Investing in financial products involves risk to your capital.

Close Navigation
Learn more about IBKR accounts

Market Data Subscriptions

Introduction

While working with Interactive Brokers’ APIs, most* securities require a Level 1, top of book, market data subscription to receive market data. This is required for all users at Interactive Brokers retrieving market data through the API.

*Forex and Cryptocurrencies do not require any additional market data subscriptions to receive market data.

Market Data Requirements

In order to receive market data through the API, there are a few minimum requirements before data can be received.

  1. Opened IB Account (Demo accounts cannot subscribe to data).
  2. Must use an IBKR PRO account type
  3. Clients should have $500 USD in their account in addition to the cost of all market data subscriptions.
  4. Please be sure to subscribe to the market data through the Client Portal before requesting market data through the API.

Market Data Subscription Minimum Equity Balance Requirements

Category The following minimums are required to subscribe and maintain market data and research subscriptions. This does not include the cost of the service.
Individual Accounts (unless listed below) USD 500.00 (or non-USD equivalent)
Financial Advisor Client Accounts USD 500.00 (or non-USD equivalent)
Institutional and/or Organizational Accounts USD 500.00 (or non-USD equivalent)
Financial Advisor USD 500.00 (or non-USD equivalent)
Non-Professional Advisor USD 200.00 (or non-USD equivalent)
Introducing Broker Clients USD 200.00 (or non-USD equivalent)
Indian residents 1 trading with an IB India account USD 100.00 (or non-USD equivalent)

Notes:

  • The minimum requirements plus the cost of the subscription are required to have the data activated.
  • Indian resident is an individual who resides in India for more than 182 days per year.
  • Market Data services will be terminated once clients receive Market Data Violator notice provided the equity falls below USD 500.00 (or non-USD equivalent)

Support for Market Data Subscriptions

Please be aware that the Interactive Brokers API Support team is not permitted to provide advice with regards to Market Data Subscriptions.

For traders seeking support with market data subscriptions, please create a ticket with our Market Data team. The Market Data Subscription section is listed under the “Account Services” topic.

How to create a ticket

Professional vs Non-Professional

Most exchanges and data vendors classify clients as either non-professional or professional. By default, organizations such as corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships and any account where the data is used for more than personal investment purposes is deemed to be professional. In addition, private persons may be considered professional if they are registered as a security or investment advisor, or act in a similar capacity. A trader who is employed by a financial services business may also be considered a professional. Click here for more information about non-professional qualifications.

Market Data & Users

Market data is provisioned on a per-user basis. This means that even though you may have a market data subscription on one user in an account, a second user on the same account does not gain those permissions.

Multiple Users

Some individuals may choose to have multiple users under a single account. This is quite common particularly for traders who may wish to use the API and the Trader Workstation or Client Portal at the same time. Alternatively, institutions may have a dedicated machine for an automated trading algorithm that a developer would supervise while other individuals are manually trading on the account.

It is important to note that in the last case, individuals can create a limited-permission user which has restricted access from the standard. This would allow somebody like a developer to build out an implementation with the live account without having withdrawal access, or direct trading access. Users interested in creating reduced-permission users can contact the Interactive Brokers Account Configuration team, as listed on our Customer Service Contacts page.

Market Data Sharing

Market data may also be shared between a live and paper username so that both can retrieve data using the same market data subscription. Each Live user can share data with one (1) Paper account, with one Paper account allowed per live account. Please see our Market Data Considerations page for additional insight into the behavior of shared market data.

Finding your Paper User Credentials

Each Live account structure has access to a Paper account with unique credentials. While the Live username can typically be used for Trader Workstation, accessing Third Party Platforms or the Client Portal API require the direct Paper credentials. The steps to find your Paper account credentials are as follows:

Step One: Log In To Client Portal

Log in to the Client Portal using your Live Account’s username and password.

Login Screen

Step Two: Click the Head & Shoulders Icon

Click the Head and Shoulders icon next to “Welcome {Your Name}”.

Step Three: Go to the Settings Page

From the Head & Shoulders dropdown, click the “Settings” button.

Step Four: Open the Paper Trading Account settings

Once on the Settings page, navigate to the Paper Trading Account link, under the Account Configuration section.

Step Five: Review Your Paper Credentials

After selectin the Paper Trading Account, you will be able to review your paper username and account ID. You will also see which Live user your paper account is linked to, and a link to reset the password of your paper user separate from your Live account.

TWS Data vs API Data

IBKR allows for free on-platform data; however, data on the API is considered off-platform. Exchanges maintain different licensing requirements and agreements for off-platform market data viewing.

While you may receive live pricing through the Trader Workstation for some securities like US Stocks in your Trader Workstation, this may not be the same through your API. This is because this data is often provided for free to our customers under our existing market data agreements.

Market Data Costs and Fees

  • Market data subscriptions are paid once, every calendar month.
  • Market data subscriptions are not pro-rated.
  • After subscribing to market data, no additional usage fees or other costs will be incurred.

Market Data Lines

All users at Interactive Brokers are given a set amount of market data lines. Market data lines dictate how much market data can be retrieved simultaneously from a given user. This Includes all data pulled through Trader Workstation watchlist and the API. After going over the market data line cap, any future requests would return an error message that additional market data lines are required.

 

In TWS, if you want to know how many data lines are being used, you can click the following buttons to show current used market data lines.

Windows/ Unix/ Linux: Click “Ctrl” + “Alt” + “=

MacOS: Click “CMD” + “OPT” + “+

 

For example:

The username is provisioned for 100 market data lines. If the TWS Watchlist is displaying 50 symbols in their watchlist, and one API connection is retrieving 25 market data lines, that means a second API connection could retrieve a maximum of 25 additional market data lines before reaching the 100 market data line limit.

Quote Booster Maximum

Given the potentially high amount of data being sent, market depth request’s are much more limited. Just as with historical data requests, the amount of active depth requests is related to the amount of market data lines, with a minimum of three and maximum of 60:

Number of market data lines Max Market Depth (Level II) Number of subscribed Quote Booster packs
0 – 100 3 0
101 – 199 3 1
200 – 299 3 2
300 – 399 3 3
400 – 499 4 4
500 – 599 5 5
600 – 699 6 6
700 – 799 7 7
800 – 899 8 8
900 – 999 9 9
1000 – 1100 10 10
1100+ 11 – 60 special offer

 

How Market Data is Allocated

In order to receive real-time market data, customers must be a subscriber to market data. All clients initially receive 100 concurrent lines of real-time market data (which can be displayed in TWS or via the API) and always have a minimum of 100 lines of data. After the first month of trading, the quantity of market data is allocated using the greater value of:

  • USD monthly commissions divided by 8
  • USD equity multiplied by 100 divided by $1,000,000
    (rounded down to the nearest integer)
  • 100

Example 1:

In month two, your account shows the following values: USD Monthly Commissions: $16, USD Equity: $950,000
Using the calculations above, you would still receive the minimum 100 lines of data, since: $16/8 = 2
$950,000 x 100 / $1,000,000 = 95

Example 2:

In month three, your account shows the following values: USD Monthly Commissions: $500, USD Equity: $1,245,000
Using the calculations above, you would receive 124 lines of data, since: $500/8 = 62.5
$1,245,000 x 100 / $1,000,000 = 124.5, rounded down to 124.

Understanding Market Data Subscriptions

While market data might seem overwhelming at first, it can be broken down and made more digestible from covering a few important points.

  1. Level 1 market data subscriptions provide: live watchlist data, tick-by-tick data, historical bar data, historical tick data.
  2. Level 2 market data subscriptions only are needed for market depth.
  3. The OPRA market data subscription will provide options data for all options in the United States.
    • Options Greeks data is based on  the underlying symbols. As such, a market data subscription for both the underlying and derivative are necessary for options greeks data.
  4. Indices sometimes require a separate market data subscriptions from the derivatives, and may require a direct market data subscription.

NASDAQ Level 2 Market Data Subscription

Typically for market depth, Interactive Brokers will only require a Level 1 market data subscription followed by a Level 2 market depth subscription. However, NASDAQ/ISLAND requires an additional market data subscription in order for clients to retrieve market depth off-platform in the form of the API or third party platforms.

Clients must subscribe to the following:

  1. All US level 1 US Equity market data subscriptions. This includes either:
    • “NYSE (Network A/CTA)”, “NYSE American, BATS, ARCA, IEX, and Regional Exchanges (Network B)”, AND “NASDAQ (Network C/UTP)” (All three subscriptions)
    • “US Equity and Options Add-On Streaming Bundle”
  2. The “NASDAQ TotalView-OpenView” is required to receive level 2 data is required for all platforms.
    • While this is necessary for market depth, this alone will not provide market depth for off-platform subscriptions
  3. The “NASDAQ TotalView-OpenView EDS” market data subscription is required for off-platform market data subscriptions.

Chinese Market Data Subscriptions

API users can subscribe to the following “Alternative Display” market data packs for getting Chinese Market Data via API and TWS.

 

NAME EXCHANGES COVERED Examples
Shanghai Stock Exchange 5 Second Snapshot via HKEx Alternative Display Shanghai Stock Exchange, Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect (SEHKNTL) 600000, 601728 SEHKNTL
Shanghai Stock Exchange Alternative Display Top of Book (L1) Shanghai Stock Exchange 600000
Shenzhen Stock Exchange 3 Second Snapshot via HKEx Alternative Display Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect (SEHKSZSE) 000001, 000001 SEHKSZSE
Shenzhen Stock Exchange Alternative Display Top of Book (L1) Shenzhen Stock Exchange 000001

 

*Please note that Non-Professional and Professional clients may have different available market data packs.

*Do not subscribe “Alternative Display” market data pack(s) and Non-“Alternative Display” market data pack(s) at the same time. This may cause data pack conflict. For example, having “Shanghai Stock Exchange 5 Second Snapshot (via HKEx)” and “Shanghai Stock Exchange 5 Second Snapshot via HKEx Alternative Display” at the same time may cause data pack conflict.

*For API clients, please unsubscribe Non-“Alternative Display” Chinese market data pack(s) before subscribing “Alternative Display” Chinese market data pack(s). If data pack conflict happens, please wait until next month or please contact Interactive Brokers Customer Services for unsubscribing the Non-“Alternative Display” Chinese market data pack(s) from IB back-end side.

*”Shanghai Stock Exchange 5 Second Snapshot via HKEx Alternative Display” only provides 5 seconds snapshot bid, ask and last data.

*”Shenzhen Stock Exchange 3 Second Snapshot via HKEx Alternative Display” provides real time data, but its bid/ ask data will be 3 seconds snapshot.

This website uses cookies to collect usage information in order to offer a better browsing experience. By browsing this site or by clicking on the "ACCEPT COOKIES" button you accept our Cookie Policy.