Alpaca Review
Alpaca is a US API first brokerage for stocks, options, and crypto. It also took a 2024 SEC penalty and a 2026 FINRA fine over recordkeeping.
Min Deposit
$0
Spreads From
Commission-free (stocks)
Max Leverage
Accounts open as limited purpose margin accounts, exact limits set in Alpaca's margin disclosures
Platforms
5
Pros
- Commission free trading on US listed stocks and options through an API
- FINRA member and SIPC protected, plus extra excess coverage for customers
- Self clears through the DTCC and holds OCC, FICC, and Nasdaq memberships
- Backed by over 400 million dollars in funding near a 1.15 billion valuation
- Built for developers, with Python, Node, Go, and REST APIs plus TradingView
Cons
- SEC fined Alpaca 400,000 dollars in 2024 over unrecorded staff messaging apps
- That SEC order triggered a statutory disqualification later resolved with FINRA
- FINRA fined the firm 300,000 dollars in 2026 for widespread trade reporting errors
- Built around code and APIs, not an easy fit for manual, non technical traders
- Crypto trading runs through a money services business, with no SIPC or FDIC cover
Alpaca started in 2015 as a database and machine learning company built by Yoshi Yokokawa and Hitoshi Harada, then became a brokerage. Its broker dealer, Alpaca Securities LLC, doing business as Alpaca Clearing, has been a FINRA member since 2018, and lets developers trade stocks, options, and crypto through an API.
The company is now valued near 1.15 billion dollars after raising 150 million dollars in January 2026, taking total funding past 400 million. Alpaca Clearing self clears through the DTCC, and joined the OCC, FICC, and Nasdaq in 2025, on top of SIPC cover plus extra excess coverage up to 30 million dollars per customer.
The regulatory record has real blemishes. In September 2024 the SEC fined Alpaca 400,000 dollars over unrecorded staff chats on personal apps, which triggered a statutory disqualification FINRA later cleared under a supervision plan. In March 2026 FINRA fined the firm 300,000 dollars for millions of late or wrong trade reports going back to 2020.
Min. Deposit
USD 0
Max Leverage
Accounts open as limited purpose margin accounts, exact limits set in Alpaca's margin disclosures
Spreads From
Commission free on US listed stocks and options, other fees follow Alpaca's published fee schedule
Platforms
Alpaca is an API-first brokerage platform enabling developers, algorithmic traders, and fintech companies to build automated trading applications. The firm is FINRA-regulated, SIPC-protected (up to $500K per customer), ISO 27001:2022 certified, and SOC 2 Type II compliant. Alpaca offers commission-free stocks and options trading, $0 borrow fees on 5,000+ ETB securities, 1.5ms order processing, 99.99% uptime, 4x intraday buying power, and 24/5 trading. The platform supports Python, .NET, Go, and Node.js SDKs.
Regulators
Platforms
- FINRA (USA)
- SEC (USA)
