CoinGecko API vs Crypto Data API
CoinGecko is the default for prices and market caps: 18,000+ coins, 1,500+ exchanges, GeckoTerminal DEX data, NFTs and daily history back to 2013 on mid-tier plans. It also runs a keyless MCP server. Its derivatives data is a current snapshot only: funding and open interest per ticker, with no history, liquidations or long/short ratios. Crypto Data API is built for that derivatives and positioning layer, and adds spot-ETF flows, a volatility index and deep Hyperliquid data.
We build Crypto Data API, so read this as a vendor's comparison. Every competitor fact below comes from that provider's own pricing or documentation pages, linked under Sources, as of 2026-11-04. Prices and limits change, so check their site before you buy. If we got something wrong, email [email protected] and we'll fix it.
Which one should you use?
you need prices, market caps and metadata for thousands of coins, DEX pools and new tokens, NFT data, or a long daily price history.
you need funding and open-interest history, liquidations, ETF flows, volatility or regime signals, Hyperliquid depth, or more than 10,000 free calls a month.
Side-by-side comparison
| Crypto Data API | CoinGecko API | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Yes, with no card. 100 requests/day on a new key, 1,000/day once you confirm your email (10/min). Confirming also switches Pro on for 24 hours. | Demo: 10,000 calls/month at 100/min, API key required, attribution required. A keyless public API with shared IP-based limits also exists. |
| Paid plans | Pro $29/mo ($19/mo billed annually): 10,000 requests/day. Pro Plus $99/mo ($79 annually): 50,000/day plus the history and Parquet archives. Enterprise from $299/mo. | Basic $35/mo ($29 annual, 100k credits), Analyst $129/mo, Lite $499/mo, Pro $999/mo. |
| Coins and markets | Prices, market caps and health scores for 2,000+ coins, with Binance and Hyperliquid OHLCV. | 18,000+ coins and 1,500+ exchanges, plus GeckoTerminal: 200+ networks and 1,800+ DEXes. |
| Price history | Binance and Hyperliquid candles, with Hyperliquid deep archives back to 2023. | Demo: 1 year of daily and hourly. Analyst and up: daily from 2013, hourly from 2018. |
| Derivatives | Funding, open interest and long/short ratios (Binance, Hyperliquid). Liquidations from OKX, Bybit and Hyperliquid, and a Hyperliquid liquidation map from on-chain positions. | Current funding rate, open interest and basis per derivatives ticker. No history, liquidations or long/short. |
| Hyperliquid | Deep: funding back to 2023, one-minute mark/oracle/OI history from May 2023, every liquidation fill, the liquidation map, whale positioning, gamma exposure, and L2 snapshots every 5 minutes. | Listed among derivatives tickers (current snapshot). |
| ETF flows / volatility index | Daily BTC, ETH and SOL spot-ETF net flows by trade date, settled days only. Crypto Volatility Index (market-wide realized vol) plus Deribit BTC/ETH implied vol. | No ETF flows (public-treasury holdings only). |
| News / sentiment | Fear & Greed on the free tier, plus a market-moving news feed (top 10 BTC, ETH and market-wide stories on free, every coin on Pro) and an event calendar. | News and the Fear & Greed chart need Analyst ($129/mo). |
| Delivery | REST (JSON, some endpoints also in markdown), a Server-Sent Events stream (Pro) and Parquet archives. No WebSocket or FIX. | REST, WebSocket (beta, outside the SLA, Basic and up) and webhooks. |
| MCP server | Yes, hosted at cryptodataapi.com/mcp (API key or browser login), plus an npm package. | Yes. A keyless hosted server, plus an authenticated one and an npm package. |
| Agent pay-per-call | Yes: pay per request, buy a 1-hour to 7-day pass ($1.50–$30) or buy single archive files in USDC over x402 (Base). An agent can also mint its own free key. | x402 at $0.005 USDC per request on 5 endpoints (labelled experimental). |
| Caching and redistribution | Allowed on every plan, including free. Our terms only bar reselling the raw feeds in bulk as a competing data product. | Resale and redistribution prohibited. The terms ask you to refresh cached data at least every 24 hours, and paid plans must credit CoinGecko. |
Where CoinGecko is the better choice
Coverage. If your app lists thousands of tokens, tracks new DEX pools or needs NFT floors, CoinGecko covers far more assets than we do. Its keyless MCP server is also the easiest way to give an AI assistant basic price lookups with zero setup.
Where Crypto Data API is the better choice
Perpetual futures. CoinGecko shows the funding rate now; it can't tell you whether funding has been stretched for a week, where liquidations cluster, or how open interest moved into a sell-off. We serve that history, plus spot-ETF flows, the Crypto Volatility Index and Hyperliquid data CoinGecko doesn't keep.
Free usage, too: CoinGecko's Demo plan allows 10,000 calls a month. Our free tier allows 1,000 a day once your email is confirmed, which is about 30,000 a month.
Using both
Plenty of our users keep CoinGecko for the long-tail coin list and use Crypto Data API for derivatives and market signals. The two don't overlap much.
More comparisons
Frequently asked questions
- Is the CoinGecko API free?
- CoinGecko's Demo plan is free: 10,000 calls a month at up to 100 a minute, with an API key and attribution required. A keyless public API also exists, with rate limits shared by everyone on the same IP address.
- Does CoinGecko have historical funding rates?
- No. As of November 2026 CoinGecko's derivatives endpoints return the current funding rate and open interest per ticker, with no historical funding, liquidation or long/short endpoints. Crypto Data API serves funding and open-interest history, liquidations and long/short ratios.
- Does CoinGecko have an MCP server?
- Yes. CoinGecko runs a keyless MCP server at mcp.api.coingecko.com with shared rate limits, and an authenticated one for paid plans. Crypto Data API's MCP server is at cryptodataapi.com/mcp.
- What is a good CoinGecko API alternative for trading bots?
- It depends on the data the bot trades on. For spot prices across many coins, CoinMarketCap is the closest like-for-like alternative. For derivatives signals such as funding, open interest and liquidations, CoinGlass or Crypto Data API. Crypto Data API also has a free tier and per-call payment for AI agents.
A free key gives you 100 requests a day straight away and 1,000 a day once you confirm your email, with no card. Every endpoint is documented, and the same data is available to AI agents through our MCP server.
Get a free API keyRead the docsSee pricing