Account Plans
Alpaca Paper Only Account (Paper-Trading)
Anyone globally can create an Alpaca Paper Only Account! All you need to do is sign up with your email address.
An Alpaca Paper Only Account is for paper trading only. It allows you to fully utilize the Alpaca API and run your algorithm in our paper trading environment only. You won’t be trading real money, but you will be able to track your simulated activity and balance in the Alpaca web dashboard. As an Alpaca Paper Only Account holder, you are only entitled to receive and make use of IEX market data. For more information about our paper trading environment, please refer to Paper Trading Specification.
Alpaca Brokerage Account (Live-Trading)
After creating an Alpaca Paper Only Account, you can enable live trading by becoming an Alpaca Brokerage Account holder. This requires you to go through an account on-boarding process with Alpaca Securities LLC, a FINRA member and SEC registered broker-dealer. We now support brokerage accounts for individuals and business entities from around the world.
With a brokerage account, you will be able to fully utilize Alpaca for your automated trading and investing needs. Using the Alpaca API, you’ll be able to buy and sell stocks in your brokerage account, and you’ll receive real-time consolidated market data. In addition, you will continue to be able to test your strategies and simulate your trades in our paper trading environment. And with the Alpaca web dashboard, it’s easy to monitor both your paper trading and your real money brokerage account. All accounts are opened as margin accounts. Accounts with $2,000 or more equity will have access to margin trading and short selling.
For Individuals Globally: Individual Taxable Account
Alpaca Securities LLC supports individual taxable brokerage accounts. At this time, we do not support retirement accounts.
We are currently running a beta program for the business trading account. This business trading account is prepared for business entities that intend to use Alpaca for trading purposes, but not for building apps/services. If you are looking to integrate with Alpaca API for your apps, please read Build Apps/Services with Alpaca.
Today’s beta program for the business trading account accepts select entities that are mainly Corporations, LLCs, Partnerships in the U.S. and we continue to expand the coverage of eligible business entity types. There’s no charge to open a business trading account, but it does have a $30,000 account minimum. Additionally, please note that business accounts are considered professional data subscribers for which we currently offer two plans: Free and Unlimited. Please read this announcement to learn more about the beta program.
You can sign up with your email address and follow steps on the dashboard. When our system considers that your business entity is eligible for this beta program, you should be able to go on to upload necessary information through the process to submit the application, otherwise you will be placed on the waitlist. Please note that we are updating the beta eligibility criteria and business trading account opening flow with ongoing basis.
Alpaca Cryptocurrency Account (Live-Trading)
Crypto trading is currently available for eligible international participants and participants in the following US jurisdictions: California, Massachusetts, Missouri and Montana. Existing Alpaca users in approved jurisdictions can enable crypto trading capabilities now via the dashboard. BTC, BCH, ETH, and LTC are currently supported. We’re working to increase our list of tradable cryptocurrencies and broaden our eligibility criteria to more states and countries so stay tuned!
For more information about crypto trading, please read Crypto Trading.
Paper Only Account vs Brokerage Account Features
| Feature | Alpaca Paper Only Account | Alpaca Brokerage Account |
|---|---|---|
| Eligibility | All | All |
| Paper Trading | ✓ | ✓ |
| Commission-Free Live Trading | N/A | ✓ |
| API Access | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free IEX Real-Time Data | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multi-Factor Authentication | ✓ | ✓ |
| Margin Trading | ✓ | ✓ |
| Short Selling | ✓ | ✓ |
| Premarket/Afterhours Trading | ✓ | ✓ |
Markets Supported
Currently, Alpaca only supports trading of listed U.S. stocks and select cryptocurrencies.