A straight comparison of what you actually get on the free tier of a few well-known stock data APIs, plus StashGamma's own.
| Provider | Free tier limit | History depth | Card required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| StashGamma | 300/hour · 800/day · 4,000/week | 15 years daily | Not required | EOD OHLCV only, one endpoint, broad U.S. ticker coverage |
| Alpha Vantage | 25/day | Full history (varies by endpoint) | Not required | Broadest feature set (forex, crypto, 50+ indicators) but tightest free rate limit |
| Twelve Data | ~800/day (per-minute cap applies too) | Varies by plan | Not required | Most generous daily count on paper; check the per-minute cap before relying on it |
| Polygon.io | 5 calls/minute | Limited to ~1 year | Not required | Free tier history depth is the real constraint for backtesting, not the rate limit |
| IEX Cloud | — discontinued | — | — | Shut down August 2024. If you’re here looking for a replacement, see the alternatives below. |
Figures checked against each provider's public documentation as of August 2026. Free-tier terms change frequently — confirm current limits directly with the provider before building against one.
Rate limit alone is a misleading metric. Alpha Vantage's 25/day sounds worst on paper but its free tier reaches into forex, crypto, and technical indicators — useful if you need breadth over volume. Polygon.io's 5 calls/minute is workable for light use, but its free tier caps history at roughly a year, which rules it out for any real backtesting. If you specifically need daily EOD history with real depth and a rate limit generous enough to actually script against, that's the gap StashGamma's free tier is built to fill.
IEX Cloud shut down in August 2024. If EOD OHLCV history was the piece of it you relied on, StashGamma's free tier covers 15 years of daily bars across U.S.-listed tickers with no card required — see the quickstart guide to swap it in.
Free forever, no credit card — get a key and compare the response yourself.
Get Started FreeFree Stock Data API
Start here — the free tier, no card required, 300 requests/hour.
EOD Data API Quickstart Guide
Get a key and pull your first end-of-day bars in under 5 minutes.
Historical Stock Data API
15 years of daily OHLCV across U.S.-listed tickers, for backtesting & research.
OHLCV Data API
What OHLCV data is and exactly how the response is shaped.
MCP Server for Stock Data
Connect Claude, OpenAI, ChatGPT, or another MCP-capable agent directly to the data.
Full API Documentation
Auth, endpoint reference, rate-limit headers, and error codes.
Ready to try it? Get your free API key — no card required.