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Databento

In-depth entry

by Databento, Inc. · API service

Usage-priced market data platform with normalized order-book (MBO/MBP), trades, OHLCV and reference schemas for futures, options and equities, delivered via historical, live and batch APIs in the DBN format

MixedUsage-basedPaidEnterpriseCloud
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Link verified Nov 2, 2026

Overview

Databento is a market data vendor built around a single normalized data model. Every dataset, whether CME Group futures and options, OPRA equity options, Nasdaq TotalView-ITCH, Eurex, ICE or Databento's own consolidated US equities feed, is published in the same set of schemas: market-by-order (full L3 book), market-by-price at one or ten levels, trades, top-of-book, OHLCV bars from one second to daily, statistics, instrument definitions, imbalances, status, and reference data such as corporate actions, adjustment factors and a security master. Data are encoded in Databento Binary Encoding (DBN), an open, Zstandard-compressed format with Apache-2.0 decoders, and can be converted to CSV, JSON or Parquet.

Three APIs share the model: a Historical API with time-series range requests, batch downloads, symbology resolution and cost estimation; a Live API that streams real-time data with intraday replay and snapshots; and a Reference API for corporate actions and security master. Official clients exist for Python, C++ and Rust alongside raw HTTP and TCP interfaces.

Pricing is unusual among vendors: historical data are pay-as-you-go metered by data volume, with signup credits, optional flat-rate subscriptions for individuals and teams, and annual institutional tiers. Live data require a venue licence; Databento acts as vendor of record, passes exchange fees through without markup and distinguishes display from non-display and internal from external use, with redistribution of real-time and intraday data governed per venue. Historical bars for research can therefore be bought incrementally, but order-book-scale downloads for many symbols and years become costly, the catalog is concentrated on US and European derivatives and US equities, and the DBN toolchain is a learning step compared with plain CSV.

Editorial note on uncertainty. The legal terms page renders client-side and could not be read by automated tools; licensing statements are taken from the pricing page and the live-data documentation. source_model 'mixed' reflects open-source clients and DBN decoders around a proprietary service.

Capabilities

  • Normalized schemas: MBO, MBP-1, MBP-10, trades, TBBO, OHLCV, statistics, definitions
  • Historical API with range requests, batch downloads and cost estimates
  • Live streaming API with intraday replay and snapshots
  • Reference API for corporate actions, adjustment factors and security master
  • DBN open binary encoding with CSV, JSON and Parquet conversion
  • Official Python, C++ and Rust clients plus raw HTTP/TCP
  • Venues: CME Group, OPRA, Nasdaq ITCH, Eurex, ICE, Databento US Equities
  • Vendor-of-record licensing for live data

Typical workflows

  1. Reconstructing the limit order book from MBO data for microstructure research
  2. Minute bars for a universe of futures bought incrementally by volume
  3. Live replay of a trading session for strategy testing
  4. Converting DBN files to Parquet for DuckDB analysis

Strengths

  • One schema set across all venues
  • Pay-for-what-you-use historical pricing
  • Open DBN format and open-source clients
  • Full-depth order-book data

Limitations

  • Order-book downloads at scale are expensive
  • Live data need venue licences and fee pass-through
  • Coverage concentrated on US/European derivatives and US equities
  • DBN tooling has a learning curve versus CSV

Prerequisites

  • Account and API key
  • Python, C++ or Rust client or HTTP

Who it is for

  • Market-microstructure researchers
  • Systematic traders needing order-book data
  • Data engineers building tick databases

Alternatives & comparison

Massive (formerly Polygon.io) sells subscription API access centred on US equities and options with flat files; FirstRate Data sells perpetual-licence CSV bundles without order-book depth; WRDS provides TAQ to subscribing institutions through SQL. Databento's distinguishing features are metered pricing, L3 order-book schemas and the open DBN format.

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Compare Databento with its alternatives →

Sources & verification

Primary sources consulted for this record. Claims are tied to the fields each source supports; the automated link checker re-verifies every URL on a schedule.

  • Official documentation
    Databento API documentation

    https://databento.com/docs

    Supports: capabilities, data_formats, languages, interfaces

    checked Nov 1, 2026
  • Official site
    Databento

    https://databento.com/

    Supports: name, summary

    checked Nov 1, 2026
  • Policy page
    Live data licensing

    https://databento.com/docs/portal/live-data

    Supports: limitations, description

    Display vs non-display, internal vs external use, vendor of record

    checked Nov 1, 2026
  • Pricing page
    Databento pricing

    https://databento.com/pricing

    Supports: pricing_model, description, capabilities

    Usage-based historical pricing, subscriptions, exchange fee pass-through

    checked Nov 1, 2026
  • Repository
    databento/databento-python

    https://github.com/databento/databento-python

    Supports: repo_url, source_model

    Apache-2.0 client library; the data service itself is proprietary

    checked Nov 1, 2026
Confidence
High
Reviewed
Nov 1, 2026
Links
Verified · Nov 2, 2026

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