For U.S. Residents

If you are a U.S. resident, you will need to meet the following requirements to open an Alpaca account:

  • Be at least 18 years old,
  • Have a valid Social Security Number(not a Taxpayer Identification Number)
  • Have a legal U.S. residential address within the 50 states or Puerto Rico:

Be a U.S. citizen, U.S. permanent resident, or hold a valid U.S. visa.

Acceptable visa types are *** E-1, E-2, E-3, F-1, H1-B, TN-1, J-1, L-1, B-1, B-2, O-1

For Non-U.S. Residents

Alpaca’s mission is to bring the power of investing to everyone. We’ve lifted our $30,000 minimum deposit. When we initially launched Trading API in 2018, we began an invite-only beta program for all users to try Alpaca’s APIs. With the increasing community interest and a growing waitlist, we’re excited to announce that after two years, we are lifting the $30,000 minimum deposit and allowing all non-US users to fund their accounts with as little as $1.

In order to satisfy the requirements set forth by the SEC and FINRA we are proud to be partnering with international KYC providers that verify identity in new and innovative ways. Simply upload the required documents and take a selfie. We will notify you as soon as your account is approved. This will help us reduce the amount of time it takes to verify users, which will enable us to activate accounts much faster.

KYC documents vary by country, but generally you require a Tax-ID, and document containing your photo and your address.

You can read more about our international launch here, and read commonly-asked questions from international users here.