Alpha Vantage
Stock market, forex, and cryptocurrency data API with 20+ years of historical data and real-time quotes.
Status
🟢 Online · 1178 ms
🟢 Online · 1178 ms
30-day uptime
100%
100%
Free tier
25 calls/day, free key, no credit card
25 calls/day, free key, no credit card
Auth
API key
API key
Free alternatives (live ranking)
- European Central Bank Rates — 🟢 Online · Unlimited, no key, no credit card
- Twelve Data — 🟢 Online · 800 calls/day, free key, no credit card
- Fixer.io — 🟢 Online · 100 calls/month, EUR base only, free key, no CC
Compare Alpha Vantage with…
- Alpha Vantage vs European Central Bank Rates — Unlimited, no key, no credit card
- Alpha Vantage vs Twelve Data — 800 calls/day, free key, no credit card
- Alpha Vantage vs Fixer.io — 100 calls/month, EUR base only, free key, no CC
Paid alternatives
- Alpha Vantage Premium — from $50/mo
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Alpha Vantage require an API key?
Yes, Alpha Vantage requires a free API key. You can sign up via https://www.alphavantage.co/documentation/.
What is Alpha Vantage's free tier?
25 calls/day, free key, no credit card
Is Alpha Vantage currently online?
We check Alpha Vantage every hour. The current status is shown at the top of this page. You can also see the 30-day uptime history in the chart above.
Implementation notes
When to use Alpha Vantage
Alpha Vantage is the standard free option for US equity data when you need structured historical price data. Its 20+ years of adjusted close prices, earnings calendar, and fundamental data (income statements, balance sheets) are useful for backtesting and financial modelling.
Common pitfalls
- The free tier allows 25 calls/day (roughly one call every hour), which is severely restrictive for development work. The `demo` API key works only for specific symbol/function combinations (AAPL + GLOBAL_QUOTE) and returns a cached response, not live data. Register for a real key — it is free and activates immediately.
- Alpha Vantage returns error conditions inside a 200 OK response. A response with `{'Note': 'Thank you for using Alpha Vantage! Our standard API...'}` means you have hit the rate limit, and a response with `{'Information': '...'}` means you are approaching it. There is no HTTP 429.
- Intraday data above 1-minute resolution requires a premium key. The free tier supports `interval=1min` through `60min` for recent history, but the `month` parameter (for older intraday data) is gated to paid plans.
- CSV output (`datatype=csv`) is more compact than JSON and significantly easier to parse for time-series analysis, but the column headers differ between endpoints. The `TIME_SERIES_DAILY` CSV header is `timestamp,open,high,low,close,volume` while other functions use different naming.
Quick start (bash)
curl "https://www.alphavantage.co/query?function=GLOBAL_QUOTE&symbol=AAPL&apikey=YOUR_KEY"Embed this badge
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Markdown
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