Databento

Overview

Databento is a modern data platform providing institutional-grade market data through a simplified, usage-based API. Unlike traditional market data vendors that require complex licensing, high minimums, and protracted negotiation cycles, Databento allows developers and quantitative researchers to access historical and real-time tick data instantly. Built from the ground up to optimize the developer experience, it supports multiple protocols including REST, WebSocket, and proprietary binary formats (DBN) for maximum performance. Users can retrieve granular order book data, trades, and summary statistics across various asset classes like equities, futures, and options. The platform inherently lowers the barrier to entry for algorithmic trading, backtesting, financial modeling, and risk analysis by offering flexible pay-as-you-go pricing without monthly minimums. Whether building a retail trading app or running high-frequency trading simulations, Databento delivers reliable, ultra-low latency data with comprehensive SDKs in Python, Rust, and C++.

Common tasks

Retrieve historical tick data Stream real-time market data Fetch market snapshots Download order book data

FAQ

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What asset classes does Databento cover?

Databento covers Equities, Options, and Futures, primarily focusing on US markets with continuous global expansion.

How does the pricing model work?

Pricing is strictly pay-as-you-go. You are billed based on the volume of data you request (GBs) or stream (messages), with no fixed monthly fees.

Do I need to pay exchange fees?

Depending on your use case and user status (professional vs. non-professional), exchange fees may apply. However, Databento simplifies this by handling the reporting.

What is DBN?

Databento Binary Encoding (DBN) is a proprietary, open-source binary format optimized for fast financial data processing and zero-copy parsing.

FAQ+