Comparator
Market Data API Cost Calculator
Compare Databento vs Polygon vs Alpaca vs Tiingo vs FMP vs Alpha Vantage annual cost. Configure universe, bars, history, real-time.
Rates from Databento pricing, Polygon.io pricing, Alpaca data plans, Tiingo pricing, FMP pricing and Alpha Vantage premium, checked on July 12, 2026.
Runs in your browser. Nothing you enter is uploaded, and no account or API key is needed.
1. Describe your data needs
Moves the Databento estimate; flat tiers are priced per plan.
Excludes tiers whose plan states less history; unstated depth is flagged.
Cheapest qualifying vendor
$0/mo
Alpaca Markets
Free (IEX feed), $0/yr, vs $30 for Tiingo (next-cheapest qualifying)
Up to $2,388/yr saved vs the most expensive qualifying vendor (Massive (formerly Polygon.io)).
2. Ranked vendors
Based on list pricing. No affiliate tags, no sponsored rows.
| Vendor | Recommended tier | Monthly | Annual | Live | Opts | History | Fits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpaca Markets ↗best Broker-bundled market data. Generous free tier via IEX feed; SIP feed requires paid plan. Price checked 2026-07-12 | Free (IEX feed)
| $0 | $0 | ✓ | — | not stated | yes |
| Tiingo ↗ EOD + news at low cost, with IEX-sourced real-time on every plan. Fundamentals is a separate add-on. Favorite for long-horizon research. Price checked 2026-07-12 | Tiingo Power
| $30 | $360 | ✓ | — | not stated | yes |
| Databento ↗ Per-unit metered pricing. Strong for institutional-quality tick + L2 data. No subscriptions on base offer. Price checked 2026-07-25 | Databento metered (typical retail)
| $125 | $1,500 | ✓ | — | not stated | yes |
| Financial Modeling Prep ↗ Fundamentals-heavy. Earnings, filings, transcripts. Price data is a secondary offer. Price checked 2026-07-12 | Ultimate
| $149 | $1,788 | ✓ | — | ✓ | yes |
| Massive (formerly Polygon.io) ↗ Flat-rate subscription. Real-time + historical for US equities, with a separate Futures product line. Popular retail default. Rebranded from Polygon.io on 2025-10-30. Price checked 2026-07-12 | Stocks Advanced
| $199 | $2,388 | ✓ | — | not stated | yes |
| Alpha Vantage ↗ Budget tier with broad coverage. Rate limits tight. Workable for low-frequency research. Price checked 2026-07-12 | Premium 75
| $50 | $600 | ✗ | — | not stated | no |
How this ranking works
Each vendor is scored by picking its cheapest tier that satisfies every requirement in your scenario. Tiers that don't meet the requested bar resolution, real-time need, asset class (options / futures) or a stated history limit are skipped. History is "not stated" when the tier's plan in this snapshot gives no depth; check the vendor before relying on it. If no tier qualifies, the vendor is shown dimmed with "Fits: no."
Metered vendors like Databento don't have a flat subscription — the displayed monthly is a modeled estimate: $125/mo for a medium universe of minute bars, scaled by coarse multipliers for universe size (×1 to ×40) and resolution (×1 to ×16). Treat it as an order of magnitude and get a quote from Databento's usage calculator.
Prices last checked July 12, 2026. Vendor rates change; check the vendor's pricing page before you commit.
How to use it
- Pick the universe size bucket, bar resolution and history depth, and tick whether you need real-time data, options or futures.
- The tool computes per-vendor cost: tier-priced vendors (Polygon, Alpaca, Tiingo, FMP, Alpha Vantage) auto-select the cheapest qualifying tier; Databento shows a modeled estimate — a base rate scaled by coarse universe and resolution multipliers — not exact per-symbol-per-day metering.
- Read the rank-ordered comparison. Lowest cost isn't always the right answer: check the Live, Opts, History and Fits columns and each tier's notes (feed coverage, rate limits) for gaps.
- Re-run with different universe sizes to find the breakpoint where vendors switch positions. Polygon and Databento can switch ranks between the Small and Medium universe buckets for delayed minute data, and between Medium and Large for real-time.
- Check the 'Prices last checked' date under the table. Pricing is refreshed when a vendor announces a material change, not on a fixed monthly schedule, so verify current invoice cost on the vendor's pricing page.
Questions people ask
How are the tier prices kept current?
Each vendor's pricing is verified against its official pricing page and stamped with a per-vendor last-checked date, shown under each vendor in the ranked table. Refreshes are event-driven — done when a vendor announces a material pricing change, not on a fixed monthly schedule — so a mid-cycle change can lag until the next verification. Confirm current invoice cost against the vendor directly.
Why does Databento show metered pricing instead of a tier?
Databento's base offer is usage-metered (per-GB historical, subscription live; flat plans exist from $199/mo), so the tool shows a modeled estimate rather than picking a plan. That estimate is $125/mo for a medium universe of minute bars, scaled by coarse universe and resolution multipliers; history depth does not change it. The other vendors (Massive, formerly Polygon, plus Alpaca, Tiingo, FMP and Alpha Vantage) sell flat tiers, so the tool selects the cheapest tier that satisfies your needs, and skips tiers whose plan states less history than you asked for (FMP Starter's 5 years, for example).
What's not included in TCO?
Storage costs (your S3 or local disk), bandwidth costs (data egress), redistribution fees (only relevant if you offer the data to clients), and corporate-actions fees (some vendors charge separately). The tool computes vendor invoice cost only.
Why is Polygon ranked above Databento for some workloads?
Polygon's flat tiers can be cheaper than Databento's metered pricing for users who need many symbols across many days. Databento wins on selective, deep-history workflows. The tool reorders rankings per workload — there's no universal 'best vendor'.
Does the tool include free-tier vendors?
The tool scores Alpha Vantage's paid tiers (Premium 75 and Premium 1200 calls/min). Its free tier — about 25 calls/day, 5/min — is mentioned as a note only; it is not scored and no warning is emitted. Yahoo Finance is excluded entirely: its terms prohibit commercial automated use.
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Use it from code
The same calculation as a JavaScript module you can import. It runs where you import it, with no request, key or rate limit.
import { compute } from "https://aifinhub.io/engines/data-vendor-tco.js";