Yahoo Finance’s official API was shut down in 2017. What exists today under that name is a patchwork of unofficial Python libraries, scraped endpoints, and third-party wrappers that can break without warning and carry no SLA. For anyone building something that needs to keep running, that is not a foundation worth building on.
This list covers the five best replacements, evaluated on what actually matters to developers: data depth, rate limits, documentation quality, pricing transparency, and reliability. Every product here has a real API with real documentation. None of them are scraping Yahoo’s website and hoping it still works next week.
Quick Reference
| Provider | Best For | Free Tier | Paid Entry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Financial Modeling Prep | Fundamentals + multi-asset coverage | Yes (250 calls/day) | $22/mo |
| EOD Historical Data | Historical depth + global coverage | No (14-day trial) | $19.99/mo |
| Alpha Vantage | Prototyping + technical indicators | Yes (25 calls/day) | $29.99/mo |
| Massive (Polygon.io) | Real-time U.S. equities | Yes (5 calls/min) | $29/mo |
| Finnhub | Free-tier development + news data | Yes (60 calls/min) | Custom |
1. Financial Modeling Prep (FMP)
The most direct functional replacement for Yahoo Finance’s API. FMP covers the same broad territory Yahoo once did: real-time quotes, historical prices, income statements, balance sheets, cash flow statements, dividends, splits, earnings calendars, and analyst estimates. Over 100 documented endpoints. All data delivered via REST or WebSocket in JSON format.
Coverage spans 70,000+ securities across 60+ exchanges, 4,500+ cryptocurrencies, 1,500+ forex pairs, and 40 commodities. Historical data goes back 30+ years on paid tiers. The free plan provides 250 API calls per day with access to 5 years of annual statements for U.S. companies, which is a meaningful starting point before any money changes hands.
Pricing (personal use, billed annually):
| Plan | Price | API Calls | Historical Data | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | Free | 250/day | 5 years | Sample tickers only |
| Starter | $22/mo | 300/min | 5 years | U.S. only |
| Premium | $59/mo | 750/min | 30+ years | U.S., UK, Canada |
| Ultimate | $149/mo | 3,000/min | Full | Global |
Students get 30% off all plans. Startups on commercial plans can also apply for a discount.
One thing worth understanding before subscribing: FMP operates on a 30-day bandwidth model rather than a pure request count. Free plan is capped at 500MB of data transferred over 30 days. Starter gets 20GB. If pulling bulk historical data repeatedly, those limits can become a real constraint faster than the per-minute rate limits suggest.
The customer base includes RBC Capital Markets, Franklin Templeton, ARK Invest, KPMG, and Harvard Business School. That is not decoration. It signals the data is production-grade, not hobbyist-grade.
Pros:
- Most complete Yahoo Finance feature replacement at this price point
- Transparent, self-serve pricing with no sales call required
- Bulk and batch delivery options on the Ultimate plan
- Real-time WebSocket streaming available at all paid tiers
- 30-day student and startup discounts available
Cons:
- 30-day bandwidth caps can trip up developers pulling large historical datasets
- Starter plan limited to U.S. exchanges; global coverage requires Premium at $59/mo
- Free tier capped at 250 calls per day, which is tight for anything beyond testing
2. EOD Historical Data (EODHD)
The better choice when historical depth is the primary requirement. EODHD covers 150,000+ ticker symbols across 70+ exchanges with 30+ years of price history and 20+ years of fundamental data. ETFs, bonds, mutual funds, forex (1,100+ pairs), and cryptocurrencies are all included. The data sourcing runs through Nasdaq Basic API and 14 additional providers rather than scraped aggregates, which matters for data integrity.
What separates EODHD from FMP in practical terms: bulk download capability. Instead of constructing thousands of API calls to backfill historical data across a large stock universe, the bulk endpoint lets developers pull entire datasets in one request. For backtesting workflows covering hundreds or thousands of tickers, this is a meaningful time and cost advantage.
Pricing:
| Plan | Monthly Price | API Requests/Day | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| All-World | $19.99 | 100,000 | 60+ exchanges, indexes, forex |
| All-In-One | $49.99 | 100,000 | Everything above + fundamentals, bonds, options, splits/dividends |
Students get 50% off the All-In-One plan by contacting support before purchasing. That brings the most comprehensive plan to $24.99 per month. No other provider in this category matches that combination of coverage and price.
Documentation is well-maintained. Support runs 7 days a week via email and live chat. The absence of a free tier is the obvious friction point: the only way to test the product before paying is a 14-day free trial.
Pros:
- Best historical data depth at this price point
- Bulk download endpoints reduce API call overhead significantly
- Student discount brings All-In-One to $24.99/mo
- Data sourced from Nasdaq Basic API, not scraped
Cons:
- No permanent free tier, only a 14-day trial
- Real-time data is not available on base plans
- UI and developer experience are less polished than FMP or Massive
3. Alpha Vantage
The standard entry point for developers building personal projects, academic research tools, or early prototypes. The free tier has historically been more accessible than competitors, though the limits have tightened. As of 2026, the free plan allows 25 API calls per day, which is enough for exploration but not for anything running automated daily jobs.
Coverage includes intraday and end-of-day historical data, forex, cryptocurrency, 50+ pre-computed technical indicators, and fundamental data. The technical indicator library is a genuine differentiator. Most competing APIs return raw OHLCV data and leave indicator calculation to the developer. Alpha Vantage computes RSI, MACD, Bollinger Bands, and dozens of others server-side, returned directly in the API response.
Pricing:
| Requests/Minute | Monthly Fee |
|---|---|
| 75 | $29.99 |
| 150 | $49.99 |
| 300 | $99.99 |
| 600 | $149.99 |
| 1,200 | $249.00 |
No daily limits apply on paid plans. Cancellation is available at any time.
Two problems worth naming. First, the free tier at 25 calls per day is the tightest on this list. Finnhub’s free tier gives 60 calls per minute. Massive’s free tier gives 5 calls per minute with no daily cap. Twenty-five total calls per day barely supports manual testing. Second, Alpha Vantage does not publish contact information on its website. For a paid subscription service, having no visible support contact is a genuine concern and not something easily explained away.
Pros:
- 50+ technical indicators computed server-side via API
- Broad asset class coverage: stocks, forex, crypto, fundamentals
- Clean documentation with SDK examples in multiple languages
- No daily limits on paid plans
Cons:
- Free tier of 25 calls per day is the most restrictive on this list
- No contact information published on the website, which is a transparency problem
- Not suitable for production applications requiring real-time or high-frequency data
4. Massive (formerly Polygon.io)
Polygon.io rebranded to Massive on October 30, 2025. Name change only. The APIs, endpoints, pricing, and team are identical. The polygon.io domain still redirects correctly, and existing integrations require no modification.
Massive is the developer-first choice for U.S. equity data. The infrastructure covers all U.S. exchanges, dark pools, and OTC markets. Access methods include REST, WebSocket, flat-file S3 downloads, and SQL queries, which is the broadest delivery option set on this list. Documented latency is under 20ms on the Advanced plan. For applications where data freshness directly affects output quality, that infrastructure gap matters.
Stocks pricing (billed monthly):
| Plan | Price | Data | Historical |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $0 | End-of-day only | 2 years |
| Starter | $29/mo | 15-min delayed | 5 years |
| Developer | $79/mo | 15-min delayed | 10 years |
| Advanced | $199/mo | Real-time | 20+ years |
Annual billing reduces all plans by 20%. Options, indices, currencies, and futures are sold as separate subscriptions with their own pricing tiers. Real-time data is only available at the $199/month Advanced tier. Below that, all plans deliver 15-minute delayed data. That is the key limitation to understand before choosing Massive over a fundamentals-focused provider like FMP.
The platform has no visual interface for screening or analysis. The product is the API. Developers who need clean documentation, multiple access methods, and proven U.S. equity infrastructure will find Massive fits. Non-developers have no use for it.
Pros:
- Free tier includes real data across all U.S. tickers, not just a demo
- Multiple access methods: REST, WebSocket, S3 flat files, SQL
- Dark pool and OTC data available alongside exchange feeds
- 20% discount with annual billing
Cons:
- Real-time data requires the $199/month Advanced plan; all cheaper plans are 15-minute delayed
- Options, indices, currencies, and futures cost extra on top of the stocks subscription
- No interface for non-developers whatsoever
- Trustpilot review volume remains very low, making support quality difficult to verify independently
5. Finnhub
Finnhub earns its place primarily on the strength of its free tier. Sixty API calls per minute at no cost is the most generous free offering on this list by a significant margin. For developers who need to prototype, validate a concept, or run a personal project without paying anything, Finnhub is the practical starting point.
Coverage is broader than most alternatives at the free level: real-time quotes with a 15-minute delay, company fundamentals, insider transactions, economic data, earnings calendars, and a live news feed with sentiment analysis. The news and sentiment layer is not something FMP or EODHD include at comparable price points. For applications that combine market data with event detection, that matters.
The documentation is comprehensive. WebSocket support is included for streaming real-time updates. Global market coverage extends beyond U.S. exchanges, which helps for applications tracking international securities.
The limits are honest: deeper historical data and premium endpoints require paid access, and Finnhub’s paid plan pricing is not publicly listed in a self-serve format the same way FMP or Massive is. The conversation becomes a sales interaction at a certain scale, which is a friction point for developers who prefer to sign up and start without talking to anyone.
Pros:
- 60 API calls per minute on the free tier, the most generous on this list
- News feed and sentiment analysis included without extra cost
- WebSocket streaming available on free and paid tiers
- Strong documentation and global market coverage
Cons:
- Paid plan pricing is not fully transparent; enterprise usage requires a sales conversation
- Historical data depth on free tier is limited
- Fundamentals coverage is shallower than FMP or EODHD at comparable tiers
Bottom Line
Best overall Yahoo Finance API replacement: Financial Modeling Prep. The combination of breadth, pricing transparency, 100+ endpoints, and a genuine free tier makes it the most complete functional substitute. For developers who need fundamentals, real-time quotes, earnings data, and global coverage in a single integration, nothing on this list matches the value at the Starter or Premium tier.
Best for historical data and backtesting: EOD Historical Data. Thirty years of clean price history and bulk download capability at $19.99 to $49.99 per month is the most cost-efficient option for large-scale historical pulls. The student discount makes it exceptional value for academic and personal use.
Best free tier for real development: Finnhub. Sixty calls per minute at no cost is the kind of free tier that actually supports building something, not just reading documentation.
Best for U.S. real-time equity infrastructure: Massive. The developer tooling, access methods, and proven infrastructure make it the right choice for applications where data reliability and latency are the primary constraints. Budget for the $199/month Advanced plan if real-time data is required.
Best for prototyping with built-in indicators: Alpha Vantage. The 50+ pre-computed technical indicators reduce engineering overhead for early-stage projects. The free tier limitations are a real constraint; plan to upgrade quickly if the project gains any traction.
Comparison Table
| Provider | Free Tier | Real-Time Data | Fundamentals | Historical Depth | Paid Entry | Best Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Financial Modeling Prep | 250 calls/day | Yes (paid) | Deep | 30+ years (paid) | $22/mo | Full replacement, multi-asset |
| EOD Historical Data | No (trial only) | No | Yes | 30+ years | $19.99/mo | Historical pulls, backtesting |
| Alpha Vantage | 25 calls/day | Limited | Yes | 20+ years (paid) | $29.99/mo | Prototyping, indicators |
| Massive | Yes (EOD only) | $199/mo plan | Limited | 20+ years (paid) | $29/mo | U.S. equities, real-time |
| Finnhub | 60 calls/min | Yes (delayed) | Partial | Limited (free) | Custom | Development, news + data |
FAQ
Why did Yahoo Finance’s API stop working?
Yahoo shut down its official API in May 2017 without providing a replacement. What remained afterward were unofficial workarounds: Python libraries like yfinance that scrape Yahoo’s website, and third-party endpoints on API marketplaces that access Yahoo data without authorization. These workarounds continue to exist, and they continue to break periodically when Yahoo changes its site structure. They are not suitable for production applications.
Is yfinance a legitimate replacement for the Yahoo Finance API?
It works, until it does not. yfinance is a community-maintained Python library that scrapes Yahoo’s website. It is free, easy to use, and widely relied upon for personal projects and research. The problems: it violates Yahoo’s terms of service, it breaks when Yahoo changes its front-end structure, and there is no support team maintaining it with any reliability guarantee. For a personal script or a university project, it is fine. For anything with users depending on it, it is not.
Which provider is cheapest for a small project?
Finnhub’s free tier at 60 calls per minute costs nothing and supports real development work. If the project needs fundamentals or deeper historical data, FMP’s free tier at 250 calls per day is the next step. EOD Historical Data has no permanent free tier and is therefore the wrong starting point for price-sensitive projects, despite being excellent value once paid access is justified.
Do any of these providers offer real-time data on a free tier?
Finnhub provides real-time quotes with a 15-minute delay on the free tier. Massive’s free Basic plan delivers end-of-day data only. Alpha Vantage and FMP’s free tiers do not include real-time data. True real-time access at production scale requires paid plans across all providers on this list.
Which provider is best for building a fintech application commercially?
FMP is the most practical starting point for commercial development. The pricing is transparent, the endpoint coverage is broad, and the customer base includes institutional names that validate the data quality. Redistribution of FMP data in a commercial product requires a separate Data Display and Licensing Agreement, which is standard practice across providers and worth reading before building.
What happened to IEX Cloud?
IEX Cloud discontinued its service in August 2024, leaving many developers without a data backend. It was a widely used alternative in the developer community, particularly for its clean API design and fair-use philosophy. Its absence opened a gap that FMP and Massive have largely filled.