The best options flow API
By Faizan Ahmad. Updated .
The Tradytics API serves options flow as orders, not fills: every order from the full OPRA tape since March 31, 2025, 19.96 million over 404 sessions, each stitched from its fills (sweep, block or split) and tagged bought or sold against the quote. The same key returns every dark pool block print ranked against the stock's own last 12 months, dealer gamma, delta, vanna and charm, Kalshi and Polymarket chances from Probabilities, Signals, the Tradytics AI Fund's trades, the scanner and market data, at 300 calls a minute and 50,000 a day, with an MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor. It comes with Pro at $69 a month or $499 a year, the full app included. Unusual Whales sells its API apart from the app at $99, $150 and $375 a month and has the largest MCP tool set; Quant Data's API is $149.99 and Bullflow's $129.
Options flow APIs compared
Each rival's side is from its own pricing and API pages, checked November 5, 2026.
| API | Price | Flow history | Limits | Also on the key | MCP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tradytics Pro | $69 a month or $499 a year, the app included | Every session since March 31, 2025 | 300 a minute, 50,000 a day | Ranked dark pool, dealer exposure (four greeks), Kalshi and Polymarket, Signals, AI Fund trades, scanner, research | Yes |
| Unusual Whales Options Starter | $99, apart from the app | 1 year | 25,000 requests a month | Flow, full tape, dark pool; no GEX, no WebSocket, no prediction markets | Yes, 100+ tools |
| Unusual Whales Basic / Advanced | $150 / $375 | 2 years | Unlimited daily; no per-minute cap | Adds GEX and Polymarket; Advanced adds WebSocket, 1-minute SPX exposure, CME futures | Yes, 100+ tools |
| Quant Data | $149.99 a month or $1,499.99 a year | 365+ days | 240 a minute, 20 a second burst | 30 endpoints: flow, Greek exposure, dark pool and equity prints, volatility, open interest; needs a signed OPRA agreement | Yes |
| Bullflow | $129 a month with Premium, or $5 for 500 credits | Depends on the ticker | Per endpoint | Live and historical flow, GEX, VEX, dark pool trades, alerts; agents can pay per request | Yes |
| Barchart OnDemand | Usage-based, through sales | Option price history | Not published | Equity options intraday and end of day, IV and open interest history, an unusual-activity screener | None found |
| Benzinga APIs | Through licensing | Not published | Not published | Unusual options activity, block trades, news | Yes |
No API: FlowAlgo (offline since October 30, 2026), Cheddar Flow (exports capped at 1,000 rows), SpotGamma ("A public API is not yet available"; CSV export), OptionStrat, Market Chameleon (no REST API; paid bulk feeds), InsiderFinance, BlackBoxStocks, MenthorQ, TradeAlgo and TrendSpider (no data API).
Tradytics
The flow endpoints return any session's orders filtered by symbol, call or put, sweep, block or split, bought or sold, minimum premium, expiry and opening orders; a since cursor returns only what printed after your last read; and a history endpoint spans up to 30 days a call. A real order from November 5, 2026:
GET /options/flow?symbol=NVDA&min_premium=1000000&limit=1
{"id": 61329640, "time": "2026-11-05T19:07:00Z", "symbol": "NVDA", "type": "put",
"strike": 160, "expiry": "2028-12-15", "spot": 182.51, "size": 1500, "premium": 3856500,
"price": 25.71, "bid": 25.25, "ask": 26.2, "side": -1, "kind": "block", "condition": "Spread",
"open_interest": 4195, "volume": 1888, "iv": 41.9, "delta": -0.274}- Clean orders. On November 3, 2026 the tape carried 9.8 million prints; the API served the 49,236 orders they made. A sweep across 12 exchanges is one row with its side. Options flow API.
- Ranked dark pool on the same key. 24.4 million prints since October 28, 2024, each ranked against the stock's own year. Dark pool data API.
- Signals and the AI Fund. Orders that matched seven patterns from a 560 million combination study, and every trade of an options fund managed entirely by AI. Signals API.
- Kalshi and Polymarket. Chances on every live finance question and an archive of 5.95 million markets. Prediction market data API.
- MCP. The server at tradytics.com/mcp gives agents the same data as tools on your Pro limits. The Tradytics API and MCP server.
The other APIs
- Unusual Whales: the broadest MCP (100+ tools, plus apps inside ChatGPT, Claude and Grok), WebSocket and CME futures on Advanced, Polymarket data from Basic, and Kafka for firms. The app is a separate subscription.
- Quant Data: 30 endpoints with trade-by-trade flow and exposure on four greeks, at 240 requests a minute with no monthly quota.
- Bullflow: the only one here that sells calls by the credit and lets agents pay per request; the $129 plan includes its Premium app.
- Barchart OnDemand: equity option prices and their history for building your own models, priced by usage.
- Benzinga: unusual options activity and block trade feeds inside a news API suite, with an MCP server since November 2025.
What to check in a flow API
- Orders or fills. Raw fills make you rebuild sweeps and guess the side; stitched orders with a side field don't.
- History. Enough sessions to test a rule: Tradytics since March 31, 2025, Unusual Whales 1 or 2 years, Quant Data 365+ days.
- What joins it. Dark pool, dealer exposure and prediction markets on the same symbols and sessions save a second vendor.
- Whether the app comes with it. Tradytics and Bullflow include it; Unusual Whales sells them apart.
Bottom line
For clean orders with side, a year and a half of history, and ranked dark pool, dealer exposure, Kalshi and Polymarket, Signals and AI Fund trades on one key with the app, the numbers favor Tradytics Pro at $69. Unusual Whales fits teams that need WebSocket streaming or CME futures, Quant Data fits trade-by-trade work, and Bullflow fits agents paying per call.
Common questions
What is the cheapest options flow API?
Tradytics Pro at $69 a month or $499 a year, with the app included. Unusual Whales starts at $99 a month for the API alone, Bullflow at $129 (or $5 for 500 credits) and Quant Data at $149.99.
Which options flow API has the most history?
Unusual Whales Basic looks back 2 years. Tradytics has every session since March 31, 2025, 19.96 million orders, and Quant Data 365+ days.
Does the options flow API say if an order was bought or sold?
On Tradytics, yes: every order carries side, 1 bought at or above the ask, -1 sold at or below the bid, 0 between.
Which options flow APIs have an MCP server?
Tradytics, Unusual Whales (100+ tools), Quant Data, Bullflow and Benzinga. Setup for Tradytics is in how to connect options flow to ChatGPT or Claude.
Do Cheddar Flow, FlowAlgo or SpotGamma have an API?
No. Cheddar Flow offers a 1,000-row export, SpotGamma a CSV export, and FlowAlgo has been offline since October 30, 2026. OptionStrat and Market Chameleon have no API either.