Alpha Vantage vs Twelve Data
Category: Finance · Updated July 2026
Both Alpha Vantage (25 calls/day, free key, no credit card) and Twelve Data (800 calls/day, free key, no credit card) offer comparable free tiers. Both show similar reliability — Alpha Vantage at 100% uptime and Twelve Data at 100% uptime over 30 days. For most use cases either will work; your choice can come down to feature depth or ecosystem preference.
Side-by-side comparison
Alpha Vantage
Stock market, forex, and cryptocurrency data API with 20+ years of historical data and real-time quotes.
| Status | 🟢 Online |
| 30-day uptime | 100% |
| Response time | 335 ms |
| Free tier | 25 calls/day, free key, no credit card |
| Auth | API key |
| Tier score | 0.7 — free key, no card |
Twelve Data
Financial market data API covering stocks, forex, ETFs, and mutual funds with real-time and historical data.
| Status | 🟢 Online |
| 30-day uptime | 100% |
| Response time | 274 ms |
| Free tier | 800 calls/day, free key, no credit card |
| Auth | API key |
| Tier score | 0.7 — free key, no card |
Which to choose?
- Pick Alpha Vantage if…its feature set (25 calls/day, free key, no credit card) fits your request volume and you're comfortable with a free API key.
- Pick Twelve Data if…its feature set (800 calls/day, free key, no credit card) fits your request volume and you're comfortable with a free API key.
- Use both if…you need redundancy or coverage across different data providers. Both use API keys, so rotating between them is straightforward for failover.
Or use these alternatives
Other top-ranked Finance APIs you might consider:
- European Central Bank Rates — 🟢 Online · Unlimited, no key, no credit card
- Fixer.io — 🟢 Online · 100 calls/month, EUR base only, free key, no CC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Alpha Vantage or Twelve Data more reliable?
Both Alpha Vantage and Twelve Data show identical 30-day uptime (100%) in our monitoring. Either is a safe choice from a reliability standpoint.
Which one has a more generous free tier — Alpha Vantage or Twelve Data?
Both have comparable free tiers. Alpha Vantage offers 25 calls/day, free key, no credit card and Twelve Data offers 800 calls/day, free key, no credit card. The right choice depends on your specific call volume and auth preferences.
Can I use Alpha Vantage and Twelve Data together?
Yes. Both require an API key, so you can register for both free accounts and implement a simple fallback: try Alpha Vantage first and fall back to Twelve Data if you hit rate limits or encounter downtime. This is a common pattern for production resilience.
What's the cheapest paid alternative if both Alpha Vantage and Twelve Data fail?
If you need a paid fallback, Twelve Data Grow is one of the more affordable options (from $29/mo). You can find the full list of paid alternatives on each API's detail page. Paid tiers typically offer SLA guarantees, higher rate limits, and dedicated support.
See full profiles: Alpha Vantage · Twelve Data · All Finance APIs