Recent API Limits: Non-Backward Compatible

Alpaca Market Data
1

I spent $99 for an API key for Alpaca’s unlimited plan.

Alpaca downgraded my account without warning to a plan with only 1000 Requests / Minute = ~16 Requests / Second. Alpaca has kept my $99.

To charge for one thing and then deliver another is false advertising and fraud. It’s a crime.

Will Alpaca be refunding my $99 or reinstating my unlimited limits?

Thank you!

2

Hi,

You shouldn’t be hitting rate limits on the paid Market Data plan.

  • How are you noticing these rate limits?
  • What’s your Alpaca’s account email? (Message me in private)
3

I agree that “you shouldn’t be hitting rate limits on the paid Market Data plan”. However, recently, Alpaca has seen fit to retroactively reduce subscriber limits as seen on the website:

Plans:

Unlimited

  • US Stocks & ETFs
  • Crypto
  • Real-time Data
  • 5+ Years Historical Data
  • Aggregate Bars
  • Trades & Quotes
  • All US Stock Exchanges
  • 1000 API Calls / Min
  • Unlimited WebSocket

Note that it says “1000 API Calls / Min” == 16 Calls / Sec

Before, I never got “too many requests” on the paid plan. Now I got it part way through a month when I paid $99 for unlimited requests. Please reinstate limits or refund all of $99 alpaca customers this month.

4

Whatever came of this? Because I also have this problem.

5

@Justin_Coffi What specific issue problem are you having? The Market Data APIs (eg get_bars, get_quotes, etc) have a default rate limit of 200 calls/min but is increased to 10,000 calls/min if subscribed to a paid market data subscription. However, a paid market data subscription does not increase the rate limit for the Trading APIs, only the market data calls.

The Trading APIs (eg submit_order, get_account, etc) all have a rate limit of 200 calls/min. This is independent, and completely separate from, any market data subscription.

6

I found where my issue was. I was calling alpaca.markets/v2/assets/{symbol_or_asset_id} too frequently.

7

@Justin_Coffi Ahh. Yes the assets endpoint is in the Trading APIs and not a Market Data APIs. The 200/min restriction applies to that call independent of the market data subscription one has.

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