable low-latency streaming and clean OHLCV data; US-only coverage limits global use; free tier has rate limits.
You want to backtest strategies or analyze historical price action but sourcing clean US stock/crypto data from exchanges is fragmented and messy.
Fast bulk downloads with good granularity (1min+); crypto/stock endpoints differ slightly; no intraday beyond recent periods on free tier.
US Markets Only
Exclusive coverage of US equities, crypto, and options—no international exchanges or forex.
Free Tier Rate Limits
200 requests/minute cap triggers 429 errors during bursts; upgrade to paid for unlimited access—monitor headers and implement retries.
Alpaca excels in broker-integrated US data; Polygon offers broader coverage and nanosecond precision.
You're already using Alpaca trading or need simple consolidated US stock/crypto feeds.
You require global markets, options chains, or sub-second tick data.
Trust Breakdown
What It Actually Does
Alpaca Data API gives apps real-time and historical price data for US stocks and crypto, including trades, quotes, and bars. It supports both REST calls and WebSocket streaming for live updates.[4][1]
Standalone market data API for US stocks and crypto with historical bars, quotes, trades, and WebSocket streaming.
Fit Assessment
Best for
- ✓data-retrieval
- ✓market-data
- ✓websocket-streaming
Not ideal for
- ✗rate limit of 200 calls/min on free plan
- ✗trading API endpoints like assets limited to 200/min regardless of data subscription
- ✗paid plan limits reduced to 1000 calls/min from unlimited
Known Failure Modes
- rate limit of 200 calls/min on free plan
- trading API endpoints like assets limited to 200/min regardless of data subscription
- paid plan limits reduced to 1000 calls/min from unlimited
Score Breakdown
Protocol Support
Capabilities
Governance
- rate-limiting
- zero-trust