Alpha Vantage

Realtime and historical stock data

Alpha Vantage provides free and premium APIs for real-time and historical stock market data, forex rates, cryptocurrency prices, and technical indicators. The API covers US and international stocks with endpoints for intraday, daily, weekly, and monthly time series, plus 50+ technical indicators (SMA, EMA, RSI, MACD, etc.). For OpenClaw agents, Alpha Vantage is a solid choice for stock market monitoring skills. Your agent can check stock prices on command, track portfolio performance, generate technical analysis summaries, or alert on significant price movements — all from chat. The free tier is limited but sufficient for personal daily checks.

Tags: data, finance

Category: Finance

Use Cases

  • Build a 'stock price' command that returns current quotes via chat
  • Generate daily portfolio performance summaries with key technical indicators
  • Set up cron-based alerts for stocks crossing price thresholds or RSI levels

Tips

  • Use the GLOBAL_QUOTE function for quick price checks — it's a single API call per stock
  • Batch all your stock checks into one daily cron job to maximize the 25 free requests
  • The technical indicator endpoints save you from computing SMA/RSI yourself

Known Issues & Gotchas

  • Free tier is only 25 requests/day — extremely limited for any real monitoring
  • JSON keys have numbered prefixes like '01. symbol' — awkward to parse
  • No official websocket support — polling only for price updates

Frequently Asked Questions

Is 25 requests/day enough for personal use?

Barely. If you check 5-10 stocks daily plus a couple of technical indicators, you'll hit the limit fast. Cache responses aggressively and batch your checks into a single daily routine.

Does Alpha Vantage cover Indian stocks (BSE/NSE)?

Yes. Use .BSE or .NSE suffixes for Indian stocks (e.g., RELIANCE.BSE). Coverage includes most listed stocks on both exchanges.

How does it compare to Yahoo Finance API?

Alpha Vantage has better technical indicator support (50+ built-in) and cleaner data. Yahoo Finance has broader fundamental data. Alpha Vantage's free tier is more restrictive (25/day vs Yahoo's higher limits).