Kaiko vs Crypto Data API
Kaiko is an institutional market-data and benchmark provider. Its trade history goes back to 2010 and its order books to 2015, it delivers into Snowflake, BigQuery and the major clouds, and it sells by custom contract. In June 2026 it also acquired Amberdata. Crypto Data API is self-serve: sign up in a minute, start free, and pay $29 to $99 a month for derivatives, positioning and regime data built for trading agents.
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're an institution that needs audited reference rates, decade-deep tick history, cloud-warehouse delivery and an enterprise licence.
you want to start today without a sales call, need derivatives and Hyperliquid positioning data, or are building an AI agent that should onboard and pay by itself.
Side-by-side comparison
| Crypto Data API | Kaiko | |
|---|---|---|
| Free access | 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. | Trial by request form. A free Research account exists, but we couldn't verify whether it includes API data. |
| Pricing | 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. | Contact sales. Custom plans priced by assets, data type, granularity and usage, under a data licensing agreement. |
| History | Hyperliquid back to 2023, the regime archive back to 2020, and Binance and Hyperliquid candles in our database from May 2026, with older candles as Parquet archives. | Trades and OHLCV back to 2010 for most feeds, and L2 order-book snapshots back to 2015 (varies by exchange). |
| 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. | Exchange-reported open interest, funding and predicted funding, plus liquidation events. The docs don't list which exchanges are covered. |
| 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. | Not confirmed on Kaiko's pages. |
| Options | No options chains. BTC/ETH implied volatility only. | Implied vol, Greeks and volatility surfaces. |
| 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. | Kaiko lists crypto ETF coverage. We couldn't verify ETF flows specifically. |
| Delivery | REST (JSON, some endpoints also in markdown), a Server-Sent Events stream (Pro) and Parquet archives. No WebSocket or FIX. | REST, gRPC stream, CSV, and delivery to AWS, Azure, GCP, Snowflake and BigQuery. |
| Rate limit | 10 to 120 requests/minute depending on plan. | 6,000 requests per minute per key. |
| MCP server | Yes, hosted at cryptodataapi.com/mcp (API key or browser login), plus an npm package. | None found. |
| 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. | Not found. |
Where Kaiko is the better choice
If you need regulated benchmark rates, a SOC 2 vendor, or more than a decade of trade and order-book history delivered straight into your data warehouse, Kaiko is built for that and we are not. Its rate limit of 6,000 requests a minute also suits large internal systems.
Where Crypto Data API is the better choice
Speed to first call and price. Kaiko starts with a sales conversation; we start with a free key. For a trading team or a solo builder, the questions are usually about positioning (funding, open interest, liquidation clusters, whale bias), and those come ready-made here. AI agents can mint their own free key, and pay per request or buy a pass in USDC over x402, with no procurement step at all.
Kaiko and Amberdata
Kaiko acquired Amberdata in June 2026. Amberdata's marketing site and pricing page now redirect to Kaiko's announcement. If you were an Amberdata customer, see our Amberdata alternative page.
More comparisons
Frequently asked questions
- How much does Kaiko cost?
- Kaiko doesn't publish prices. Plans are custom, priced by assets, data type, granularity, live or historical access and usage, and come with a data licensing agreement. Crypto Data API publishes its prices: free, Pro at $29 a month and Pro Plus at $99 a month.
- Does Kaiko have a free tier?
- Kaiko offers a trial through a request form, and a free Research account whose API access we couldn't confirm. Crypto Data API's free tier is self-serve: 100 requests a day, rising to 1,000 once you confirm your email.
- Did Kaiko buy Amberdata?
- Yes. Kaiko announced the acquisition of Amberdata on 2 June 2026. Amberdata's website now redirects to Kaiko's announcement, while its API documentation is still online.
- Does Kaiko have an MCP server for AI agents?
- We didn't find one on Kaiko's site or docs as of November 2026. Crypto Data API runs a hosted MCP server at cryptodataapi.com/mcp.
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.
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