Market Data Subscriptions | IBKR Campus US (2024)

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.

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.

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)

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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:

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 by8
• USD equity multiplied by100divided 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.

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.

Interactive Brokers support is often asked about which subscription is best for each individual. While there is no perfect subscription for everyone, the table below describes some of the more common subscriptions along with what they cover.

If you have direct questions for an exact symbol, please try our Market Data Assistant for assistance.

Market Data Assistant

While this list contains some of the more common market data subscriptions, this does not indicate trading advice, nor the best subscription for every individual. If you have any questions about specific market data subscriptions, please create a ticket with our market data team.

*Please note values such as greeks that are based on the underlying require the Network subscription as well.

** For options and futures market data subscriptions, the underlying Index will not be included.

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.

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

*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.