Top 5 Free APIs to access historical cryptocurrencies data 🥇 (2024)

Including Live Demos with examples of how to use them.

Are you planning to do analysis using cryptos? Here are the top APIs we use to access data about Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ether (and others, including derivatives as futures or options).

Each example includes LIVE and INTERACTIVE Jupyter Notebooks for you to start playing right away 🏃🏻.

Important: All of these APIs are FREE, but some of them will require you to sign up for an API key. I provide instructors in the Live Demos linked.

Note: This list is subjective based on my experience and the APIs are ranked in order of preference.

With all that said, let’s get started!

1. Cryptowatch API (docs)

My personal favorite 😍, I use this one on a daily basis for our Data Science classes and projects. It has multiple interesting endpoints and historical data for hundreds of different assets and markets. Also includes info about order books and trades.

Additional fact: Cryptowatch was created and is maintained by Kraken, they have info about their technical implementation (based on Go and React.js).

• Rank 🍀: 1st
• Access key required 🔑: No
• Daily Limit 🙅: 8 seconds CPU time (more than enough).
• OHLC periods 📊: Minute, Hour, Day, Week.
• OHLC limit data 📈: 6000 records. For example, if requesting minute data you get last 6000 minutes.
• Advanced instruments 💼: Yes. Futures from okcoin and other markets.
• Paid plans for more requests 💰: No. There’s a $15 plan for a frontend version.

2. CoinAPI (docs)

Probably the most “complete” API. Has all the information required for analysis including historic OHLC, order books and trades. It has a huge list of available markets and instruments (futures, options, etc).

The only drawback is that it does require an API key and the free tier only offers 100 daily requests.

• Rank 🍀: 2st
• Access key required 🔑: Yes
• Daily Limit 🙅: 100 daily requests.
• OHLC periods 📊: Minute, Hour, Day, Week.
• OHLC limit data 📈: No limit
• Advanced instruments 💼: Yes. Futures and Options.
• Paid plans for more requests 💰: Yes, from $79-$599 for 1k to 100k.

3. Alpha Vantage (docs)

Alpha Vantage is one of the most interesting services. Mainly because it’s extremely simple to use, provides a ton of information (full historical records), and it’s not only cryptos, also has stock prices and other instruments.

The service requires a free API Key, which you can get here.

• Rank 🍀: 3rd
• Access key required 🔑: Yes
• Daily Limit 🙅: Non apparent limit.
• OHLC periods 📊: Day, Week, Month.
• OHLC limit data 📈: No limit
• Advanced instruments 💼: No
• Paid plans for more requests 💰: No.

4. Bitcoincharts (docs)

Bitcoincharts offer ONLY Bitcoin data (it’s called Bitcoincharts after all 😛) . It’s the most “limited” of the APIs, but the good news are that: it’s free, doesn’t require authentication, and has A LOT of historical data for Bitcoin.

If you want to do Bitcoin analysis, or your objective is to do analysis only from an “educational” perspective, this is a great option. As a really neat addition, Bitcoincharts lets you download full CSV of historic data (warning, large files!).

• Rank 🍀: 4th
• Access key required 🔑: No
• Daily Limit 🙅: Not specified.
• OHLC periods 📊: Minute.
• OHLC limit data 📈: 5 days using the API. Full records using CSV files.
• Advanced instruments 💼: No.
• Paid plans for more requests 💰: No.

5. Cryptocompare (docs)

Cryptocompare has a good amount of information (different useful endpoints) and a free tier that includes 100,000 requests per month. It offers full historical data for most cryptocurrencies.

It does require an API key to access the free tier, which can be generated here.

• Rank 🍀: 5th
• Access key required 🔑: Yes
• Monthly Limit 🙅: 100,000 requests.
• OHLC periods 📊: Minute, hourly, daily.
• OHLC limit data 📈: 2000 records per request, can be chained to obtain more periods.
• Advanced instruments 💼: No.
• Paid plans for more requests 💰: Yes. From $79-$199 for 250K-750K requests per month.

Excluded services

I’ve deliberately left aside some services because I don’t consider them “good” enough or because you can just pick one of the above and have the same info. Here are them:

• Coinmarketcap API (Interactive tutorial)

Final notes: suggest other services

I plan to keep this list alive, updating it regularly as the APIs are updated or if I find other services. Please suggest others if you come across them.

Services under revision

I’m currently evaluating the following services; I’ll update the list as soon as I’m done:
* Coinograph