Google Finance API and 9 Alternatives

What is Google Finance API?

Google Finance API was a tool which allowed us to extract data about stocks and financial assets from Google Finance.

The API is now integrated with Google Sheets.

Thus, we can’t retrieve Google Finance data via code.

The good news is that we can use Google Finance API directly via Google Sheets using simple “Excel formulas”.

How to collect historical data using Google Finance API?

We can pull data for certain stocks with specified start and end days. The overall structure of the required code looks like this:

GOOGLEFINANCE(ticker, [attribute], [start_date], [end_date|num_days], [interval])

When filled with our historical data request it looks like this:

GOOGLEFINANCE(“GOOG”, “price”, DATE(2018,1,1), DATE(2019,12,31), “DAILY”)

Here is an image of how it looks:

How to retrieve Price-to-Earnings ratio using Google Finance API?

The Price-to-Earnings ratio (P/E ratio) is calculated by dividing the company’s stock price by its earnings.

Now, let’s see how to download P/E ratios in GSheets:

You’ll use the following formula to obtain the P/E ratio for a certain stock: =GOOGLEFINANCE(stock symbol, “pe”)

In the picture below, I checked for the P/E ratios of Facebook and Amazon:

How to retrieve Earnings-per-Share data using Google Finance API?

Earnings-per-share (EPS) is measured by dividing the total sum of profit generated in a given period, by the number of shares that the company has listed on the stock market.

To retrieve the EPS data in Google Finance API, you’ll use the following code: =GOOGLEFINANCE(stock symbol, “eps”)

In the picture below, I checked for the EPS values of Tesla and Audi:

How to retrieve Market Beta using Google Finance API?

Beta measures the sensitivity of a stock price to that of the overall stock market.

To measure the Beta for a stock, you’ll use the following code: =GOOGLEFINANCE(stock symbol, “beta”)

In the picture below, I checked for the Beta values of Apple and Microsoft:

What are the alternatives to Google Finance API?

As we have seen, the usage and functions of the Google Finance API aren’t top-notch and there are many better alternatives.

In this article, we’ll cover them one-by-one so you can pick the one that best fits your needs.

Here is the full list:

• Quandl
• Yahoo Finance API
• Interactive Brokers
• Alpha Vantage
• TradingView
• Investors Exchange (IEX)
• Currencylayer API
• Tradier API
• Polygon

Quandl

Quandl is a platform that provides its users with economic, financial and alternative datasets. According to Quandl, their user amount is over 400,000 people, which ranges from the world’s top hedge funds to investment banks and various asset managers.

Quandl’s specialization is in the field of data that gets collected over time and is categorized as economic, social and financial data – this includes things like: stock prices, crime rates, unemployment rates, various populations, etc.

Quandl offers both free and premium products. The Quandl API is free to use and grants access to all free datasets. Quandl users only pay to access Quandl’s premium data products.

How to use Quandl?

Yahoo Finance API

Yahoo Finance API is the most used alternative for Google Finance API. It’s among the most popular and visited financial websites which provides its users with substantial stock market data.

The Yahoo Finance API has a variety of libraries/APIs/methods (yahoo_fin, yFinance, etc) that allow us to get real time and/or historical data for a wide range of products and financial markets. We can get data on things like stocks, bonds, Cryptocurrencies and regular currencies…

Have in mind that Yahoo’s official API has been shut down since the year 2017. This means that we can use several unofficial APIs that now exist. The best free API is yFinance, but as it’s facing some issues currently, the better option is yahoo_fin.

Under the Basic plan for the Yahoo Finance API, you have 500 API calls per month and the rest are charged $0.002 per additional request.

How to use Yahoo Finance API?

Interactive Brokers

When it comes to Interactive Brokers (IBKR), they’re another viable alternative and are transparent with their low commissions and financing rates. They also provide its users with on demand learning on their website.

IBKR attract traders with low per-share pricing, good trading platform, a plethora of tradable resources and low margin rates. Some of their trading resources include: stocks, forex, crypto, warrants, precious metals, options, futures, mutual funds, fixed income and more.

Their IBKR Lite plan has no activity fees and offers commission-free trades of stocks and ETFs. On the other hand, the IBKR Pro has some activity fees and is most suitable for advanced traders. This plan includes a per-share pricing of $0.005 and a good trading platform.

Have in mind that both plans have a $0 account minimum deposit.

IBKR offers a demo account too. Signing up for a demo account is fuss-free and just requires an email address.

Alpha Vantage

Alpha Vantage is another great replacement for the Google Finance API as its maintenance is regular. It offers free public endpoints that require a key for tracking your usage.

According to Alpha Vantage’s website, they provide their services to institutions like Harvard University and Ycombinator.

Their documentation is made public and you have a wide range of available data that you can use. Some of the notable ones are real-time and historical stock data, forex, cryptocurrency, sector performance data, fundamental data, technical indicators, and more.

How to use Alpha Vantage?

TradingView

TradingView is a viable alternative for the Google Finance API. It’s easy to use and intuitive which makes it great for beginners. Take note that TradingView offers you a way to discover various investment ideas and has a large and active community of traders. This makes the website great for learning and sharing ideas.

The website is armed with many widgets, charting solutions, brokerage integrations and advertising opportunities.

There aren’t any complex installations or setups required. You can simply use their website for all of your needs and purposes.

Types of data that can be found on TradingView go along the lines of stocks, futures, bonds, forex, crypto, and more.

They offer 4 types of accounts: one is free and the others are paid for. The billing is offered as monthly, yearly and every two years. Have in mind that all of the paid plans come with a 30-day trial.

How to use TradingView?

To export data as CSV, choose your asset and open up a full featured chart.

Click on the “burgers” on the top left and choose “Export chart data…”.

Unfortunately, TradingView only allows paid plans users to download data.

Pine Script

A semi-workaround is Pine Script.

TradingView has designed its own scripting language called Pine Script. With it, you can create various indicators and strategies.

Without a paid plan, you can still use Pine Script to backtest your ideas using their data.

Pine Script’s syntax is easy to learn and use. With it, you can make a large number of simple and complex tools.

Here is our guide to TradingView’s Pine Script:

IEX (Investors Exchange) Trading

IEX is another great alternative for the Google Finance API. IEX is a free web-based API that allows us to obtain a wide range of data. In my opinion, it’s great for developers that like to make rapid requests for data. It can also be used to build various apps and services.

IEX offers various types of data to be pulled, and the notable ones are: real-time and historical stock price data, forex, cryptocurrencies, fundamentals, and more.

How to use IEX?

It is quite easy to get the hang of IEX. The public endpoints of IEX are free to use and they even have unofficial wrappers that are available in C, C++, Python, Ruby, Java, Go, and others.

IEX gives us a nice range of functions like: quote, time-series, rule creation, REST, stats, financials, cash-flow, income, dividends, and more.

Currencylayer API

Currencylayer API is a valuable alternative for the Google Finance API. They offer real-time ticker updates and the data you obtain is in the JSON format.

The API they provide is an easy-to-integrate REST API with which we can obtain a wide range of data concerning real-time and historical exchange rates for more than 150+ world currencies and precious metals.

Currencylayer API provides us with forex market values that are available for every API request. Moreover, it powers currency converters, mobile apps, and various financial software components.

Currencylayer API has 4 account plans: a free one and 3 that are paid for. The free plan is limited to 250 requests per month.

How to use Currencylayer API?

Currencylayer API provides an easy to use REST API. After you sign up for an account, you’ll be given a personal API key which you’ll need to validate in order to use the Currencylayer APIs features.

The API has various functions like: real-time rates, historical rates, currency conversion, endpoints, time –frame queries, and more.

Traider API

Traider API offers a quality asset for programmers and algorithmic traders who are looking to trade on the same platform they’re using to track stocks. Data streaming over HTTP is also available.

Some of the types of data that the Traider API offers are the following: options, indices, real-time and historical market data, corporate calendars and more.

Traider API’s rate limit for its free and public endpoints can vary between 60-120 requests per minute.

Take note that the Traider API has fees and commissions per stock that can accumulate over time. They also have fees for the usage of their software platforms.

How to use Traider API?

Traider provides us with the RESTful API through which we can access the platform’s trading functions. The Traider API can be easily integrated in Python, Perl, Ruby and Java.

Have in mind that the Traider API’s endpoints require you to authorize your API key.

Polygon

Polygon is a great alternative for the Google Finance API if you’re looking for real-time data that is streamed directly from US exchanges.

When it comes to the data Polygon provides us, it goes along the following: real-time and historical stock data, quotes, aggregates, tickers, market status, locales, exchanges, forex and more.

They offer 4 types of accounts of which one is free. Their free version is limited to 5 API calls per minute while the other ones are unlimited.

How to use Polygon?

Polygon’s API can be easily integrated into Python, JavaScript, GoLang, PHP, C# and others. Their data is divided into 3 clusters (Stocks, Forex and Crypto) and the API key allows one simultaneous connection to each cluster.