The short answer
Alpha Vantage's 2026 pricing runs from a free key capped at 25 requests/day to a $249.99/mo Premium tier at 1,200 requests/minute, with five rate-defined steps between. Paid plans price purely on requests-per-minute and drop the daily cap. The free key's published limit is 25 calls/day, not the '5 calls/minute' third-party guides repeat. Annual billing gives two months off.
Alpha Vantage's 2026 pricing runs from a free key capped at 25 requests/day up to a $249.99/mo Premium tier at 1,200 requests/minute, with five rate-defined steps in between — verified 2026-06-16 against the official premium page.1 Premium plans price purely on requests-per-minute and drop the daily cap entirely. The free key is the headline trap: the published figure is 25 calls/day, not the "5 calls/minute" widely repeated in third-party guides. Since IEX Cloud shut down in August 2024, Alpha Vantage has positioned itself as a migration home for displaced developers.2 Model the annualized cost against your own universe with the Data Vendor TCO.
TL;DR
| Plan | Price/mo | Rate limit | Daily cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free key | $0 | see note below | 25 requests/day |
| Premium 75 | $49.99 | 75 req/min | none |
| Premium 150 | $99.99 | 150 req/min | none |
| Premium 300 | $149.99 | 300 req/min | none |
| Premium 600 | $199.99 | 600 req/min | none |
| Premium 1200 | $249.99 | 1,200 req/min | none |
All prices and limits verified 2026-06-16 against alphavantage.co/premium/. Annual billing gives two months off.1
The free tier: 25 requests per day
The official premium page lists exactly one free-tier number: 25 API requests per day.1 Alpha Vantage's own IEX Cloud migration page repeats it, describing "up to 25 API calls per day" as the free allowance.2 That budget refreshes a handful of symbols once daily and nothing more — a 50-symbol watchlist exhausts it in a single pass.
This is a tightening over time. The daily free cap was 500/day, then 100/day, and is now 25/day.3 If a tutorial cites an older free limit, it is stale: pin the current 25/day figure.
About that "5 requests per minute"
The "5 calls/minute" free limit appears everywhere — in third-party guides and in Alpha Vantage's own API error string ("our standard API call frequency is 5 calls per minute").3 But it is not on the official premium pricing card, which states only 25 requests/day for the free key.1 Treat the 5/min as a real-world throttle reported by users and the error message, and the 25/day as the published, authoritative ceiling. For planning a free-tier job, the 25/day cap binds first: you cannot reach 5/min for long before the daily total runs out.
Premium tiers: pay for requests per minute
Premium pricing is a clean rate ladder with no daily limit on any paid plan.1 You buy per-minute throughput:
- Premium 75 ($49.99/mo): 75 requests/minute. The cheapest paid entry.
- Premium 150 ($99.99/mo): 150 requests/minute.
- Premium 300 ($149.99/mo): 300 requests/minute.
- Premium 600 ($199.99/mo): 600 requests/minute.
- Premium 1200 ($249.99/mo): 1,200 requests/minute.
Annual billing applies "2 months off" each tier, so Premium 75 works out near $499/year rather than ~$600.1 For higher throughput than 1,200/min, the page directs you to contact support for a custom arrangement.1
What the tiers do and do not change
Moving up a tier buys per-minute headroom, not new data products. Coverage spans equities, forex, crypto, and commodities across 20+ global exchanges, with technical indicators, on the same endpoints at every paid level.2 Real-time and options entitlements are handled separately rather than bundled by rate tier, so confirm the exact entitlement you need before assuming the cheapest paid plan includes it. For a low-frequency research job, Premium 75 at $49.99 is usually enough; the higher tiers exist for wide, fast multi-symbol scans.
Why this matters in 2026: the IEX Cloud gap
IEX Group announced on May 31, 2024 that it would retire all IEX Cloud products by August 31, 2024, citing that the data business was under 2% of revenue and had operated at a loss.2 That left a population of developers needing a new affordable data source. Alpha Vantage published a migration guide pitching itself as the successor: independent, broad coverage, and a free entry tier echoing IEX Cloud's original model.2 Other affordable alternatives developers weighed include Databento and Massive (the rebrand of Polygon.io). The practical read: Alpha Vantage competes on price and breadth, not on real-time latency.
Verified engine output
The block below runs the Data Vendor TCO engine on Alpha Vantage for a medium universe at minute resolution. It resolves to a real Alpha Vantage tier from the engine's own rate table and computes the annualized cost — the same $49.99-to-$249.99 ladder verified above. The output is computed live from the shipped bundle, not typed by hand.
Decision guidance
- Evaluating for free? The 25/day cap binds fast; plan one daily refresh of a small symbol set, nothing intraday.
- Low-frequency research, single or few symbols? Premium 75 ($49.99) is the cheapest paid home.
- Wide, fast multi-symbol scan? Step up the rate ladder for per-minute headroom, up to Premium 1200 ($249.99).
- Coming off IEX Cloud? Alpha Vantage is a price-and-breadth fit; check Databento or Massive if you need real-time latency.
Connects to
- Data Vendor TCO: annualized cost for your own universe and resolution.
- Alpha Vantage vs Twelve Data 2026: the free-tier and rate-ceiling head-to-head.
- Cheapest Stock Market Data API 2026: the broader budget-vendor ranking.
- Best Free Stock Market Data API 2026: where Alpha Vantage's 25/day sits among free tiers.
References
Footnotes
-
Alpha Vantage. "Premium API Key." alphavantage.co, verified 2026-06-16. https://www.alphavantage.co/premium/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7
-
Alpha Vantage. "IEX Cloud Has Shut Down: Analysis & Migration Guide." alphavantage.co, verified 2026-06-16. https://www.alphavantage.co/iexcloud_shutdown_analysis_and_migration/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5
-
Macroption. "Alpha Vantage API Request Limits." macroption.com, verified 2026-06-16. https://www.macroption.com/alpha-vantage-api-limits/ ↩ ↩2
Verified engine output
Show the recompute-verified inputs and outputs
| vendor_id | alpha-vantage |
|---|---|
| universe | medium |
| resolution | minute |
| vendor › id | alpha-vantage |
|---|---|
| vendor › name | Alpha Vantage |
| vendor › url | https://www.alphavantage.co |
| vendor › short pitch | Budget tier with broad coverage. Rate limits tight. Workable for low-frequency research. |
| vendor › has overage | false |
| vendor › last checked | 2026-05-25 |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › name | Premium 75 |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › monthly | 49.99 |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › includes live | false |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › includes options | false |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › includes futures | false |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › resolutions › row 1 | daily |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › resolutions › row 2 | minute |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › notes › row 1 | 75 calls/min, no daily limit |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › notes › row 2 | Free key capped at 25 calls/day, 5/min |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › name | Premium 1200 |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › monthly | 249.99 |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › includes live | false |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › includes options | false |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › includes futures | false |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › resolutions › row 1 | daily |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › resolutions › row 2 | minute |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › resolutions › row 3 | second |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › notes › row 1 | 1,200 calls/min, no daily limit |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › notes › row 2 | Rate-tiered ladder: $99.99/150, $149.99/300, $199.99/600, $249.99/1200 |
| tier › name | Premium 75 |
| tier › monthly | 49.99 |
| tier › includes live | false |
| tier › includes options | false |
| tier › includes futures | false |
| tier › resolutions › row 1 | daily |
| tier › resolutions › row 2 | minute |
| tier › notes › row 1 | 75 calls/min, no daily limit |
| tier › notes › row 2 | Free key capped at 25 calls/day, 5/min |
| monthly | 50 |
| one time | 0 |
| annual total | 600 |
| meets resolution | true |
| meets live | true |
| meets options | true |
| meets futures | true |
| meets all | true |
Computed live at build time.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does the Alpha Vantage API cost in 2026?
- The free key allows 25 requests/day. Premium plans price by per-minute rate: $49.99/mo (75 req/min), $99.99 (150), $149.99 (300), $199.99 (600), and $249.99 (1,200 req/min). Paid plans have no daily limit, and annual billing gives two months off.
- What is the Alpha Vantage free tier rate limit?
- The official premium page lists 25 API requests per day for the free key. A '5 requests/minute' figure is widely cited from third-party guides and the API error message, but it is not on the published pricing card. The 25/day cap binds first in practice.
- Is the Alpha Vantage free tier really only 25 requests per day?
- Yes. The official figure is 25/day, down from older 500/day and 100/day limits. If a tutorial cites a higher free allowance, it is stale. Pin the current 25/day number.
- Does a higher Alpha Vantage tier add new data?
- No. Higher tiers buy per-minute throughput, not new data products. Coverage spans equities, forex, crypto, and commodities at every paid level. Real-time and options entitlements are handled separately, so confirm the exact entitlement you need.
- Is Alpha Vantage a good replacement for IEX Cloud?
- For price and breadth, yes. After IEX Cloud retired in August 2024, Alpha Vantage published a migration guide positioning itself as an affordable successor. If you need real-time latency, also weigh Databento or Massive (formerly Polygon.io).