At a glance
Every Alpha Vantage figure comes from its own pages and from public demo-key calls, read without an account. Narwhal is a reference column. Narwhal API is owned and operated by Nusantara Ventures, LLC.
| Requirement | Narwhal API | Alpha Vantage |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 5,000 requests a month, 30 a minute, 12 months of history, commercial app use included | 25 requests a day, about 750 in 30 days. Unlimited for verified open-source or educational projects |
| Paid prices | Basic $59 a month, Pro $149 ($590 and $1,490 a year) | $49.99, $99.99, $149.99, $199.99, $249.99 a month; $499 to $2,499 a year at 2 months off |
| Limits | 100,000 or 1,000,000 requests a month, 120 or 500 a minute | 75, 150, 300, 600 or 1,200 requests a minute, no daily cap. Higher on request |
| Business use | Free includes commercial app use | Personal, non-commercial use only. Commercial use means contacting sales, with no price shown |
| Economic data | 37 countries from official statistics offices and central banks | 10 series, all US, sourced from FRED. On the free key, with CPI back to 1913 |
| Calendars and holidays | Economic release dates in UTC and public holidays for 37 countries | Earnings and IPO calendars only. No economic calendar and no holiday endpoint |
| Market data | Stocks on 42 exchanges, no Tokyo, no options. Free shows the previous close | 100,000+ symbols claimed, 53 indicators, options, intraday back to 2000 on premium |
| MCP | 80 tools, key in a header, same quota as REST | 120 tools in its reference, OAuth, quota is the key's own |
| Uptime | 99.5% SLA on Basic and Pro | No SLA stated. Terms provide the service as is |
Price at your usage
Alpha Vantage sets a limit per minute and no monthly count. At the 75 a minute plan, a 30-day month holds 75 x 60 x 24 x 30 = 3,240,000 requests, so $49.99 / 3,240,000 x 1,000 = about $0.015 per 1,000 calls if every minute is used. Narwhal's is plan price divided by included calls, times 1,000: Basic $59 / 100,000 x 1,000 = $0.59, Pro $149 / 1,000,000 x 1,000 = $0.149.
| Requests per month | Narwhal API | Alpha Vantage |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | Free: $0/month | Over the free key's 25 a day, which is 750 in 30 days. Premium 75 a minute: $49.99 a month, personal use |
| 10,000 | Basic: $59/month | Premium 75 a minute: $49.99 a month. 10,000 requests take about 133 minutes at that rate |
| 100,000 | Basic: $59/month | Premium 75 a minute: $49.99 a month. 100,000 requests take about 22 hours at that rate. Personal use only |
Switch in a few minutes
Read US consumer prices
Alpha Vantage
# Change: URL and key
curl --get \
"https://www.alphavantage.co/query" \
--data-urlencode "function=CPI" \
--data-urlencode "interval=monthly" \
--data-urlencode "apikey=YOUR_API_KEY"Narwhal API
# Change: URL and key
curl \
"https://api.narwhalapi.com/v1/economics/USA/cpi" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"Why teams switch
The licence blocks the product
Alpha Vantage keys cover investment analysis, research, testing and monitoring for yourself. Showing data to others, directly or indirectly, counts as commercial use. Narwhal Free includes commercial app use.
Your macro data is not American
All ten Alpha Vantage economic functions return US series from FRED. Narwhal publishes inflation, labour, GDP and trade for 37 countries, as each statistics office issues them.
You need release dates or holidays
Alpha Vantage lists no economic calendar and no holiday endpoint. MARKET_STATUS says whether 16 markets are open now. Narwhal returns release dates in UTC and public holidays for 37 countries.
You want errors you can detect
Alpha Vantage returns limit and premium notices as HTTP 200 with an Information field. Narwhal returns 429 when a month's quota is used, and errors do not use quota.
When they are the better pick
Alpha Vantage is the better pick for US equity analysis and charting. It lists 53 technical indicator functions, intraday history back to 2000 on premium, options with 15+ years of history, news sentiment and 200+ market indices. Premium plans have no daily cap, so the $49.99 plan at 75 requests a minute works out near $0.015 per 1,000 calls at full use. The free key returns US CPI from 1913, where Narwhal Free shows the last 12 months. Narwhal sells no options data.
Questions
Is Alpha Vantage free?
A free key allows 25 requests a day. Verified open-source or educational projects can ask for unlimited requests. Several functions carry a Premium label, among them intraday prices, adjusted daily prices, index data, company overviews, news sentiment, FX intraday and the MACD and VWAP indicators.
Can I use Alpha Vantage in a commercial product?
Not on a standard key. The terms say personal, non-commercial use unless agreed in writing. Using it for a company, or giving information to others directly or indirectly, is commercial. Real-time US data is for personal use too. Commercial access goes through premium@alphavantage.co, and no price is published.
What do the premium plans cost?
Five tiers by requests a minute: 75 for $49.99, 150 for $99.99, 300 for $149.99, 600 for $199.99 and 1,200 for $249.99 a month. Annual figures are $499, $999, $1,499, $1,999 and $2,499. The page promises no daily limits and no overage charges.
Does Alpha Vantage have an MCP server?
Yes, official, at mcp.alphavantage.co/mcp with OAuth, or a local install with uvx. Its tools reference lists 120 tools, 53 of them technical indicators and 10 economic. A live tool list with the demo key returned 133, including ping and test helpers. There is no economic calendar tool and no holiday tool.
Where do Alpha Vantage's own pages disagree?
The annual plan prices carry a /month label, but they equal ten times the monthly price. The docs mark some calls Premium, yet intraday and overview calls returned data with the demo key. History is 25+ years in the docs and 20+ years in an MCP tool description. Endpoint counts are 130+, 100+ and 133 tools.
What is a good Alpha Vantage alternative for economic data?
FRED serves the same US series that Alpha Vantage resells. For several countries under one key, Narwhal covers 37 countries from official sources. For stock prices, the Twelve Data and Financial Modeling Prep comparisons cover the main rivals.
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