After Free Data Credits

What to do after your free market data API credits run out

Students, solo quants and early founders often start with a free market data API signup. Providers like Databento offer $125 in free credits per team as of October 2026, expiring after 6 months. When those credits run out, usage pricing kicks in and research stalls unless you have a plan. This guide explains what free credits usually cover, why usage pricing differs from owning data, and how a free market data API can keep your work moving with survivorship-free prices, point-in-time fundamentals, macro vintages, COT and 13F.

Get a free API key See pricing Download free samples

What free credits usually cover and what happens when they end

Free signup credits are designed for evaluation, not long-term research. As of October 2026, Databento offers $125 per team, expiring after 6 months, https://databento.com/pricing. Credits typically cover a limited window of historical data, a capped number of API calls, and sometimes only recent months.

When credits end, access stops or switches to pay-as-you-go usage pricing. For students and solo quants, that means backtests, papers and prototypes suddenly cost per request. Early founders hit the wall when a model needs more history than the free window allows.

The common pattern is that a free market data API gives you a taste, then every download, every symbol and every historical day is metered. If you do not own the data, you rent it forever and cannot reproduce results offline. Teams often discover this after building pipelines that assume continuous access.

Free credits also tend to restrict the datasets you can explore. Advanced research needs survivorship-free prices, point-in-time fundamentals, macro vintages, Commitments of Traders and 13F filings. Those are rarely included in the initial free allowance, so the free market data API experience feels incomplete just as you need it most.

Usage pricing vs owning data

Usage pricing meters what you download, for example by the gigabyte. It is flexible for short experiments but expensive for systematic research. You pay each time you re-run a backtest, and you never build a permanent archive that you can share with collaborators.

Owning data means one-time purchases you keep. With FinzData you buy full history for a ticker or a bundle and it stays in your library. No metered calls, no surprise bills when credits expire, and no dependency on a provider's rate limits.

For teams whose free market data API credits are ending, owning data reduces risk and cost over time. You can share CSVs, run offline backtests, and publish reproducible results without re-paying for the same bars. Ownership also simplifies compliance and audit trails for research.

Usage pricing makes sense for ad-hoc checks. Owning data makes sense for research programs, teaching, and production models that need stable, repeatable access to the same history.

What a free market data API should give you for research

A useful free market data API for research should go beyond recent prices. Students need survivorship-free history so backtests are realistic and not inflated by companies that survived. Solo quants need point-in-time fundamentals so signals are not polluted by restatements.

Good coverage includes macro vintages for real-time decision making, Commitments of Traders for futures positioning, and 13F filings for institutional flows. These datasets are rarely included in basic free tiers but are essential for serious work.

FinzData provides a free market data API that mirrors yfinance with pip install finzdata and import finzdata as yf. The free tier gives last 12 months of every dataset, 1,000 API calls a day, no card, so you can prototype with the same client you will use for owned data.

The free market data API experience should let you test ideas end-to-end, export to pandas, and move to owned history without rewriting code. That continuity is critical when free credits expire.

FinzData free tier details

The FinzData free tier is built for research continuity after credits expire. You get last 12 months of every dataset, 1,000 API calls per day, no credit card required.

Paid coverage, which the free tier samples, includes 16,000+ US stocks since January 2000 including delisted names, 231 ETFs, daily to 1-minute bars, 139 futures markets since 2007, point-in-time fundamentals, macro vintages, COT and 13F. Intraday bars are stamped at the start of each interval in US Eastern time; minutes without trades are omitted, never forward-filled.

Because the Python client mirrors yfinance, adoption is fast. You can use yf.Ticker, yf.download and yf.Client().c.prices and return pandas DataFrames for CSV export. The REST API at https://api.finzdata.com returns JSON or CSV, with Parquet and bulk files on paid plans.

The free market data API tier is designed to replace expiring credits without forcing you into usage pricing. You keep the same workflow and upgrade only when you need longer history.

When to upgrade

Upgrade when you need history beyond 12 months or want to own data permanently. FinzData pricing is one-time and simple.

$19 per ticker for 5 years of 1-minute to daily bars
$49 for one ticker's full history since 2010
Bundles: $195, $290, $670 for 5, 10 or up to 30 years of the whole US market: 16,000+ stocks including delisted names and 231 ETFs

These prices are one-time purchases you keep. No recurring metered fees.

Every subscriber gets access to the FinzData strategies page and research, including the AI Trading Tournament. You can test ideas first sketched with the free market data API, then lock in full history for production.

Owning data also means you can archive results, share with teammates, and run reproducible experiments without worrying about credit balances or rate limits.

Pull daily bars, fundamentals and macro with free key

import finzdata as yf

# Daily bars with the free key
daily = yf.Ticker("AAPL").history(interval="1d", start="2026-01-02")
print(daily.tail())

c = yf.Client()
# Point-in-time fundamentals: the value public on that date
rev = c.fundamentals(ticker="AAPL", concept="Revenues", as_of="2026-06-30")
# Macro series as first published
cpi = c.macro("CPIAUCSL", as_of="2026-06-30")
print(rev.tail(), cpi.tail())

Start free

Keep researching after your free credits expire. Start with the free market data API tier, then own the history you need.

Get a free API key at https://api.finzdata.com/ and explore samples and pricing.

Frequently asked questions

What happens when Databento free credits run out?

As of October 2026 Databento offers $125 per team expiring after 6 months. After credits run out you move to usage pricing. See https://databento.com/pricing for current rates.

Is FinzData a free market data API?

Yes. FinzData offers a free tier with last 12 months of every dataset, 1,000 API calls per day, no card. The Python client mirrors yfinance with import finzdata as yf.

Can I own data instead of renting it?

Yes. FinzData sells one-time purchases you keep: $19 per ticker (5 years), $49 for a ticker's full history since 2010, whole-market bundles $195/$290/$670. No metered fees after purchase.

Does the free tier include fundamentals and macro?

Yes. The free tier includes last 12 months of fundamentals, macro vintages, COT and 13F alongside prices.

Is the data survivorship-free?

Yes. 16,000+ US stocks since January 2000 including delisted names with point-in-time universe.