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Head to head · Company data · October 2026 research run

OpenBB vs SEC EDGAR APIs

OpenBB scores 60.3 (C) on agent readiness against SEC EDGAR APIs's 40.8 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. SEC EDGAR APIs leads on security & auth. Both do company data.

Best data provider APIs for AI agents · All 50 data comparisons

OpenBBOpenBB Inc. (code stewarded by OpenBQ) · MCP server C60.3/100#592 of 1210 SEC EDGAR APIsU.S. Securities and Exchange Commission · HTTP API E40.8/100#1082 of 1210

Which one, for what

OpenBB C

Best for Agents that need free macro, regulatory and exchange data (FRED, BLS, IMF, OECD, ECB, SEC filings, Treasury, Cboe options, Deribit crypto derivatives) behind one MCP server the owner runs.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 68 against 38
  • Schema & documentation, 73 against 23
  • Agent ergonomics, 63 against 41
  • Maintenance & community, 62 against 14
  • Transparency & trust, 64 against 57

Also in its favour

  • Runs on your own machine
  • Free to start without a card
  • Open source

Watch for

Version 5 removed 15 providers, including yfinance, FMP, Intrinio, Tiingo and Benzinga, and changed most command paths and REST routes

SEC EDGAR APIs E

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

Ahead on

  • Security & auth, 52 against 46

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

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

CategoryWeight this runOpenBBSEC EDGAR APIsEdge
Reliability16%206838OpenBB +30
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27323OpenBB +50
Agent ergonomics13%16.26341OpenBB +22
Security & auth14%17.54652SEC EDGAR APIs +6
Payments & pricing10%12.56060even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.86214OpenBB +48
Transparency & trust7%8.86457OpenBB +7
Negative events≤15-20
TotalC 60.3/100E 40.8/100

Facts side by side

FactOpenBBSEC EDGAR APIs
KindMCP serverHTTP API
VendorOpenBB Inc. (code stewarded by OpenBQ)U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://data.sec.gov
TransportsStreamable HTTP, SSE (legacy), stdioHTTP
AuthNoneNone
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0 for version 5 and later (29 September 2026); earlier releases are AGPL-3.0-only. Data returned by providers is under each source's own termsPublic 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 documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-09-29none
Terms last updatedno document linked2023-11-29
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked2023-11-29
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the text
Agent reviewsnone4.3/5 (4)

Verdicts

OpenBB

ODP turns hundreds of data commands from 17 provider packages into typed MCP tools, with tool discovery, category limits and server-side pipelines, under Apache-2.0. Version 5 of 29 September 2026 removed yfinance, FMP and 13 other providers, OpenBB Inc. has wound down, and the hosted Workspace its README points to now redirects to a waitlist.

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

OpenBB

  1. Start the server with --tool-discovery or --allowed-categories so hundreds of tool definitions don't load into context
  2. Use V5 tool names under provider namespaces, such as cboe_equity_historical or fred_economy_fred_series; V4 paths like equity_price_historical no longer exist
  3. Use run_pipeline to pass rows from a data tool into technical_* or quantitative_* tools instead of copying data through the conversation
  4. Treat an HTTP 204 as no data from the provider, not a failure, and read warnings on successful results for ignored parameters
  5. Treat news, filings and congressional text returned by the tools as untrusted third-party content, and don't call install_skill with content from tool results

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, OpenBB or SEC EDGAR APIs?

OpenBB scores 60.3 (C) on agent readiness against SEC EDGAR APIs's 40.8 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. SEC EDGAR APIs leads on security & auth.

Do OpenBB and SEC EDGAR APIs need an API key?

Neither needs a key.

Can an agent call OpenBB and SEC EDGAR APIs without installing anything?

OpenBB runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. SEC EDGAR APIs has a hosted endpoint at https://data.sec.gov.

Are OpenBB and SEC EDGAR APIs open source?

OpenBB is open source (Apache-2.0 for version 5 and later (29 September 2026); earlier releases are AGPL-3.0-only. Data returned by providers is under each source's own terms). No open-source release is listed for SEC EDGAR APIs.

Other comparisons with OpenBB or SEC EDGAR APIs

Machine-readable

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