Alpaca.
API-first brokerage designed to be driven entirely by code.
Overview
Alpaca strips brokerage down to a developer product: REST and websocket APIs for commission-free US equities and options, OAuth for building on top of user accounts, and a broker-as-a-service arm for fintechs embedding trading. The paper-trading environment is a first-class product rather than an afterthought, which makes it a common first venue for automated strategies.
Where it fits
- Developers standing up a first automated equity strategy with minimal integration friction.
- Fintechs embedding brokerage via Alpaca's Broker API.
- Agentic prototypes that need clean, modern API semantics and a safe paper environment.
Constraints to weigh
- US equities and options focus — no futures or global multi-asset reach.
- Execution and data depth are below institutional venues; serious size migrates elsewhere.
- Free data tier is delayed/limited; production strategies need the paid feed or an external provider.
In an agentic workflow
Alpaca's clean REST semantics and strict paper/live separation make it the lowest-friction execution endpoint for agent development: the same code path runs in paper and live, so promotion is a credential change governed by process, not a rewrite.
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