---
source_url: "https://www.edgar.tools/vs/sec-api"
title: "sec-api.io Alternative & Pricing 2026 — edgar.tools Comparison"
mirrored_at: 2026-08-13T01:10:34.899Z
host: www.edgar.tools
cited_in_42a: true
mirror_canonical: "https://index.42a.ai/www.edgar.tools/vs/sec-api"
---

> **Original source:** https://www.edgar.tools/vs/sec-api

[edgar.tools](https://www.edgar.tools/)

-   [/ vs](https://www.edgar.tools/) / sec-api.io
-   [MCP server](https://www.edgar.tools/mcp)
-   [Data](https://www.edgar.tools/data)
-   [Pricing](https://app.edgar.tools/pricing)
-   [Blog](https://www.edgar.tools/blog)
-   [Docs](https://app.edgar.tools/docs)
-   [Sign in](https://app.edgar.tools/login)

⊕ ALTERNATIVE · edgar.tools vs sec-api.io

## The sec-api.io alternative.

**Same SEC data. Complete platform. About half the price.**  
They give you raw JSON; we give you a filing intelligence platform — web UI, REST API, MCP server, AI Sentinels, and bulk datasets in one subscription.

sec-api.io is an API-first filings layer. If you need a web UI, AI analysis, real-time event inboxes, or an MCP server for your AI agent — you'd build them yourself, or pay 2× the price elsewhere. edgar.tools ships them in one platform from $30/month.

## How much does sec-api.io cost — and is there a free alternative?

sec-api.io starts at **$49/month** billed annually ($55 month-to-month) for Personal and **$199/month** ($239 monthly) for Business; the free tier is **100 API calls total** — lifetime, not monthly (verified June 2026). The free alternative is twofold: the open-source **edgartools** Python library (6M+ PyPI downloads) is free forever, and **edgar.tools** — from the same maintainer — has a permanent free tier with **100 API calls per day** plus a full web UI. Paid edgar.tools tiers run **$30–$109/month**, roughly 40% less than sec-api.io tier for tier, and add what sec-api.io doesn't sell: an MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor, AI-analyzed event inboxes, and bulk datasets.

Entry price

$30 / $49

Pro tier vs sec-api.io Personal. Analyst tier ($109) is 45% less than their Business ($199).

Web UI included

Yes / No

Filing browser, company dashboards, financial analysis, Sentinels — all in the same subscription. sec-api.io is API-only.

MCP server + AI

23 + 5 / 0

A full MCP research toolkit, recipe prompts, AI-analyzed Sentinels. sec-api.io has none of these.

03Feature by feature

## How do edgar.tools and sec-api.io actually compare?

No marketing-speak. Gold check on whichever platform genuinely leads on a given dimension. If you need what sec-api.io does best, the table will show it.

Dimension

edgar.tools

sec-api.io

Web UI

Full app — filings, companies, screens, Sentinels

No UI; API only

AI event inboxes (Sentinels)

AI-analyzed 8-Ks in your inbox in seconds

Not offered

MCP server (for AI agents)

Full MCP toolkit + recipe prompts — Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor

Not offered

Open-source library

edgartools Python · 6M+ PyPI downloads

Closed

Bulk datasets

Parquet/DuckDB subscriptions + one-time SKUs

Not offered

Free tier

100 API calls/day (resets) + full web UI

100 total. Ever. No reset.

Entry price

$30/mo Pro

$49/mo Personal

Analyst-tier price

$109/mo

$199/mo Business

Form ADV / adviser data

Full Form ADV graph · 40K+ advisers

Limited

Prospectus deal data (424B)

Pricing, underwriting, dilution, cap-table

Raw filing only

Form-type coverage

400+

800+

API throughput

Standard rate-limits per tier

40 req/sec sustained

SDKs

Python (edgartools)

Node.js, C++

Enforcement actions data

Not yet covered

Yes

04Pricing, side-by-side

## What does each platform cost, tier by tier?

sec-api.io prices verified August 2026: $49/mo Personal and $199/mo Business billed annually ($55 and $239 month-to-month). edgar.tools is less at every tier.

sec-api.io

Their tiers

-   Free100 calls total
-   Personal$49–$55 / mo
-   Business$199–$239 / mo
-   EnterpriseContact sales

edgar.tools

Our tiers

-   Free · Read$0 / mo · no card
-   Pro · Track$30 / mo
-   Analyst · Research$109 / mo
-   Data · OwnCustom · annual license

05What edgar.tools adds

## What does edgar.tools include that sec-api.io doesn't?

01 · UI

### The web product

Filing browser, company dashboards, financial analysis, real-time stream, screens, Sentinels, exports. sec-api.io ships raw JSON; the rest you build yourself.

02 · AI

### Sentinels + MCP server

AI-analyzed event inboxes (`Sentinels`) deliver 8-Ks to your inbox in seconds. Our MCP server exposes the full research toolkit + recipe prompts to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and any MCP client.

03 · DATA

### Bulk + adviser depth

Parquet/DuckDB subscriptions for XBRL, insider, 13F, material events, cyber incidents. Full Form ADV graph with 40K+ advisers, executives, private funds, related persons.

06Where sec-api.io wins, honestly

## What is sec-api.io better at?

We're not the right pick for every workflow. sec-api.io has real wins on infrastructure and breadth dimensions. Honest list:

### What they're actually better at

No hedging. If you're optimizing for the dimensions below, sec-api.io is the right tool.

-   **Form-type breadth.** They cover 800+ form types; we cover 400+. Niche forms (Form X-17A-5, Form CB, weird foreign-private-issuer variants) are theirs.
-   **API throughput.** Sustained 40 req/sec is purpose-built for batch processing at scale. Our limits are tier-gated.
-   **Node.js / C++ SDKs.** First-class clients in both. We have a Python library.
-   **Enforcement actions.** Structured access to SEC enforcement data. We don't cover this corpus yet.
-   **Pure API-only infrastructure.** If you're building a backend service and never need a UI, AI summarization, or web app — paying for ours means paying for things you won't use.
-   **Subsidiaries data.** Their corporate-graph coverage is deeper than ours today.

07Which one is right for you

## Which one should you choose?

### Choose sec-api.io if…

-   You're a Node.js or C++ team building API-only infrastructure
-   You need 40 req/sec sustained throughput for batch jobs
-   Your workflow specifically needs enforcement-action data
-   You only need raw JSON — no UI, no AI, no MCP, no dashboards
-   You're optimizing for niche form-type coverage (X-17A-5, etc.)

### Choose edgar.tools if…

-   You want a full platform (web UI + API + MCP + datasets) in one subscription
-   You're integrating SEC into an AI agent (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, custom)
-   You want real-time AI-analyzed event inboxes (Sentinels)
-   Your team includes non-coding analysts who need the web UI
-   You want a generous free tier (100/day resets) instead of 100-total-ever
-   You want Form ADV / adviser, prospectus deal, screening, or 13F depth
-   Total cost of ownership matters (about half the price at every tier)

08FAQ

## Six questions, six honest answers.

01

### What is the difference between edgar.tools and sec-api.io?

**edgar.tools** is a full-stack SEC filing intelligence platform with 19 filing viewers, XBRL financials, insider trading sentiment, and an AI plugin (MCP server) for Claude, ChatGPT, and other AI agents. **sec-api.io** is a raw data API focused on full-text search and XBRL-to-JSON conversion. edgar.tools includes a visual web app and an AI plugin; sec-api.io is API-only with no AI integration.

02

### Is edgar.tools free?

**Yes.** edgar.tools has a permanent free tier with **100 API calls per day** (resets daily), 5 tracked companies, company search, filing browsing, and profitability ratios. The Professional tier at **$30/month** adds full financials, insider trading, exports, and disclosure search.

03

### How much does sec-api.io cost?

sec-api.io's free tier provides **100 API calls total** (lifetime, not monthly). The Personal plan is **$49/month** billed annually ($55 month-to-month) and Business is **$199/month** billed annually ($239 monthly), with custom Enterprise pricing. All plans are API-only with no web interface, rate-limited at 10–40 requests/second depending on API and tier. _Prices verified from sec-api.io's pricing page, June 2026._

04

### Does edgar.tools work with AI agents like Claude or ChatGPT?

**Yes.** edgar.tools ships an AI plugin (MCP server) — Free covers company lookups, Pro unlocks the full research toolkit, and Analyst adds aggregation tools plus recipe prompts (`position_thesis`, `peer_comparison`, `portfolio_pulse`, `earnings_postmortem`, `filing_red_flags`). See [app.edgar.tools/mcp](https://app.edgar.tools/mcp) for the live ladder. sec-api.io does not offer MCP or any AI agent integration.

05

### Is there a free sec-api.io alternative?

**Yes, two.** The open-source **edgartools** Python library (**6M+ PyPI downloads**) gives you SEC EDGAR data access in Python, free forever with no API key. For a hosted alternative, edgar.tools has a permanent free tier with **100 API calls per day** (resets daily — sec-api.io's free tier is 100 calls lifetime), 5 tracked companies, and a full web UI. Both come from the same maintainer.

06

### What is the difference between sec-api.io and the edgartools Python library?

**edgartools** is a free, open-source Python library (**6M+ PyPI downloads**) that fetches and parses SEC EDGAR data directly from the SEC — no API key or subscription required. **sec-api.io** is a commercial REST API with paid plans from $49/month. If you work in Python, edgartools covers most of the same ground for free; if you want a hosted REST API, web UI, or AI/MCP integration built on the same engine, that's **edgar.tools**.

## Same SEC data. Complete platform.  
About half the price.

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