Keeping tabs on the stocks in your portfolio is essential to maintaining a profitable long-term strategy. Accessing information about stock prices, volume, and other details as they happen can help investors make faster and more informed decisions.

If you want to get real-time stock data for your investment portfolio, there are several APIs that can help you do exactly that. These APIs provide access to various data sets from different companies so you can monitor your investments wherever you are. Read on to learn more about some of the best APIs for getting real-time stock data.

Alpha Vantage

Alpha Vantage has quickly become one of the most popular real-time data APIs among investors. Alpha Vantage has a huge data index with over one billion data points, so you can get a ton of different data sets —everything from commodities to forex to equities and more. When it comes to equities, Alpha Vantage offers data on the top stocks in the United States and the top stocks listed on foreign stock exchanges.

The API retrieves up-to-date information on current stock prices, volume, and other data points like high/low/close values. This API is free to use, but there are some limits to what you can do. When using the basic plan, you can only make up to 10 requests per second, and you can only get data from three exchanges at a time. The Alpha Vantage premium plan provides greater API access and more data.

Yahoo! Finance

The Yahoo! Finance API is one of the most widely used real-time stock data APIs on the market. Given its popularity, this API is great for developers who want to build their own stock-tracking apps. Yahoo! Finance provides data from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Nasdaq Stock Exchange (Nasdaq). The NYSE data is free, but you’ll need to pay a fee to unlock the Nasdaq data. Note that Yahoo! Finance’s NYSE data is delayed by 15 minutes, so you won’t get real-time data. On the other hand, the Nasdaq data is delayed by 10 seconds.

Google Finance

Like Yahoo! Finance, Google Finance is a widely used real-time stock data API. This API is powered by FINVIZ, which is a stock analysis tool that can help you find stocks to invest in and track your portfolio. When you sign up for Google Finance, you’ll be asked to create a FINVIZ account. Once you do that, you’ll be able to use your FINVIZ account to access Google Finance and get real-time stock data from over 7,000 exchanges around the world. Note that with Google Finance, you’ll need to provide the name of the stock, the exchange it’s listed on, and the country where the exchange is located.

Xignite

Xignite is a financial data API that offers data from more than 6,000 exchanges around the world. Xignite is an excellent option if you’re looking to build an app that tracks financial data and not just stock data. If you sign up for Xignite’s free plan, you’ll get data from 6 exchanges and 5,000 records per exchange. If you sign up for their standard plan, you’ll get data from 100 exchanges and 50,000 records per exchange. Xignite’s enterprise plan gives you access to everything the standard plan offers, plus other benefits like 24/7 support. Xignite’s data is delayed by at least 10 seconds, which could inconvenience investors who want real-time data.

IEX Cloud

IEX Cloud is a real-time stock data API that pulls data from the IEX exchange. This exchange is primarily used for stocks that are too small or too illiquid to be listed on larger exchanges. The IEX exchange is regulated by the SEC and FINRA, so its data is reliable and trustworthy. IEX Cloud offers two different ways to access its data: a REST API and an HTTP/S endpoint. With the REST API, you can pull data from a table of symbols and get information for each symbol, like price and volume. With the HTTP/S endpoint, you can get data in real-time by pushing a request to this endpoint and receiving data in JSON format.

Polygon.io

Polygon.io is an instant stock data API that pulls its data from the New York Stock Exchange. With Polygon.io, you can get intraday data and information on all the stocks listed on the NYSE. Polygon.io’s API is easy to use and doesn’t require sign-ups or authentication. In fact, if you want to get instant stock data with Polygon.io, all you have to do is make a request to their API and receive the data in JSON format. If you want to get instant data for multiple stocks, you can use the query string parameters to specify the symbols you want to track. For example, if you want to track the symbols AAPL and AMZN, you can use the following query string parameters: symbols="AAPL, AMZN" interval="30".

Tradier

Tradier is another real-time stock data API that offers data from the New York Stock Exchange. Tradier’s API is easy to use and doesn’t require you to authenticate or sign up for an account. If you want to get real-time data with Tradier, all you have to do is make a request to the API with the symbol of the stock you want to track. For example, if you want to track the symbol GOOG, you can use the following endpoint: https://api.tradier.com/v1/ai/data/GOOG. If you want to track more than one stock, you can use the query string parameters to specify the symbols you want to track. For example, if you want to track GOOG and AAPL, you can use the following query string parameters: symbols="GOOG, AAPL" interval="60".

Finnhub

Finnhub is a real-time data API that offers data from the NASDAQ and Helsinki Exchanges. If you want to get data from multiple exchanges, you can use Finnhub’s API Explorer to help you set up a request, test API calls and get sample data. You can use API Explorer to test API calls and see how you can get real-time data with Finnhub. Ready to get real-time data for your stocks? Start by reading the API documentation for each API you’re interested in.

Alpaca

Alpaca provides an API for algorithmic stock trading, live stock pricing, and other features. It heavily relies on Github, Slack, and other communities for user support. The API supports only US stocks and doesn’t allow non-US residents to trade using their API. With the Alpaca API, you can access up to six years of stock data and real-time data for US stocks. The API is free to use, with 200 maximum requests per minute. The free version supports IEX exchange, whereas the paid version supports unlimited requests and additional exchanges across the US.

Marketstack

Marketstack is one of the best stock market APIs. It supports over 70 global exchanges and has more than 30 years of historical stock data. It covers more than 170,000 stock tickers and 750+ market indices. Marketstack also allows users to get intraday stock pricing which some other APIs don’t cover. The free plan allows 200 API calls per month, while the paid plan offers unlimited API calls.

Finage

Finage is another API-driven financial data service to consider. It delivers real-time information on a number of market data points, covering areas like stocks, forex, cryptocurrencies, ETFs, and more. The service appears to have broad coverage, including up-to-date and historical pricing data. Finage also sports two integration methods: a RESTful API as well as a WebSocket.

Twelve

Twelve is another service that provides access to stock, forex, ETF, and indices information through a developer-friendly API. Twelve offers a convenient WebSocket interface to ensure your applications stay up-to-date with real-time price changes. Another useful feature is batch requests, which can be utilized to collect information on multiple stocks with a single request.

Finazon

Finazon is another provider of financial data information. Their programmatic services are organized into various individual APIs, such as the US Stock Market Data API, which provides access to over 27,300 equities and ETFs. Finazon also provides the  Binance Market Data API for cryptocurrency information. Finazon supports a REST API, gRPC API, and Websocket. They offer flexible payment plans that charge by the volume of requests you want to be able to issue per minute.

CoinAPI

CoinAPI is another option for collecting cryptocurrency information. The API provides real-time and historical data and supports over 300 different exchanges. Impressively, the service collects a total of 200GB of data daily. A standout feature is their ability to standardize diverse data from different exchanges, giving users a clear and accurate view of the market.

With CoinAPI, you can get data snapshots ranging from one second to five years. They provide three easy-to-use connection methods: REST, WebSocket, and FIX. They also provide a software development kit in 40 languages.

Final Words

Each of these APIs has its own advantages and disadvantages, so it is important to choose the one that best suits your needs. If you need historical and real-time data, then Yahoo Finance or Google Finance would be a good choice. If you need more detailed data, then IEX Cloud or Alpha Vantage would be a better option. Some other API services also include Morningstar, Quandl, and Tiingo — all offer free plans with limited data, so they could be a good choice if you are on a budget. Robinhood and Fidelity offer free real-time stock data but do not offer historical data.

We’ve previously written about how Banking-as-a-Service is accelerated through APIs, and how open banking can reshape financial planning. And as evidenced above, APIs are similarly powerful for sharing data in the world of stocks. We hope this list has provided a good starting place for your stock data API journey. Are you using a different for stock data? Please comment below with your experience with it!