The Yahoo Finance API continues to be used in 2024, even after it was shut down by the company. If you don’t mind screen scraping and have the technical ability to use rotating proxies, there are ways to use the Yahoo Finance API today for free. There are even several open source packages that will help resourceful programmers who are willing to put in some extra effort and a paid service from Rapid API that will handle the scraping and proxying for you.
None of these packages or services will help you solve the issues related to the data quality: delayed or missing data. If you need real-time data and don’t want to hassle with screen scraping or proxies, it could just be easier to purchase an API subscription with a low-cost provider such as Market Data.
What happened to the Yahoo Finance API?
The official Yahoo Finance API was shut down by Yahoo in 2017 due to widespread abuse against their terms of service. The API was designed to be used internally among Yahoo’s own properties and was never officially published for external use. In fact, you didn’t even need a Yahoo account or need to be signed-in to Yahoo to use the API. The API was public and anyone could query it.
The new version of the Yahoo Finance API will check to see if you have a cookie present on your system from navigating the website. This makes it impossible to query the Yahoo Finance API without having previously navigated to the Yahoo Finance website, which is why a screen scraping strategy has been employed by so many programmers who are looking to get around Yahoo’s restrictions.
Why is the Yahoo Finance API so popular?
It was the first stock market API that was widely reverse-engineered and available for free on the internet. Despite the fact that the Yahoo Finance API is no longer available, many independent algotraders, finance students, and retail traders continue to scour the web in search of it — which is why we’ve created this blog post — to help you understand the pros and cons of using it. Even though it is no longer available, there are still some alternatives that can be used in 2024.
How Can I Use The Yahoo Finance API in 2024?
There are a number of libraries that are designed to make use of the Yahoo Finance API, but none of them are official. They all take advantage of screen scraping and download the JSON responses in Yahoo’s own webpages after simulating a real webpage visit. This method is more complex than simply querying the API directly, which is what people were doing before it was shutdown in 2017. There is a lot that can go wrong with screen scraping.
Does the Yahoo Finance API Rate-Limit Users?
Yes. Yahoo will only let you make a few hundred requests per day before they catch on and realize you are using the API programmatically and not in conjunction with their web page. Yahoo will block your access you if you query the API excessively. This can be solved through the use of rotating proxies, but then you’re no longer using a free API since you have to start paying for a proxy plan that rotates your IP address. Market Data has plans starting at $9 per month that allow you to make 10,000 API calls per day — less than what you would need to pay for a proxy plan.
Is the Yahoo Finance API real-time or delayed?
Some data is real-time, some data is delayed. It depends on the data you are downloading. Most major S&P 500 stocks have real-time data, while more obscure OTC and Nasdaq traded stocks are delayed. You would need to check the instrument you want to trade on the website and see whether the data is real-time or delayed. With options, all prices are delayed. Here’s an example of an Oct 2022 call for AAPL. You can see that Yahoo offers a delayed quote for this option. For traders working with options, the Yahoo Finance API is practically useless because the delay can be different for each option contract. Some contracts are delayed by hours and others by 15-30 minutes.
How To Use The Yahoo Finance API With Python?
The yfinance library allows you to query the API and it will handle the screen scraping for you. It will output the data directly into a Pandas dataframe for you to begin working with it right away. The library is also compatible with proxy connections. The yfinance library has found broad adoption among novice algotraders and finance students who need a way to get access stock market data and will only be making a few requests each day.
How To Use The Yahoo Finance API With Javascript or Typescript?
You can use the yahoo-stock-api npm package if you are looking for a way to access the API using javascript. If you are building a web application and want to avoid paying for a data feed, this is probably a safer method to access Yahoo Finance, since the requests would be coming from each individual client IP address. However, this is a dangerous solution for any system that requires reliability and stability. This package often times will issue a code-breaking update and any API updates from Yahoo could cause all your clients to lose service. Market Data offers affordable plans for developers, especially unfunded or bootstrapped fintech startups so that these kinds or risks can be avoided.
What’s The Best Alternative to the Yahoo Finance API?
Rapid API offers a service which queries the Yahoo Finance API and resolves the proxy issue, but the cost is $28.95 for 50,000 monthly requests. Market Data’s Starter plan gives you 10K requests per day, so that’s 300,000 monthly requests at a third of the cost at just $9 per month. This gets you real-time data for stocks, options, and indices. If you primarily need data from United States markets, there’s no comparison, go with a Market Data plan. If you need data from foreign exchanges, the Yahoo Finance API is still your best choice.
