# Alpha Vantage vs SEC EDGAR APIs

> Alpha Vantage and SEC EDGAR score within a point of each other for company data, 41.3 and 40.8 out of 100. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alpha-vantage-vs-sec-edgar
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alpha-vantage-vs-sec-edgar.md (~2,250 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alpha-vantage-vs-sec-edgar.min.md (~830 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alpha-vantage-vs-sec-edgar.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Alpha Vantage and SEC EDGAR APIs score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 41.3 (E) and 40.8 (E). SEC EDGAR APIs leads on reliability, security & auth, payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do company data.

- Alpha Vantage: grade E, 41.3/100, rank #903 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/alpha-vantage.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/alpha-vantage.json
- SEC EDGAR APIs: grade E, 40.8/100, rank #909 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sec-edgar.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/sec-edgar.json
- Best data provider APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/data-providers/index.md
- All 31 data comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/data-providers/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Alpha Vantage (E)

Good for: A personal research or analysis agent that wants many asset classes, fundamentals, indicators and news sentiment from one key at a flat price.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 46 against 23
- Agent ergonomics, 54 against 41
- Maintenance & community, 63 against 14

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: The REST key is documented only as `apikey=` in the query string, with no scopes and no self-service rotation found

### SEC EDGAR APIs (E)

Good for: Reading a US-listed company's filing history and its reported financial figures from the primary source, with free reuse.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 38 against 30
- Security & auth, 52 against 32
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 30
- Transparency & trust, 57 against 48

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it

Watch for: No OpenAPI file, llms.txt, response schema, error reference or official SDK was found. The documentation is one page of prose with example URLs


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Alpha Vantage | SEC EDGAR APIs | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 30 | 38 | SEC EDGAR APIs +8 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 46 | 23 | Alpha Vantage +23 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 54 | 41 | Alpha Vantage +13 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 32 | 52 | SEC EDGAR APIs +20 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 60 | SEC EDGAR APIs +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 14 | Alpha Vantage +49 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 48 | 57 | SEC EDGAR APIs +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **41.3 · E** | **40.8 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Alpha Vantage | SEC EDGAR APIs |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Alpha Vantage Inc. | U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://www.alphavantage.co/query` | `https://data.sec.gov` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Alpha Vantage's Terms of Service. The MCP server, CLI and shared client in alphavantage/alpha_vantage_mcp are MIT | Public information. The SEC says information on sec.gov may be copied or further distributed without its permission, and asks for citation. EDGAR names and logos are registered trademarks |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| MCP registry | `io.github.alphavantage/alpha_vantage_mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-10-03 | none |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | 2023-11-29 |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | 2023-11-29 |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 217 stars, 172 PyPI/wk | none |

## Verdicts

**Alpha Vantage.** One GET endpoint covers about 130 documented functions, with a free key at 25 requests a day and an official MCP server whose tools are all marked read-only. The REST key travels only in the query string, errors come back as HTTP 200 with a text message, and no status page, SLA or OpenAPI document was found.

**SEC EDGAR APIs.** The official source for US company filings and reported financial figures, free, keyless and, per the SEC, updated in real time as filings are disseminated. Documentation is one page with no OpenAPI file, error reference or changelog, responses cannot be filtered or sized, and there is no status page, SLA or support for scripted access.

## Before you call either

### Alpha Vantage

1. Check every 200 response for `Error Message`, `Information` or `Note` keys before parsing data. The API does not signal failures or limits by status code
2. Budget 25 requests a day on a free key. Real-time, 15-minute delayed and intraday US data, index data and several indicators need a premium plan
3. Keep `outputsize=compact` unless full history is needed, and ask for `datatype=csv` on long series to cut tokens
4. Use the hosted MCP server with OAuth at `https://mcp.alphavantage.co/mcp`. The `?apikey=` MCP URL is marked deprecated
5. Confirm the owner's use is personal and non-commercial, or that a commercial agreement exists, before acting for a business

### SEC EDGAR APIs

1. Send a User-Agent naming the operator's organisation and a contact email address on every request. The SEC limits or blocks undeclared automated tools
2. Stay under 10 requests a second in total across all machines. Over the limit, the IP address may be limited until the rate has stayed below the threshold for 10 minutes
3. Pad the CIK to 10 digits with leading zeros in `submissions/CIK##########.json` and the XBRL paths. Find a CIK in `https://www.sec.gov/files/company_tickers.json`
4. Prefer `api/xbrl/companyconcept/` for one figure. `companyfacts` returns every concept a company has reported, and `submissions` returns at least 1,000 filings in column arrays
5. Read older filings from the extra files named in `filings.files`, and check a frame fact's own start and end dates, since frames align company periods to calendar quarters

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Alpha Vantage or SEC EDGAR APIs?

Alpha Vantage and SEC EDGAR APIs score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 41.3 (E) and 40.8 (E). SEC EDGAR APIs leads on reliability, security & auth, payments & pricing and transparency & trust.

### Do Alpha Vantage and SEC EDGAR APIs need an API key?

Alpha Vantage takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. SEC EDGAR APIs needs no key.

### Can an agent call Alpha Vantage and SEC EDGAR APIs without installing anything?

Yes. Alpha Vantage has a hosted endpoint at https://www.alphavantage.co/query and SEC EDGAR APIs at https://data.sec.gov.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alpha-vantage-vs-sec-edgar.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alpha-vantage-vs-sec-edgar.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "alpha-vantage", "b": "sec-edgar"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare alpha-vantage sec-edgar`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/alpha-vantage.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/sec-edgar.json

## Other comparisons with Alpha Vantage or SEC EDGAR APIs

- [Alpha Vantage vs CoinDesk Data API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alpha-vantage-vs-coindesk-data-api.md)
- [Alpha Vantage vs CoinGecko x402 API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alpha-vantage-vs-coingecko-x402-api.md)
- [Alpha Vantage vs Companies House API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alpha-vantage-vs-companies-house.md)
- [Companies House API vs SEC EDGAR APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/companies-house-vs-sec-edgar.md)
- [Alpha Vantage vs FRED API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alpha-vantage-vs-fred.md)
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