# Financial Modeling Prep vs TickerLayer

> TickerLayer scores 71.5 (BB) to Financial Modeling Prep's 48.7 (D) for market fundamentals. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-modeling-prep-vs-tickerlayer
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-modeling-prep-vs-tickerlayer.md (~5,300 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-11

TickerLayer scores 71.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Financial Modeling Prep's 48.7 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Financial Modeling Prep leads on transparency & trust. Both do market fundamentals. TickerLayer accepts x402. Financial Modeling Prep doesn't.

- Financial Modeling Prep: grade D, 48.7/100, rank #1124 of 1520. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/financial-modeling-prep.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/financial-modeling-prep.json
- TickerLayer: grade BB, 71.5/100, rank #160 of 1520. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tickerlayer.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tickerlayer.json
- Best financial market data APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/market-data/index.md
- All 78 markets comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/market-data/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Financial Modeling Prep (D)

Good for: Agents doing company research on statements, ratios, DCF, filings, transcripts and calendars with one key, and US coverage on cheap plans.

Ahead on:
- Transparency & trust, 57 against 38

Watch for: The documented MCP connection URL puts the API key in the query string, and the REST docs accept `?apikey=` too

### TickerLayer (BB)

Good for: An agent that needs latest prices, bars and market hours across stocks, forex, crypto, indices, ETFs, commodities, bond yields and perpetual futures from one schema, and wants to pay per call without an account.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 70 against 50
- Schema & documentation, 88 against 61
- Agent ergonomics, 79 against 59
- Security & auth, 49 against 30
- Payments & pricing, 92 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 79 against 60

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account

Watch for: The data is derived and indicative from unnamed non-exchange sources, and no page says it is licensed from an exchange


## Why the edge

### Payments & pricing: TickerLayer +62

- Financial Modeling Prep (30): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Four personal plans priced per month by calls a minute, public without login, with per-endpoint plan limits in pricing.md; commercial prices are by agreement (10). A free Basic plan at 250 calls a day with no card stated (20). The key comes from a browser signup and no key API was found (0). 0 + 10 + 20 + 0 = 30.
- TickerLayer (92): x402 on the vendor's own gateway, x402.tickerlayer.com, for 41 GET routes. That is six routes for each of stocks, forex, crypto, indices, ETFs and commodities, plus bond yields and four market-calendar routes. Perpetuals, Futures CFDs, the add-ons, the symbol catalogue and WebSocket need a key. Between massive's 30 for US stock routes only and financial-datasets' 35 for every documented data endpoint (32 of 40). Per-call x402 prices from 0.01 to 0.10 USDC in the catalogue and docs, and plan prices per feed on the pricing page, all without a login (20). A Free plan of 3,000 REST calls every 30 days with 'no card', per llms.txt (20). An agent with a funded Base wallet pays per call with no account or key (20). 32+20+20+20 = 92.

### Schema & documentation: TickerLayer +27

- Financial Modeling Prep (61): No OpenAPI document was found. The MCP page says the server supplies strict parameter definitions, but the tool list needs a key and was not read (5 of 25). llms.txt links api-docs.md and pricing.md, Markdown written for agents (10). Each of the 199 endpoints in api-docs.md has a purpose paragraph and a plan marker in pricing.md, with little on when not to use it (13 of 20). Parameters are tabled with type, example and a required star, but allowed values sit in prose and no enums are given (8 of 15). Every endpoint has an example request and response; no error responses are documented anywhere we read (10 of 15). A /stable path, legacy /v3 and /v4 marked discontinued, and a changelog dated by day through 2 November 2026 (15). 5 + 10 + 13 + 8 + 10 + 15 = 61.
- TickerLayer (88): OpenAPI 3.1 at tickerlayer.com/openapi.json (TickerLayer Market Data API 1.0.0, about 386,000 characters), read in its first 100,000 and last 96,000 characters, with summaries, descriptions, tags and examples on the operations read and shared 400, 401, 403, 404, 429 and 503 responses. The WebSocket is described in prose only and the hosted MCP tool schemas weren't read (23 of 25). llms.txt, llms-full.txt and a Markdown twin of every docs page (10). Operation descriptions state purpose and plan gating, and the vendor's skill says which MCP tool to use for each question and when not to, such as `get_quote` not being the tool for a price. Financial-datasets took 17 (17 of 20). Enums on `interval`, `multiplier`, `timespan` and `sort`, `format: date` on dates, bounded `limit`, required path parameters, as for massive (13 of 15). Examples on most parameters and responses, one Error schema with ten fields and documented codes, but the codes appear only as example values with no enum or table (13 of 15). A dated changelog of the last 50 changes, 8 September to 6 November 2026, but no version in the REST paths ('no /v1/') and the spec at 1.0.0. Above twelve-data's 10 for monthly updates and below massive's 15 for versioned paths (12 of 15). 23+10+17+13+13+12 = 88.

### Reliability: TickerLayer +20

- Financial Modeling Prep (50): Read with the hosted lines. A public status page at status.financialmodelingprep.com is linked from every page (20), but its figures load by script and our reader got an error, so no incident history could be read (5). Limits are published with numbers, 250 calls a day on Basic and 300, 750 and 3,000 calls a minute on paid plans, with bandwidth caps per plan (15). No 429 behaviour, Retry-After or backoff guidance was found in the docs, api-docs.md or FAQs (0). No SLA found; the terms let FMP change limits without notice (0). The stable API is generally available (10). 20 + 5 + 15 + 0 + 0 + 10 = 50.
- TickerLayer (70): Read with the hosted lines, on the REST API. status.tickerlayer.com is an UptimeRobot page linked from the site header (20). Its monitors and history load by script from /api/, which its robots.txt disallows, so no incident record was read, as for eodhd and apitemplate-io (5). Limits are published with numbers, 10 requests a second per account on Free and Individual, 100 on Business, and monthly call quotas per feed (15). The OpenAPI file's 429 carries `Retry-After` and a body with `retryAfterMs`, `resetsAt` and a code that separates the per-second limit from the monthly quota, and every response has carried `X-RateLimit-Limit` and `X-RateLimit-Remaining` since 14 September 2026. Every data operation is a GET, and x402 retries with the same payment identifier return the stored response (15). An SLA is named only for Enterprise under a written agreement and as 'partially available' on Business, with no published terms or figure, and the terms of use promise no uptime. Financial-datasets took 10 for SLAs listed on a self-serve plan, so this is half (5 of 10). No beta or preview label on the REST API, the MCP server or the x402 gateway (10). 20+5+15+15+5+10 = 70.

### Agent ergonomics: TickerLayer +20

- Financial Modeling Prep (59): The REST API is the surface graded. `limit` and `page` on list endpoints, `from` and `to` on series, and batch quote endpoints size responses, with no field selection (15 of 25). Page and limit parameters on lists and date filters on series, no cursor (15 of 20). A missing key returned 401 with an `Error Message` text field in our one test call, and no error reference exists (5 of 20). Every call is a GET read; the MCP server's annotations were not read (16 of 20). Few required parameters and sensible defaults, but no official SDK in any language (8 of 15). 15 + 15 + 5 + 16 + 8 = 59.
- TickerLayer (79): Read on the REST API, with the MCP server where a line covers it. Responses are sized by `limit` (bars up to 5,000, catalogue up to 1,000), `sort`, date ranges and batch calls for futures quotes and market status, with no field selection. The MCP server has 12 tools, 11 shown to the model. Massive and financial-datasets took 15 (15 of 25). `limit`, `offset` and `next_offset`, cursors on fundamentals and economic events, `total_count` on bars, `search` on symbols and `updated_since` on signals (18 of 20). Errors carry `statusCode`, `message`, a code, `retryAfterMs`, `resetsAt`, `limitRps`, `plansUrl` and the missing `product` or `market`, and the skill gives an action per status. Above financial-datasets' 16 (17 of 20). Every data call is a GET, and x402 settles only after a valid response with payment identifiers bound to the request, but no readOnlyHint or other annotation was found for the MCP tools. Financial-datasets took 14 without annotations (15 of 20). Data tools need only `asset_class` and `symbol`, with defaults for limit and sort, and official clients exist for JavaScript or TypeScript and Python, both at 0.1.0 from 20 October 2026. Stocks need the `COUNTRY:TICKER` form (14 of 15). 15+18+17+15+14 = 79.

### Security & auth: TickerLayer +19

- Financial Modeling Prep (30): One key per account with no scopes, accepted as a header or as `?apikey=`, and the documented MCP address carries it in the URL (20 less 10 for the query string, so 10). Every endpoint is a read (15 of 20). News, press releases, transcripts and filings are third-party text and no guidance on treating them as untrusted was found (5 of 15). No usage log or per-call record for the key holder was found (0 of 15). security.txt returns 404, the Trust Center link returns 404, and no disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification was found (0 of 20). 10 + 15 + 5 + 0 + 0 = 30.
- TickerLayer (49): A plain account key with no scopes, shown once and replaced by regenerating it in the dashboard (20). The OpenAPI file defines an `apiKey` query parameter as a 'compatibility fallback', and the WebSocket takes the key only in its URL, so 10 off. The MCP server adds OAuth 2.1 with PKCE S256, dynamic registration, refresh tokens, a revocation endpoint and one scope, `market.read`. Twelve-data took 18 on the same pattern, one less here because the WebSocket has no header option (17 of 30). Every operation reads data, and the OAuth scope is read-only, as for twelve-data and financial-datasets (15 of 20). Responses are prices, bars, symbols, calendars and yields. There is no news feed, and SignalPoint signals are structured fields, so no untrusted text reaches the agent (10 of 15). Rate-limit headers on every response, quota 429s that state the limit and when it renews, and a dashboard list of WebSocket connections with source IP, key and how each ended (24 October 2026). No per-call REST log for the key holder was found, though the privacy policy says request logs are kept (7 of 15). security.txt answered a client error, and no disclosure policy, bug bounty, SOC 2 or ISO 27001 was found (0 of 20). 17+15+10+7+0 = 49.

### Maintenance & community: TickerLayer +19

- Financial Modeling Prep (60): Read as a closed service. The changelog's newest entry is 2 November 2026 (30). Entries dated 6, 8, 12, 28 and 29 October and 2 November 2026, more than three in 90 days (20). A public changelog, a help centre, FAQs and a support address, with issues reported through a site chatbot per the FAQ (10 of 15). No official SDK; the FAQ points at third-party packages (0 of 15). No package to assess, and nothing else to show for CI or dependency health (0 of 10). 30 + 20 + 10 + 0 + 0 = 60.
- TickerLayer (79): Read as a closed service. The newest changelog entry is 6 November 2026, a bond yield curve endpoint (30). 50 dated changelog entries from 8 September to 6 November 2026 (20). A public changelog, a consultation form, info@tickerlayer.com and a support chat, all untested, with no community channel and no issues on the plugin repository read. Massive and twelve-data took 10 (9 of 15). Official clients for JavaScript or TypeScript (npm) and Python (PyPI), both 0.1.0 from 20 October 2026, and an MCP registry entry under the verified namespace `com.tickerlayer` (15). The npm package has no dependencies or install hooks but no repository field, the clients' source isn't public and no CI is visible (5 of 10). 30+20+9+15+5 = 79.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Financial Modeling Prep | TickerLayer | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 70 | TickerLayer +20 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 61 | 88 | TickerLayer +27 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 59 | 79 | TickerLayer +20 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 30 | 49 | TickerLayer +19 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 92 | TickerLayer +62 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 79 | TickerLayer +19 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 57 | 38 | Financial Modeling Prep +19 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **48.7 · D** | **71.5 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Financial Modeling Prep | TickerLayer |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Financial Modeling Prep | TickerLayer |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://financialmodelingprep.com/stable` | `https://mcp.tickerlayer.com/mcp` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, websocket |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | yes, from $0.01/call |
| Licence | none | Proprietary hosted service under the TickerLayer terms of use, user agreement and market data disclaimer (all effective 3 November 2026), which name no legal entity or governing law. Free and Individual plans are for internal use, Business adds use inside the customer's own product, and redistribution needs a written Enterprise agreement. The agent plugin (github.com/tickerlayer/agent-plugin) and the npm client are MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | 12 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `com.tickerlayer/market-data` |
| Last release | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-06 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | not read yet |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | not read yet |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not read yet |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not read yet |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | not read yet |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | not read yet |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | not read yet |

## Verdicts

**Financial Modeling Prep.** About 199 stable REST endpoints with Markdown docs for agents, a dated changelog and a free key at 250 calls a day. The one key travels in the query string on the documented MCP address, error responses and 429 handling are undocumented, the status history could not be read, and personal plans forbid any company use.

**TickerLayer.** An agent can read quotes, bars and market hours across eight asset classes through a documented REST API, 12 MCP tools or 41 x402 resources with no account, and 429s carry Retry-After. The data is derived from unnamed non-exchange sources, no operator is named, and the status history couldn't be read.

## Before you call either

### Financial Modeling Prep

1. Send the key as an `apikey` header, not in the URL, and treat the MCP `?apikey=` address as a secret
2. Use the /stable paths from api-docs.md; /api/v3 and /v4 are discontinued even though the FAQ still shows a v3 example
3. On the free plan expect 5 results and page 0 on many list endpoints; read pricing.md before planning a crawl
4. A missing or wrong key returns HTTP 401 with an `Error Message` field; stop and ask the user rather than retry
5. Do not display or pass on the data in a product; personal plans forbid it

### TickerLayer

1. Write stocks as `COUNTRY:TICKER`, such as `US:KO`, and always pass `asset_class` to the data tools.
2. If a 429 carries `REST_QUOTA_EXCEEDED`, stop and tell the user. Waiting doesn't reset the monthly quota.
3. Present prices as indicative TickerLayer values, never as official exchange prices.
4. Call `get_market_status` before you report a quiet symbol as missing data.
5. Send the key in the `x-api-key` header, never as the `apiKey` query parameter.

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Financial Modeling Prep or TickerLayer?

TickerLayer scores 71.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Financial Modeling Prep's 48.7 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Financial Modeling Prep leads on transparency & trust.

### Do Financial Modeling Prep and TickerLayer need an API key?

Financial Modeling Prep needs an API key. TickerLayer takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. An agent can also pay TickerLayer per call over x402, with no account.

### Can an agent call Financial Modeling Prep and TickerLayer without installing anything?

Yes. Financial Modeling Prep has a hosted endpoint at https://financialmodelingprep.com/stable and TickerLayer at https://mcp.tickerlayer.com/mcp.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Financial Modeling Prep or TickerLayer

- [Alpha Vantage vs Financial Modeling Prep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alpha-vantage-vs-financial-modeling-prep.md)
- [Alpha Vantage vs TickerLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alpha-vantage-vs-tickerlayer.md)
- [Benzinga vs TickerLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/benzinga-vs-tickerlayer.md)
- [Databento vs Financial Modeling Prep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databento-vs-financial-modeling-prep.md)
- [Databento vs TickerLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databento-vs-tickerlayer.md)
- [Financial Modeling Prep vs Massive (formerly Polygon.io)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-modeling-prep-vs-massive.md)
- [Finnhub vs TickerLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/finnhub-vs-tickerlayer.md)
- [Intrinio vs TickerLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/intrinio-vs-tickerlayer.md)
- [Massive (formerly Polygon.io) vs TickerLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/massive-vs-tickerlayer.md)
- [TickerLayer vs Tiingo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tickerlayer-vs-tiingo.md)
- [TickerLayer vs Twelve Data](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tickerlayer-vs-twelve-data.md)
- [Eulerpool Financial Data API vs Financial Modeling Prep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/eulerpool-vs-financial-modeling-prep.md)
- [Eulerpool Financial Data API vs TickerLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/eulerpool-vs-tickerlayer.md)
- [Financial Datasets vs Financial Modeling Prep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-datasets-vs-financial-modeling-prep.md)
- [Financial Datasets vs TickerLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-datasets-vs-tickerlayer.md)
- [Financial Modeling Prep vs Finnhub](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-modeling-prep-vs-finnhub.md)
- [Financial Modeling Prep vs Intrinio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-modeling-prep-vs-intrinio.md)
- [Financial Modeling Prep vs Tiingo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-modeling-prep-vs-tiingo.md)
- [Financial Modeling Prep vs Twelve Data](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/financial-modeling-prep-vs-twelve-data.md)
- [EODHD vs Financial Modeling Prep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/eodhd-vs-financial-modeling-prep.md)
- [EODHD vs TickerLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/eodhd-vs-tickerlayer.md)
- [Benzinga vs Financial Modeling Prep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/benzinga-vs-financial-modeling-prep.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp