Alpha Vantage

NASDAQ licensed financial data API offering real time and historical stock prices, sixty plus technical indicators, fundamental data, and MCP server integration for AI agents.

About Alpha Vantage

Alpha Vantage delivers comprehensive financial market data through cloud based APIs, serving as an officially licensed data provider for NASDAQ. The platform supports over one hundred thousand global stock tickers across twenty plus exchanges, providing developers with access to real time and historical OHLCV data spanning more than two decades. Backed by Y Combinator and trusted by major financial institutions, Alpha Vantage has established itself as a leading provider of both traditional market data and alternative datasets for quantitative research.

The API distinguishes itself through extensive coverage of technical analysis tools, offering sixty plus pre computed indicators including SMA, EMA, RSI, MACD, and Bollinger Bands. Beyond equities, the platform provides comprehensive foreign exchange rates, cryptocurrency data, commodities pricing, and US economic indicators sourced from the Federal Reserve and Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2026, Alpha Vantage introduced official Model Context Protocol support, enabling seamless integration with Claude, Cursor, and other AI assistants for natural language financial data queries.

Key Features

Core Time Series Data: Access intraday, daily, weekly, and monthly OHLCV data with twenty plus years of historical coverage for global equities.
Sixty Plus Technical Indicators: Pre calculated indicators including moving averages, momentum oscillators, and volatility measures derived from adjusted time series data.
Fundamental Data API: Retrieve income statements, balance sheets, cash flow reports, earnings history, and company overview metrics normalized to GAAP and IFRS standards.
MCP Server Integration: Official Model Context Protocol implementation enabling AI agents to query stock data, technical indicators, and fundamentals through conversational interfaces.
Multi Asset Coverage: Real time and historical data for stocks, ETFs, forex pairs, cryptocurrencies, commodities, and US Treasury yields.
Alpha Intelligence: Market news and sentiment analysis with LLM based earnings call transcript processing and topic specific news filtering.

Pricing

Free: $0/month Twenty five API requests per day with five requests per minute limit. End of day data only. No real time or fifteen minute delayed data access.
Plan 75: $49.99/month Seventy five requests per minute with fifteen minute delayed US market data. Premium email support included.
Plan 150: $99.99/month One hundred fifty requests per minute with real time US market data. Full access to all API endpoints including premium features.
Plan 300: $149.99/month Three hundred requests per minute with real time data. Suitable for high frequency applications and commercial use cases.
Plan 600: $199.99/month Six hundred requests per minute with real time data. Designed for demanding production environments with higher throughput requirements.
Plan 1200: $249.99/month One thousand two hundred requests per minute with real time data. Maximum tier for enterprise scale applications and unlimited API access.

Pricing last updated: February 27, 2026 at 7:59 AM

Use Cases

Algorithmic trading strategy development and backtesting
Technical analysis dashboard and charting applications
AI powered financial research and LLM agent training
Portfolio management and risk analysis platforms
Fintech application market data infrastructure

Pros & Cons

Pros:

Generous free tier with twenty five daily requests for development and testing
Official NASDAQ licensing ensures data reliability and legal compliance
Comprehensive technical indicator library with sixty plus pre computed metrics
Native MCP server support for AI assistant integration

Cons:

Real time and delayed US market data requires premium subscription
Free tier limited to twenty five requests per day which restricts production use
Lower rate limits compared to some enterprise focused competitors

Integrations

Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, Python, Node.js, Java, PHP, C#, R, MATLAB, Excel, Google Sheets, JSON, CSV

FAQ

What is the difference between raw and adjusted time series data?

Alpha Vantage adjusts open, high, low, close, and volume data by both splits and cash dividend events using industry standard methodology. Many endpoints provide an adjusted parameter allowing you to request either split and dividend adjusted data or raw unadjusted data depending on your analysis requirements.

How does the Model Context Protocol integration work?

Alpha Vantage provides an official MCP server that integrates with Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, and other MCP compatible tools. This allows AI assistants to discover available data functions and query stock prices, technical indicators, and fundamental data through natural language commands without manual API configuration.

Why is real time US market data not available on the free tier?

Real time and fifteen minute delayed US market data is regulated by stock exchanges, FINRA, and the SEC. As a NASDAQ licensed data provider, Alpha Vantage must comply with exchange licensing requirements. Free tier users receive end of day data only, while premium subscribers gain access to licensed real time feeds.

What programming languages are supported by Alpha Vantage?

Alpha Vantage provides official documentation and code examples for Python, Node.js, Java, PHP, C#, R, and MATLAB. The REST API returns JSON or CSV formats compatible with any programming language capable of making HTTP requests. Community maintained libraries are available for additional languages.

How comprehensive is the technical indicators coverage?

The platform offers over sixty pre calculated technical indicators including various moving average types (SMA, EMA, WMA, DEMA, TEMA), momentum indicators (RSI, MACD, CCI, CMO), volatility measures (BBANDS, ATR), and volume based indicators (OBV, AD, ADOSC). All indicators support adjustable time periods and multiple interval granularities.

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Categories:

API Directory Financial APIs