The short answer
Databento and Polygon.io solve the same problem with opposite billing: Databento meters historical data per GB with $125 in free credits and no subscription, while Polygon.io charges a flat $199/month (Advanced) for unlimited real-time US-equity calls (verified 2026-05-25). Databento sells venue-level tick and L2 data Polygon does not; Polygon's flat fee is more predictable.
Databento and Polygon.io solve the same problem with opposite billing models: Databento meters historical data by uncompressed size in dollars-per-GB with $125 in free credits and no subscription required, while Polygon.io charges a flat $199/month (Advanced) for unlimited real-time US-equity calls — both verified on 2026-05-2512. The choice comes down to data depth and usage shape: Databento sells raw venue-level tick and Level-2 (MBO) data that Polygon does not offer at all, but Polygon's flat fee is more predictable for steady high-call workloads. One brand note: Polygon.io rebranded to Massive on October 30, 2025; api.polygon.io and keys are unchanged3. Compare the effective monthly cost for your universe with the Data Vendor TCO.
TL;DR
- Databento: usage-based metered pricing ($/GB by uncompressed binary size), no subscription required for historical, $125 free credits per team (historical only)1. Flat plans also exist: Standard $199/month, Plus $1,399/month, Unlimited $3,500/month1.
- Polygon.io (Massive): flat-rate. Advanced is $199/month for unlimited calls and real-time SIP US equities2.
- Data depth: Databento offers raw venue tick + Level-2 / MBO order-book data. Polygon does not sell exchange depth (L2/MBO).
- Predictability: Polygon's flat fee is steady regardless of volume; Databento's metered bill scales with how much you pull.
- Live data shift: Databento discontinued usage-based pricing for live data (CME live, for example, as of April 16, 2025), moving live to subscription plans1.
The two billing models
| Dimension | Databento | Polygon.io (Massive) |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Metered $/GB (historical); subscriptions for live | Flat monthly subscription |
| Entry cost | $0 base + $125 free credits | $0 free tier; $199 Advanced for real-time |
| Real-time US equities | Subscription (live moved off usage-based) | Included at $199 Advanced |
| Tick data | Yes (raw venue) | Yes (Advanced tier) |
| Level-2 / MBO depth | Yes | No |
| Cost predictability | Scales with usage | Fixed |
| Flat plans | Standard $199 / Plus $1,399 / Unlimited $3,500 | Starter $29 / Developer $79 / Advanced $199 |
All figures verified against each vendor's official pricing on 2026-05-2512.
Where Databento wins
Order-book depth. Databento delivers raw venue-level data including Level-2 and full order-book (MBO) feeds, priced by the uncompressed binary size you actually pull1. Polygon does not sell exchange depth at any tier. If a strategy needs the book — microstructure research, queue-position modeling, depth-aware execution — Polygon is simply not an option and Databento is the natural choice.
Pay-for-what-you-use historical. A one-off historical pull (one symbol-year, a single research dataset) costs only the bytes you download against the $125 credit, with no monthly commitment1. For sporadic, bursty historical needs, metered pricing beats paying $199/month for a flat tier you barely use.
Where Polygon wins
Predictable cost on steady, high-call workloads. A research loop hammering the REST API all day pays the same $199 flat fee whether it makes a thousand or a million calls2. Databento's metered bill grows with volume; for continuous broad-universe polling, the flat tier is both cheaper and easier to budget.
Simpler real-time entry. Polygon's $199 Advanced tier turns on the real-time SIP feed with no metering math. Databento moved live data to subscription plans (discontinuing usage-based live pricing, for instance CME live as of April 16, 20251), so the "just pay per byte" simplicity applies mainly to historical.
How to choose
- Need Level-2 / order-book depth: Databento. Polygon does not offer it.
- Sporadic historical pulls, small one-off datasets: Databento metered — the $125 credit covers a lot of experimentation.
- Steady, high-volume real-time US-equity polling: Polygon Advanced ($199 flat) — predictable and unlimited.
- Tight budget, delayed data is fine: neither flagship tier; start with Polygon's free or $29 Starter and revisit. See Cheapest Stock Market Data API 2026.
The decision is really "do I need the book, and is my usage steady or bursty." Feed your universe size, resolution, and whether you need live data into the Data Vendor TCO below to see the effective annual cost for each model.
Verified figures
Databento's metered model, $125 free credit, and flat-plan prices were verified on its official pricing on 2026-05-25; specific per-GB rates are not publicly displayed (Databento previews fees in its data catalog per dataset). Polygon's flat tiers were verified on the official pricing page (now massive.com) the same day. Where a figure was not visible on a live source, it is omitted rather than estimated.
Connects to
- Polygon.io Pricing Plans 2026: the full Polygon flat ladder.
- Cheapest Stock Market Data API 2026: budget options below both.
- Tiingo vs Polygon vs Finnhub 2026: the budget-data three-way.
- Data Vendor TCO: model metered versus flat for your universe.
References
Footnotes
-
Databento. "Pricing" and "Usage-based pricing and credits" (metered $/GB, $125 free credits, Standard/Plus/Unlimited plans, live-data pricing change). verified 2026-05-25. https://databento.com/pricing ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8
-
Polygon.io / Massive. "Pricing." massive.com (redirected from polygon.io/pricing), verified 2026-05-25. https://massive.com/pricing ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4
-
Massive. "Polygon.io is Now Massive" (effective October 30, 2025; api.polygon.io remains supported). verified 2026-05-25. https://massive.com/blog/polygon-is-now-massive ↩
Verified engine output
Show the recompute-verified inputs and outputs
| vendor_id | databento |
|---|---|
| universe | medium |
| resolution | minute |
| needs_live | 1 |
| vendor › id | databento |
|---|---|
| vendor › name | Databento |
| vendor › url | https://databento.com |
| vendor › short pitch | Per-unit metered pricing. Strong for institutional-quality tick + L2 data. No subscriptions on base offer. |
| vendor › has overage | true |
| vendor › last checked | 2026-05-25 |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › name | Databento metered (typical retail) |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › monthly | 125 |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › includes live | true |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › includes options | false |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › includes futures | true |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › resolutions › row 1 | daily |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › resolutions › row 2 | minute |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › resolutions › row 3 | second |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › resolutions › row 4 | tick |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › resolutions › row 5 | level2 |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › notes › row 1 | Usage-metered: historical is pay-as-you-go priced per GB (uncompressed binary), no subscription required; $125 free credits on signup |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › notes › row 2 | Subscription option: Standard $199/mo (historical core schemas + 1yr L1 / 1mo L2-L3); $125/mo modeled typical retail metered spend |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › notes › row 3 | Live data + dedicated support on Plus ($1,399/mo, annual); Unlimited $3,500/mo (verified 2026-05-25) |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › notes › row 4 | Per-GB cost scales aggressively with universe and resolution |
| tier › name | Databento metered (typical retail) |
| tier › monthly | 125 |
| tier › includes live | true |
| tier › includes options | false |
| tier › includes futures | true |
| tier › resolutions › row 1 | daily |
| tier › resolutions › row 2 | minute |
| tier › resolutions › row 3 | second |
| tier › resolutions › row 4 | tick |
| tier › resolutions › row 5 | level2 |
| tier › notes › row 1 | Usage-metered: historical is pay-as-you-go priced per GB (uncompressed binary), no subscription required; $125 free credits on signup |
| tier › notes › row 2 | Subscription option: Standard $199/mo (historical core schemas + 1yr L1 / 1mo L2-L3); $125/mo modeled typical retail metered spend |
| tier › notes › row 3 | Live data + dedicated support on Plus ($1,399/mo, annual); Unlimited $3,500/mo (verified 2026-05-25) |
| tier › notes › row 4 | Per-GB cost scales aggressively with universe and resolution |
| monthly | 125 |
| one time | 0 |
| annual total | 1500 |
| meets resolution | true |
| meets live | true |
| meets options | true |
| meets futures | true |
| meets all | true |
Computed live at build time.
| vendor_id | polygon |
|---|---|
| universe | medium |
| resolution | minute |
| needs_live | 1 |
| vendor › id | polygon |
|---|---|
| vendor › name | Polygon.io |
| vendor › url | https://polygon.io |
| vendor › short pitch | Flat-rate subscription. Real-time + historical for US equities. Popular retail default. |
| vendor › has overage | false |
| vendor › last checked | 2026-05-25 |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › name | Stocks Starter |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › monthly | 29 |
| 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 | 15-min delayed market data |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › notes › row 2 | 5 calls/min |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › name | Stocks Developer |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › monthly | 79 |
| 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 | 15-min delayed |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › notes › row 2 | Unlimited API calls |
| vendor › tiers › row 3 › name | Stocks Advanced |
| vendor › tiers › row 3 › monthly | 199 |
| vendor › tiers › row 3 › includes live | true |
| vendor › tiers › row 3 › includes options | false |
| vendor › tiers › row 3 › includes futures | false |
| vendor › tiers › row 3 › resolutions › row 1 | daily |
| vendor › tiers › row 3 › resolutions › row 2 | minute |
| vendor › tiers › row 3 › resolutions › row 3 | second |
| vendor › tiers › row 3 › resolutions › row 4 | tick |
| vendor › tiers › row 3 › notes › row 1 | Full real-time |
| vendor › tiers › row 3 › notes › row 2 | Unlimited API calls |
| tier › name | Stocks Advanced |
| tier › monthly | 199 |
| tier › includes live | true |
| tier › includes options | false |
| tier › includes futures | false |
| tier › resolutions › row 1 | daily |
| tier › resolutions › row 2 | minute |
| tier › resolutions › row 3 | second |
| tier › resolutions › row 4 | tick |
| tier › notes › row 1 | Full real-time |
| tier › notes › row 2 | Unlimited API calls |
| monthly | 199 |
| one time | 0 |
| annual total | 2388 |
| meets resolution | true |
| meets live | true |
| meets options | true |
| meets futures | true |
| meets all | true |
Computed live at build time.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Databento or Polygon cheaper in 2026?
- It depends on usage shape. Databento meters historical data by the gigabyte with $125 free credits, so it is cheaper for sporadic pulls. Polygon's $199/month Advanced flat tier is cheaper and more predictable for steady high-volume real-time polling.
- Does Polygon.io offer Level-2 order-book data?
- No. Polygon does not sell exchange depth (Level-2 / MBO) at any tier. Databento does offer raw venue-level order-book data, so it is the choice for microstructure work.
- How does Databento pricing work?
- Databento meters historical data by uncompressed binary size in dollars per gigabyte, with no subscription required and $125 in free credits per team. Live data moved to subscription plans (Standard $199, Plus $1,399, Unlimited $3,500 per month).
- Is Polygon.io now Massive?
- Yes. Polygon.io rebranded to Massive on October 30, 2025. The api.polygon.io base URL and existing keys are unchanged; pricing now lives at massive.com.