Guide

Use your own free API key

FreeCharting doesn't sell market data. You connect it to a data provider with an API key of your own, free or paid, and your browser fetches the prices directly. This page shows you where to get a key and how to add it.

Just want crypto? You don't need a key at all. Open a Bitcoin chart. Binance, Coinbase, OKX, Kraken, Gemini, HTX, Hyperliquid and Deribit work out of the box, and most of them update live.

How it works

An API key is a password-like code a data provider gives you so it can recognise your requests and apply your plan's limits. With a “bring your own key” setup:

You sign up with a provider (for free) and copy your key.
You paste it into FreeCharting. It's saved in your browser's local storage on this device.
When you open a chart, your browser asks the provider directly for price history, using your key. FreeCharting's server only delivers the web page. It never sees your key or your data.
Because the requests come from you, the provider's free-tier limits apply to you alone. You don't share a quota with thousands of other users.

Quick start

Choose a provider below. If you’re not sure, start with Twelve Data: one free key covers stocks, ETFs, forex and crypto, including intraday charts.
Create a free account and copy your API key (each section below shows you where).
Open the chart and click API keys in the top-right of the toolbar.
Paste the key next to the provider's name and click Save keys.
Pick the provider in the toolbar's provider menu, type a symbol, and you're charting.

Which provider should I use?

If you want…	Use
Crypto with live, tick-by-tick updates and no sign-up	Binance, Coinbase, OKX, Hyperliquid or Deribit
Stocks, ETFs, forex and crypto, including intraday charts, on one free plan	Twelve Data
US stocks and ETFs: years of free daily charts, with intraday on a paid plan	Financial Modeling Prep
Deep intraday US stock history (paged 5,000 bars at a time)	Massive
A quick daily or weekly look at a US stock or currency pair	Alpha Vantage
Years of intraday US stock history, free, with generous limits	Alpaca
Stocks on exchanges outside the US	Marketstack or Twelve Data
You already pay for a data plan or have a brokerage account	Finnhub, Tradier, or the paid plan of any provider here

You can save keys for several providers and switch between them at any time.

Binance No key needed

The world's largest crypto exchange publishes its market data for free. FreeCharting uses Binance's public market-data endpoints, so there's nothing to sign up for.

Markets: Crypto pairs
Timeframes: 1m to 1M, live
History: Full, loads as you scroll

Symbol format

Base and quote joined together, with no slash: BTCUSDT, ETHUSDT, SOLUSDT, ETHBTC. Start typing in the symbol box to search every pair.

Open a BTCUSDT chart

Coinbase No key needed

Coinbase's public exchange data, with live updates built from every trade. A good choice if Binance isn't available where you are.

Markets: Crypto (USD, EUR, GBP)
Timeframes: 1m, 5m, 15m, 1H, D
History: Full, loads as you scroll

Symbol format: base and quote with a dash: BTC-USD, ETH-EUR, SOL-USD.

Open a BTC-USD chart

OKX No key needed

One of the largest crypto exchanges, with every timeframe and live updates. OKX isn't available in every country, including the US.

Markets: Crypto
Timeframes: 1m to 1M, live
History: Full, loads as you scroll

Symbol format: base and quote with a dash: BTC-USDT, ETH-USDC.

Open a BTC-USDT chart

Kraken No key needed

Kraken's public data covers many fiat pairs (USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, AUD and more). Its free endpoint only returns the most recent 720 bars per timeframe, and charts refresh every 10 seconds rather than streaming.

Markets: Crypto, many fiat pairs
Timeframes: 1m to W
History: Latest 720 bars

Symbol format: no separator, and Bitcoin is XBT: XBTUSD, ETHEUR, SOLUSD.

Open an XBTUSD chart

Gemini No key needed

Gemini is a US-regulated crypto exchange. Its public candles cover its USD pairs; there's no paging back through older history.

Markets: Crypto (USD pairs)
Timeframes: 1m to 1D
Updates: Every few seconds

Symbol format: no separator: BTCUSD, ETHUSD, SOLUSD.

Open a BTCUSD chart

HTX No key needed

HTX (formerly Huobi) publishes its most recent 2,000 candles per timeframe for its USDT pairs.

Markets: Crypto (USDT pairs)
Timeframes: 1m to 1M
History: Latest 2,000 bars

Symbol format: no separator: BTCUSDT, TRXUSDT.

Open a BTCUSDT chart

Hyperliquid No key needed

Hyperliquid is an on-chain exchange for crypto perpetual futures, quoted in USDC. Its public data includes live candles and the order book, and keeps the most recent 5,000 candles per timeframe.

Markets: Crypto perpetuals
Timeframes: 1m to 1M
History: Latest 5,000 bars

Symbol format: the coin and -USD: BTC-USD, ETH-USD, HYPE-USD.

Open a BTC-USD chart

Deribit No key needed

Deribit is a crypto derivatives exchange. Its public data covers its perpetuals and dated futures, with live candles and long history (daily bars back to 2018 for Bitcoin).

Markets: Crypto futures and perpetuals
Timeframes: 1m to 1D
Updates: Live streaming

Symbol format: Deribit's instrument names: BTC-PERPETUAL, ETH-PERPETUAL, SOL_USDC-PERPETUAL, or a dated future like BTC-26DEC26.

Open a BTC-PERPETUAL chart

Twelve Data Recommended

A broad, developer-friendly API covering global stocks, ETFs, indices, forex and crypto. It has the best all-round free plan for charting.

Free plan: 800 requests/day, 8/min
Markets: Stocks, ETFs, forex, crypto
Timeframes: 1m to 1M

Get your key

Go to twelvedata.com/register and create a free account. You can use email, Google or GitHub.
Confirm your email if asked. The free Basic plan is active straight away, and no card is needed.
Open Account → API Keys and copy the key shown there.
In FreeCharting, click API keys, paste it into the Twelve Data field, and save.

Symbol format

US stocks by ticker: AAPL, MSFT, SPY. Forex and crypto with a slash: EUR/USD, BTC/USD. For other exchanges, pick the listing from search results. It's saved as SYMBOL:EXCHANGE, for example VOD:LSE.

Try before you sign up: without a key, FreeCharting uses Twelve Data's public demo key. It only works for AAPL, EUR/USD and BTC/USD.

Get a free Twelve Data key ↗ Chart AAPL

Financial Modeling Prep

A popular stock-data API with clean, adjusted US prices. The free plan gives you about five years of daily history, which is plenty for daily, weekly and monthly charts. When you want intraday charts, upgrade to a paid plan and FreeCharting unlocks them automatically.

Free plan: 250 requests/day
Markets: US stocks & ETFs
Timeframes: D, W, M · 1m–4H on paid plans

Get your key

Good to know

The free plan covers major US tickers such as AAPL, MSFT and SPY. Less common symbols may need a paid plan.
FreeCharting builds weekly and monthly bars from FMP's daily data, so each chart costs just one request.
Paid plans add intraday charts (1-minute to 4-hour), more markets and higher limits. There's nothing to change in FreeCharting: the same key simply unlocks more.

Get a free FMP key ↗ Plans & pricing ↗

Alpha Vantage

One of the longest-running free stock APIs, and the fastest key to get: no account or password, just a short form. Best for daily, weekly and monthly charts.

Free plan: 25 requests/day
Markets: US stocks & ETFs, forex
Timeframes: D, W, M

Get your key

Go to alphavantage.co/support/#api-key.
Choose what describes you (for example “Investor” or “Student”), enter an organisation (your name is fine) and your email.
Click GET FREE API KEY. Your key appears on the page right away, so copy it.
In FreeCharting, click API keys, paste it into the Alpha Vantage field, and save.

Good to know

Intraday charts (1m to 4H) are a premium Alpha Vantage feature, so free keys get daily, weekly and monthly charts.
Daily stock charts show the most recent 100 days on the free plan. Weekly and monthly charts, and daily forex, include the full history.
Forex pairs are written with a slash: EUR/USD, USD/JPY.
25 requests a day goes fast. Every symbol or timeframe change costs one. FreeCharting caches answers for 10 minutes, so switching back is free.

Get a free Alpha Vantage key ↗

Massive (formerly Polygon.io)

Polygon.io renamed itself Massive in 2025. If you already have a Polygon key, it still works. Massive has very clean US market data and returns up to 5,000 bars per request.

Free plan: 5 requests/min
History: 2 years, end-of-day
Timeframes: 1m to 1M

Get your key

Go to massive.com and sign up. The Stocks Basic plan is $0/month.
Once you're in the dashboard, open API Keys. A default key is already created for you.
Copy the key.
In FreeCharting, click API keys, paste it into the Massive (Polygon.io) field, and save.

Symbol format

Stocks by ticker: AAPL. Crypto uses an X: prefix: X:BTCUSD. Forex uses C:: C:EURUSD. Crypto and forex may need their own free plans on Massive.

The free plan serves end-of-day data, so today's bars show up after the market closes. Scrolling left pages back through up to two years of history.

Get a free Massive key ↗

Paid & freemium providers

These providers either have a free plan with clear upgrades, or need a paid plan or brokerage account to chart. If you already pay for one of them, paste your key and your plan's limits apply. Paid plans of the providers above (Twelve Data, Massive and others) work the same way.

Alpaca Free plan Paid for real-time

A broker-grade market-data API with years of US stock history on every timeframe. The free plan is generous: 200 requests a minute. Its consolidated data is 15 minutes behind, so for the latest 15 minutes the chart uses the IEX exchange’s live feed: current prices, but only IEX’s share of the volume. The paid Algo Trader Plus plan ($99/month) is real-time throughout.

Free plan: 200 requests/min, live IEX prices
Markets: US stocks & ETFs, crypto
Timeframes: 1m to 1M

Get your keys

Sign up at app.alpaca.markets/signup. You don't need to fund a brokerage account to use market data.
In the dashboard, find API Keys on the home page and click Generate New Keys.
Copy both the API Key ID and the Secret Key. The secret is only shown once.
In FreeCharting, click API keys, paste both into the Alpaca fields, and save.

Symbol format: US tickers like AAPL and SPY. Crypto with a slash: BTC/USD.

Get free Alpaca keys ↗ Plans & pricing ↗

Marketstack Free plan Paid for intraday

End-of-day prices for tens of thousands of tickers on exchanges worldwide. The free plan is small (100 requests a month), so it suits occasional checks. Paid plans start at $9.99/month and add intraday bars and up to 10 years of history.

Free plan: 100 requests/month, 1 year
Markets: Global stocks & ETFs
Timeframes: D, W, M (intraday paid)

Get your key

Symbol format: US tickers like AAPL. Other exchanges use a suffix, for example VOD.XLON for London.

Get a free Marketstack key ↗ Plans & pricing ↗

Finnhub Paid plan

Finnhub covers stocks on global exchanges plus forex and crypto. Its free plan includes symbol search but not historical price candles, so charting needs one of Finnhub's paid market-data plans.

Plan: Paid for candles
Markets: Global stocks, forex, crypto
Timeframes: 1m to 1H, D, W, M

Get your key

Symbol format: stocks like AAPL. Forex with the broker prefix: OANDA:EUR_USD. Crypto with the exchange prefix: BINANCE:BTCUSDT. With a key saved, symbol search finds the right format for you.

See Finnhub plans ↗

Tradier Brokerage account

Tradier is a US brokerage whose customers get market data through its API. If you don't have an account, a free developer sandbox gives you delayed data for testing.

Plan: Brokerage, or free sandbox
Markets: US stocks & ETFs
Timeframes: 1m, 5m, 15m, D, W, M

Get your token

Log in to your Tradier Brokerage account, or create a free developer account at developer.tradier.com.
Open API Access in your account settings and copy your access token (or the sandbox token).
In FreeCharting, click API keys, paste it into the Tradier field, and save. FreeCharting works out whether it's a live or sandbox token.

Symbol format: US tickers like AAPL and SPY. Intraday history covers roughly the last few weeks.

Tradier developer site ↗

OANDA Free demo account

OANDA is a forex broker whose API gives candles for forex, metals, stock indices and commodities, down to 5-second bars with long history. A free practice (demo) account is enough.

Plan: Free with a practice or live account
Markets: Forex, metals, indices, commodities
Timeframes: 5s to M

Get your token

Open a free practice account at oanda.com (or log in to your live account).
Go to Manage API Access and generate a personal access token.
In FreeCharting, click API keys and paste it into the OANDA field. Or connect your OANDA account in the Trade tab: the same connection then supplies the chart data and lets you trade.

Symbol format: OANDA instruments like EUR_USD, XAU_USD, SPX500_USD, DE30_EUR.

OANDA API access ↗

Capital.com Connected account

Capital.com charts come through the account you connect in the chart's Trade tab (a free demo account works), covering its CFDs on indices, commodities, forex, crypto and shares.

Plan: Free with a demo or live account
Markets: Indices, commodities, forex, crypto, shares
Timeframes: 1m to W

Symbol format: Capital.com epics like US500, GOLD, EURUSD, AAPL. Search in the symbol box finds the rest.

DXtrade Connected account

DXtrade is the trading platform many prop firms and CFD brokers use, Lark Funding among them. Once you connect your DXtrade account in the chart's Trade tab, its prices supply the charts too, so you chart exactly what you trade.

Plan: Comes with your prop firm or broker account
Markets: Forex, indices, metals, crypto (CFDs)
Timeframes: 1m to 1M

Symbol format: DXtrade's own names, like EUR/USD or XAU/USD. Search in the symbol box finds the rest.

Connected a broker in the Trade tab? Alpaca, Tradier (live), OANDA, Capital.com and DXtrade accounts also supply chart data, so you don't need to enter the same keys again under API keys.

Free-tier limits at a glance

Provider	Requests	What one chart costs
Binance	Generous public limits	1 request, plus 1 per older page
Twelve Data	8/minute, 800/day	1 request (2,000 bars), plus 1 per older page
Alpha Vantage	25/day	1 request
Massive	5/minute	1 request (5,000 bars), plus 1 per older page
FMP	250/day	1 request
Coinbase, OKX, Kraken	Generous public limits	1 request, plus 1 per older page (not Kraken)
Alpaca (free)	200/minute	1 request (up to 10,000 bars), plus 1 per older page
Marketstack (free)	100/month	1 request

These numbers are from each provider's pricing page at the time of writing and can change. Upgrading to a paid plan with a provider raises your limits in FreeCharting automatically. Nothing else changes.

Is my API key safe?

It never reaches our server. Keys live in your browser's localStorage. They're only sent in requests to the provider they belong to.
Locked-down connections. Every page carries a Content-Security-Policy that only lets it talk to the listed providers' API domains. Even a bug couldn't send your key anywhere else.
No accounts, no ads. FreeCharting has no login. It uses Google Analytics to count page visits (visitors in Europe are asked first), but your keys, symbols’ data and settings are never sent to it.
Sandboxed scripts. Custom indicator scripts run in an isolated worker that only receives price data. They can't read your keys or use the network.

Keep in mind: anyone with access to your browser profile can read keys saved in it. Use free keys here, don't reuse a key tied to a paid plan on a shared computer, and click Remove all keys in the API keys window when you're done on a public machine. If a key ever leaks, regenerate it in the provider's dashboard.

FAQ & troubleshooting

Is FreeCharting really free?

Yes.

Why do I need my own key? Why not one shared key?

A shared key would hit its free limit within minutes and break for everyone. Most providers' terms also don't allow re-distributing their data. With your own key you get the full free quota to yourself, and the data is licensed to you.

It says “rate limit reached”. What now?

Free plans cap how many requests you can make per minute or per day. Wait a minute (Twelve Data, Massive) or until tomorrow (Alpha Vantage, FMP), or switch to another provider. FreeCharting caches recent responses, so flipping between charts you've already opened doesn't cost extra.

Can I use a paid plan I already have?

Yes. Paste the key from your paid account and FreeCharting uses it the same way. You get your plan's higher limits, real-time data and extra history automatically. Finnhub and Tradier need a paid plan or brokerage account to chart at all.

“Symbol not found” or no data

Each provider spells symbols a little differently. Check the Symbol format notes above. For example, Bitcoin is BTCUSDT on Binance, BTC-USD on Coinbase, XBTUSD on Kraken, BTC/USD on Twelve Data and X:BTCUSD on Massive.

My key is rejected

Make sure you pasted the whole key with no spaces, and saved it under the right provider. New keys can take a minute to activate. You can also generate a fresh key in the provider's dashboard.

Is the data real-time?

Binance, Coinbase, OKX, Hyperliquid and Deribit charts stream live. Other sources refresh on their own, at a pace that suits each one’s free plan; click the live status at the bottom of the chart to choose how often. The stock providers' free plans are delayed or end-of-day depending on the provider; paid plans are often real-time.

Some timeframe buttons are greyed out

That provider doesn't offer that timeframe on its free plan. For example, Alpha Vantage and FMP only offer daily, weekly and monthly bars on their free plans. Hover over a button to see why.

Does it work on my phone?

Yes. Charts support touch: drag to scroll and pinch to zoom. Keys are saved per browser, so you'll need to add them again on each device.

Got your key?

Paste it into the API keys window and start charting.

Open the chart