TL;DR

For US equities at retail scale in 2026: Polygon.io Stocks Advanced ($199/mo) wins for most flat-rate real-time workloads. Alpaca free IEX is the correct default for paper-trading research if you can tolerate partial volume. Tiingo wins for long-horizon research built on EOD + fundamentals at $10/mo. Databento wins for tick + L2, but metered pricing scales aggressively — model it before committing. FMP and Alpha Vantage sit in "budget with caveats" territory. Full pricing tiers and a live scenario calculator: /tools/data-vendor-tco/.

Methodology

All pricing reflects list rates on vendor pricing pages as of 2026-04-20. Enterprise + negotiated tiers are out of scope. Scenarios: small (≤50 symbols), medium (~500), large (~2,000), all US equities (~10,000). Resolutions tested: daily, 1-minute, 1-second, tick, L2. See /methodology/data-vendor-tco/ for the full rate table, assumptions, and limitations.

The headline table

Vendor Cheapest tier w/ real-time Monthly Resolutions Options Futures
Polygon.io Stocks Advanced $199 daily → tick no (equities server) no
Alpaca Algo Trader Plus $99 daily → tick yes no
Databento Metered ~$125 (medium-univ, minute) daily → L2 limited yes
Tiingo Power $50 daily + minute no no
FMP Ultimate $79 daily → second no no
Alpha Vantage Premium 600 $250 daily → second no no
Alpaca (free tier) IEX-only $0 daily + minute no no

Numbers reflect pricing as of 2026-04-20. Verify on the vendor page before committing.

Who wins for which profile

Profile: paper-trading researcher, zero budget

Alpaca free IEX + Tiingo Starter ($10/mo) for fundamentals. Total: $10/mo. Limitations: IEX is a subset of consolidated volume (roughly 2-5%), so backtests on it are partial. Fine for directional idea generation; not fine for execution-sensitive strategies.

Profile: swing trader, ~500 symbols, medium-frequency

Polygon.io Stocks Advanced ($199/mo). Real-time across the full SIP tape. Unlimited API calls. No options coverage — if you need options, pivot to Alpaca Algo Trader Plus ($99/mo) or layer on OptionsEngine / CBOE direct.

Profile: fundamental investor, long-horizon

Tiingo Power ($50/mo). EOD + fundamentals + news in one tier. Limitations: no real-time, no options. Pair with FMP Starter ($14/mo) if you need earnings call transcripts.

Profile: microstructure / HFT-curious retail

Databento metered (~$100-500/mo depending on universe + resolution). Only realistic option for tick + L2 at retail scale. Budget carefully — metered billing punishes speculative re-queries. Verify with Databento's quoting tool before subscribing.

Profile: options-first retail trader

Alpaca Algo Trader Plus ($99/mo) or tastytrade API. Polygon.io does not sell options data on the Stocks Advanced tier; it's a separate "Options Advanced" tier at a higher price.

Gotchas + caveats

  • IEX tape vs SIP tape. Alpaca's free tier is IEX-only. IEX handles roughly 2-5% of total US equity volume. For low-frequency research on large-cap names, IEX is fine. For microstructure, small-caps, or anything execution-sensitive, you need SIP — which means paying for it.
  • Databento's metered pricing. The calculator models typical retail spend at ~$125/mo for a medium universe on minute bars. Real spend varies ±50% depending on schema, delivery mode, and query patterns. Sandbox free credits are limited; production spend scales.
  • Polygon.io's "unlimited API calls". Rate-limited by HTTP connection, not quota. Parallel streaming + bulk historical pulls can still get you throttled.
  • Alpha Vantage's rate limits. Premium 75 allows 75 calls/minute. Premium 600 allows 600. For a 500-symbol scan, you'll hit that limit without batching.
  • FMP's historical depth. Starter limits to 5 years. Premium removes the cap. Check your backtest window before subscribing.

The MCP angle

If your research stack uses MCP, consider vendor MCP server coverage:

  • Polygon.io ships an official MCP server (read-only, Apache-2.0). Grade A in the Finance MCP Directory.
  • Alpaca ships MCP V2 with 61 actions including execution. Grade A. The idempotency support is a distinguishing feature vs community alternatives.
  • Databento has a community MCP server (grade B) — read before wiring to production.
  • Tiingo, FMP, Alpha Vantage do not ship official MCP servers. Community wrappers vary in quality.

What we'd recommend today

The combo that shows up repeatedly in retail algo threads:

  • Data: Polygon Stocks Advanced (real-time) or Alpaca Algo Trader Plus (if you also trade on Alpaca)
  • Fundamentals: Tiingo Power
  • Options (if needed): Alpaca options surface (included in Algo Trader Plus)
  • MCP layer: Alpaca MCP V2 + Polygon MCP (both grade A)

Total: $250–300/mo for a mature single-operator stack. Budget workers can start at $10–50/mo (Tiingo + Alpaca free) and scale up as the strategy demands it.

Calibrate for your exact workload

The flat table above is a starting point; your actual cheapest vendor depends on your universe, resolution, and real-time need. The Data-Vendor TCO Calculator takes those inputs and returns a ranked list of qualifying vendors for your scenario. Use it before subscribing.

Sources

Editorial independence

AI Fin Hub Research maintains editorial independence across sponsor relationships. Vendor placements in tools and comparators are not altered by sponsor payments. Disclosures at /sponsor-disclosure/.