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A direct comparison of the two leading SEC data APIs for developers and AI agents.

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Speed

Two independent benchmark runs, each with its own SEC API baseline measured at the same time as the competitor. SEC API p50 has improved between runs (production performance is not static) — each table’s speedup uses the SEC API value measured alongside that competitor, not across runs. vs sec-api.io (benchmark captured 2026-03-18)
OperationSEC API p50sec-api.io p50Winner
Entity resolution62ms231msSEC API (3.7x)
Filing search64ms281msSEC API (4.4x)
Section extraction64ms348msSEC API (5.4x)
XBRL-to-JSON61ms392msSEC API (6.4x)
vs edgartools (benchmark captured 2026-04-23, preliminary, subprocess-isolated cold fetches)
OperationSEC API p50edgartools p50Winner
Entity resolution34ms471msSEC API (13.9x)
Filing search38ms688msSEC API (18.1x)
Section extraction34ms3,081msSEC API (90.6x)
XBRL-to-JSON34ms1,508msSEC API (44.3x)
edgartools numbers are preliminary pending final verification. See benchmark-results and compare-edgartools for the full comparison and methodology.

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Pricing

TierSEC APIsec-api.ioedgartools
Starter grant150 calls (one-time)100 calls (lifetime)Unlimited (MIT, truly free)
Pay-as-you-goFrom $0.01/callNot offeredN/A
Personal$55/month$49/month$0
Business/Team$239/month$199/month$0
EnterpriseCustomCustomNone (community-supported)
Key differences:
  • SEC API vs sec-api.io: SEC API offers true pay-as-you-go with no monthly minimum. An agent making 200 queries/month pays 4withSECAPIvs4 with SEC API vs 49 minimum with sec-api.io.
  • vs edgartools: edgartools is genuinely free (MIT Python library, calls SEC directly). The tradeoff is client-side parsing, no SLA, no commercial support, Python-only, and a latency/payload profile that’s 13.9-90.6× and 600-1,000× higher than SEC API on the operations above. See compare-edgartools for when each is the right choice.

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Features

FeatureSEC APIsec-api.io
Endpoints217+~35
Filing coverage1993–present (18.5M+ manifests)1993–present (20M+ claimed)
Full-text searchYesYes
Semantic searchYes (hybrid vector + keyword)No
Hybrid search (RRF)YesNo
Intelligence bundlesYes (company, security, earnings)No
Filing diffYes (amendment tracking)No
Saved monitorsYes (webhook alerts)No
Workflow templatesYes (3 built-in)No
MCP integrationYes (native)No
CLIYes (secapi on npm)No
SDKs4 (JS, Python, Go, Rust)2 (Python, Node.js)
HomebrewYesNo
Skills8 canonical skillsNo
Agent bootstrapYes (ephemeral credentials)No
Budget controlsYes (threshold alerts)No
WebhooksYes (signed, replay)No
Event streamsYes (cursor-based)No
Data provenanceYes (trace on every object)No
Filing export6 formats (JSON, MD, CSV, XLSX, DOCX, PDF)PDF only

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Endpoint Coverage

CategorySEC APIsec-api.io
Filing searchYesYes
Full-text searchYesYes
Section extractionYesYes
XBRL/statementsYesYes
Entity mappingYes (+ FIGI, ISIN)Yes
Insider tradingYesYes
13F holdingsYes (+ comparison)Yes
Executive compYes (+ comparison)Yes
EnforcementYes (5,993+ records)Yes
Board compositionYesYes (directors)
SubsidiariesYes (Exhibit 21)Yes
Audit feesYesNo
Form 144YesYes
Form D (structured)Yes (XML extraction)Yes
Form CYesYes
Reg A (Form 1-A)YesYes
N-PORTYesYes
N-CENYesYes
N-PXYesYes
Form ADVYes (+ schedule/AUM filters)Yes
8-K 5.07 voting resultsYes (structured proposals, vote counts, approval outcomes)No (open bug since July 2025)
EDGAR indexYes (3 endpoints)Yes
Bulk downloadYes (summary + quarter)Yes (file mirror)
Real-time streamingYes (WebSocket + webhooks)Yes (WebSocket only)
Semantic searchYesNo
Intelligence bundlesYesNo
Filing diffYesNo
MonitorsYesNo
Factor analysisYes (broad catalog with narrower launch surface)No
Macro dataYes (12 countries)No
Portfolio analyticsYesNo

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Developer Experience

FeatureSEC APIsec-api.io
Onboarding time< 2 minutes~5 minutes
API key creationExplicit dashboard/API creation, revealed onceManual
Starter grant150 one-time, no card100 lifetime starter calls
Documentation205 pages~40 pages
Tutorials8 (Python + JS)27 (Python only)
OpenAPI specYes (generated from Zod)No
ChangelogYesNo
Status pageYesNo
Error codesStructured with requestIdBasic
Rate limit headersYes (remaining, limit)No
Budget headersYes (usage %, threshold)No

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Migration

Already using sec-api.io? Our migration guide maps every sec-api.io endpoint to its SEC API equivalent. 
# sec-api.io                          →  SEC API
# /mapping/ticker/AAPL                →  /v1/entities/resolve?ticker=AAPL
# POST / (filing search)              →  /v1/filings?ticker=AAPL&form=10-K
# /extractor?url=...&item=1A          →  /v1/filings/latest/sections/item_1a
# /xbrl-to-json?accession=...         →  /v1/statements/all?ticker=AAPL

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Try SEC API

export SECAPI_API_KEY="<your-api-key>"

curl "https://api.secapi.ai/v1/entities/resolve?ticker=AAPL" \
  -H "x-api-key: $SECAPI_API_KEY"
Create an account to get an API key.