Alpaca

Commission-free US stock and crypto trading API for building brokerage and wealth apps.

Overview

Alpaca is a brokerage API for US equities and crypto, offering commission-free trading, fractional shares, and market data.

Trading API is for self-directed accounts; Broker API is for firms opening and managing accounts on behalf of end users. A paper-trading environment mirrors live behaviour for development. Alpaca is a registered broker-dealer, so account onboarding involves regulatory checks rather than a simple signup.

Common use cases

Place equity and crypto orders from an application
Offer fractional share investing to end users
Backtest a strategy against a paper-trading account
Open and manage brokerage accounts on behalf of users

Key Features

Commission-free stock and ETF trading via REST API
Real-time market data and WebSocket streaming
Paper trading environment for strategy backtesting
Fractional shares from $1, with proportional dividend payouts
SEC and FINRA regulated brokerage services
Crypto trading with BTC, ETH, and other major assets
USD-based brokerage with crypto access for eligible international users
Developer dashboard with portfolio analytics

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