Alpaca
Commission-free US stock and crypto trading API for building brokerage and wealth apps.
Visit website alpaca.markets
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
Sources and evidence
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