Get a free Alpaca key for the stock screeners

US stock prices are licensed, so to scan stocks and ETFs the screeners use your own free market-data key from Alpaca. It takes about two minutes and costs nothing. (Crypto and crypto perps need no key.)

Steps

  1. Sign up at app.alpaca.markets/signup. You don’t need to fund a brokerage account to use market data.
  2. In the Alpaca dashboard, find API Keys on the home page and click Generate New Keys.
  3. Copy both the API Key ID and the Secret Key. The secret is shown only once.
  4. Open any screener, for example the stock screener, pick US stocks in the Market buttons, paste both into the Add your free Alpaca key box, and click Save key. The screener checks the key with Alpaca and starts scanning.

Is my key safe?

Your key is saved only in your browser’s local storage, on your device. Your browser sends it directly to Alpaca with each data request; it never goes to ProScreeners’ servers. You can remove it with the Remove button next to any stock screener. A market-data key from a paper-trading account is the safest choice, because it can’t move real money.

What the free plan includes

Alpaca’s free market-data plan allows 200 requests a minute and returns many stocks per request, which is enough for the screeners to scan about 600 stocks and ETFs in a few seconds. Its consolidated data is 15 minutes behind the market. The same key also unlocks US options on the options screeners, through Alpaca’s free indicative options feed (quotes may be delayed or modified).

Crypto needs no key, futures use Massive

Crypto, crypto perps and crypto options use free public data from Binance, OKX, Deribit, CoinPaprika and Hyperliquid, so they work without any key. CME futures use a free key from Massive: see how to get a free futures key.