GET /v1/market/search - SEC API for AI

Find candidate stock tickers from a company name or keyword

Audience: developers and agents finding a candidate security from a company name or keyword.

Coverage and source scope

Use this route when a workflow starts with a company name or partial keyword and needs candidate symbols. q is required and results are matches, not a final identity decision. Resolve the selected symbol or CIK before using it for issuer-scoped research, especially when names are similar or a company has multiple listed classes. The route is subject to the configured result limit and can return a source or service error instead of an empty successful list. See entity resolution and API conventions.

Canonical metadata

source
sourceUrl
results
requestId
traceparent

Example request

curl -X GET -H "x-api-key: $SECAPI_API_KEY" -H "secapi-version: 2026-03-19" "https://api.secapi.ai/v1/market/search?q=apple&limit=10"

Example response

{
  "object": "market_search",
  "source": "market_data",
  "sourceUrl": "https://docs.secapi.ai/market-data",
  "results": [
    {
      "ticker": "AAPL",
      "name": "Apple Inc.",
      "market": "stocks",
      "primaryExchange": "XNAS"
    }
  ],
  "requestId": "req_2ZK8Q1W9F4M6P7R3",
  "traceparent": "00-4bf92f3577b34da6a3ce929d0e0e4736-00f067aa0ba902b7-01"
}

Candidate selection

Use q to find candidates by name, ticker fragment, or keyword. limit is capped at 50. Search results are candidates, not proof that a result is the intended legal issuer or listed class. Confirm the selected symbol with market reference, then use the returned CIK or other identifiers for issuer-scoped research. A missing or blank q is a request error, not a broad search.

Errors

A missing query returns 400 missing_query; an invalid limit returns 400 invalid_query_parameter. 503 indicates that search data is unavailable, while 502 indicates a search failure; neither should be treated as an empty candidate list.

Give this prompt to your agent

Failure posture

preserve source, sourceUrl, the selected candidate, requestId, and traceparent while resolving identity
do not infer CIK, exchange, share class, freshness, provenance, or materialization from a name-only match
treat an empty successful result as no returned candidate for the supplied query, not proof that a company has no listed security

​Coverage and source scope

​Canonical metadata

​Example request

​Example response

​Candidate selection

​Errors

​Give this prompt to your agent

​Failure posture

Coverage and source scope

Canonical metadata

Example request

Example response

Candidate selection

Errors

Give this prompt to your agent

Failure posture