alpaca-api-reference

name	alpaca-api-reference
description	Alpaca Markets API reference. Use for trading/market data/broker API, orders, positions, account management, or building Alpaca-based bots/apps.

Alpaca API reference for looking up endpoint specifications, request/response schemas, authentication, order types, and market data access.

When to Use

• User asks about a specific Alpaca API endpoint
• User needs to know how to place orders, check positions, or access market data
• User is building a trading bot or algorithmic trading system with Alpaca
• User asks about order types, time-in-force values, or order lifecycle
• User needs authentication or SDK setup guidance

API Overview

Alpaca offers API-first trading solutions. Three main APIs:

• Trading API — For individual traders: place orders, manage positions, get account info
• Broker API — For businesses building trading apps on Alpaca's infrastructure
• Market Data API — Historical and real-time market data for stocks, crypto, options

Base URLs

Environment	Trading API	Market Data API
Live	https://api.alpaca.markets	https://data.alpaca.markets
Paper (test)	https://paper-api.alpaca.markets	https://data.alpaca.markets
Broker sandbox	https://broker-api.sandbox.alpaca.markets/v1	—

Authentication

All requests require API key authentication via headers:

APCA-API-KEY-ID: {API_KEY}
APCA-API-SECRET-KEY: {API_SECRET}

Or as Basic Auth. Get keys from Alpaca Dashboard.

SDKs

Language	Install
Python	pip install alpaca-py
Go	go get -u github.com/alpacahq/alpaca-trade-api-go/v3/alpaca
JavaScript	npm install --save @alpacahq/alpaca-trade-api
C#	dotnet add package Alpaca.Markets

Request IDs

All endpoints return X-Request-ID in response headers. Persist this for support requests.

Reference Files

When asked about a specific topic, read the appropriate reference file:

Topic	Reference File	Contents
Getting started, auth, SDK setup	references/getting-started.md	Overview, quickstart, SDK examples
Orders (place, cancel, types)	references/trading-orders.md	Order types, TIF, lifecycle, bracket orders
Positions	references/positions.md	GET /v2/positions endpoint
Account	references/account.md	GET /v2/account endpoint
Stock historical bars	references/market-data-stock-bars.md	GET /v2/stocks/bars parameters
Market data overview	references/market-data.md	Subscription plans, data sources, SDK examples

Common API Endpoints

Trading API (paper: https://paper-api.alpaca.markets)

Method	Path	Description
GET	/v2/account	Get account details, buying power, equity
GET	/v2/orders	List orders (query: status, symbols, limit, etc.)
POST	/v2/orders	Place an order
DELETE	/v2/orders/{order_id}	Cancel an order
GET	/v2/positions	List all open positions
GET	/v2/positions/{symbol}	Get position for a symbol
DELETE	/v2/positions/{symbol}	Close a position

Market Data API (https://data.alpaca.markets)

Method	Path	Description
GET	/v2/stocks/bars	Historical stock OHLCV bars (multi-symbol)
GET	/v2/stocks/{symbol}/bars	Historical bars for single symbol
GET	/v2/stocks/trades	Historical trades
GET	/v2/stocks/quotes	Historical quotes
GET	/v2/stocks/snapshots	Latest snapshot for symbols
GET	/v2/crypto/bars	Crypto historical bars

How to Look Up an Endpoint

1. Identify the topic from the user's question
2. Map to the reference file using the table above
3. Read the file and extract the relevant details
4. If the file doesn't cover it, check https://docs.alpaca.markets/reference

Source: https://docs.alpaca.markets/ (crawled 2026-04-13)