FlashAlpha publishes eight tiers across two pricing pages. Four are self-serve on /pricing (Free, Basic, Growth, Alpha). Four are sales-driven on /commercial-interest (Startups Plan, Quant Pro, Alpha Node, custom Enterprise). The two pages exist because they answer different buying questions: what am I personally allowed to do with the data versus what does my company need the data for. This article maps each buyer persona to exactly one starting tier, then describes the specific signal that should trigger an upgrade.
TL;DR - Quick router
Pick the row that matches your situation, click through to the tier docs, and skip the rest of the article unless you want the reasoning.
| If you are… |
Pick |
Price |
Where |
| Curious about GEX, exploring the API, learning options analytics |
Free / Starter |
$0 |
/pricing |
| Daily SPY/QQQ/SPX swing trader checking walls and max-pain in the morning |
Basic |
$79/mo (or $63/mo annual) |
/pricing |
| Active 0DTE / premium-selling / intraday-bot trader (the most common serious use case) |
Growth |
$299/mo (or $239/mo annual) |
/pricing |
| Vol-aware discretionary trader, vol arb explorer, SVI / VRP user, continuous polling, full-chain screener |
Alpha |
$1,499/mo (or $1,199/mo annual) |
/pricing |
| Early-stage paid newsletter, SaaS dashboard, or trading room (under 500 paying customers) |
Startups Plan |
$599/mo (or $479/mo annual) |
/commercial-interest |
| Single-team quant fund, prop desk, or systematic researcher polling at high rates |
Quant Pro |
$2,999/mo (or $2,399/mo annual) |
/commercial-interest |
| Production SaaS, established newsletter, brokerage white-label, research firm publishing FlashAlpha numbers to subscribers |
Alpha Node |
$3,999/mo (or $3,199/mo annual) |
/commercial-interest |
| Hedge fund, broker-dealer, or fintech needing on-prem, streaming, custom signals, or data residency |
Custom Enterprise |
Sales-driven |
/enterprise |
If you are reading this guide, you almost certainly belong in Growth, Alpha, or one of the commercial tiers. The vast majority of paid users sit in Growth: it is the tier built for the canonical "I trade options daily and need real exposure analytics" buyer.
Decision tree
Three questions resolve the tier in almost every case:
- Are you publishing FlashAlpha-derived data to other people? If yes (paid newsletter, SaaS, trading room, brokerage UI, research note shared outside your team), go to question 2. If no, go to question 3.
- Are you under 500 paying customers, under $2M revenue, and under 3 years old? If yes and your product needs only Growth-equivalent analytics (GEX, levels, max-pain, 0DTE, AI narrative, options chain with greeks, IV-RV / skew / term structure) → Startups Plan ($599/mo). Exception: if your product publishes SVI parameters, the full VRP dashboard with z-scores / percentiles, historical replay since 2018, uncached data, or needs dedicated infrastructure / streaming / custom SLA, jump to Alpha Node ($3,999/mo) regardless of size, because the Startups Plan is Growth-equivalent and does not include those features. If no → Alpha Node ($3,999/mo).
- Do you need dedicated compute / predictable latency / no noisy-neighbour effects? If yes (high-rate polling, intraday research loops, continuous monitoring) → Quant Pro ($2,999/mo). If no → pick from the standard ladder on /pricing based on the analytics you actually use:
- 0DTE, intraday vol, full-chain GEX, AI narrative, options chain with greeks, screener → Growth
- Just SPY/QQQ/SPX walls and max-pain, once-a-day → Basic
- SVI parameters, VRP analytics with z-scores, advanced volatility, historical replay since 2018, full ~250-symbol screener → Alpha
- Single-name equity GEX only, evaluating the API → Free
If your answer is "I want self-hosted, on-prem, multi-region, streaming over WebSocket / SSE, custom signals, or regulatory data residency," skip the standard ladder and go straight to /enterprise (sales-driven custom contract).
The eight personas in detail
1. The Evaluator (Free / Starter)
Who they are: Hobbyists, students, content creators, retail traders curious about options analytics, developers learning the API surface, anyone running a "let me see what GEX looks like for one stock" experiment. About a third of all FlashAlpha signups never call the API beyond their first session, and most of those who do stay on Free for under two weeks before either upgrading or churning.
What they say: "Just want to try it." "I'm learning options analytics." "What's GEX look like on a single stock?" "Free tier without a credit card." "Hobby project."
What they actually need: A way to call /v1/exposure/gex/{symbol}?expiration=YYYY-MM-DD on a single equity (single-expiry only on Free; full-chain GEX requires Growth), see the response shape, build a tiny script, and decide whether the API is worth paying for. The 5 requests-per-day limit is enough for a learning loop or a personal "morning print" on one ticker. Concrete first call: GET /v1/exposure/gex/AAPL?expiration=2026-05-15 (pick the next monthly expiry).
Where Free runs out: The two strongest signals are HTTP 429 (you hit the daily quota) and HTTP 403 (you tried an index symbol like SPY or SPX, or asked for full-chain GEX, or hit DEX/VEX/CHEX). Free explicitly excludes index/ETF symbols and any tier-gated endpoint. Once a user starts hitting 403s on SPY or wanting more than 5 calls/day, the right answer is Basic or Growth depending on what they were trying to do.
Tier: Free / Starter - $0, no credit card.
2. The OPEX Pin Watcher (Basic)
Who they are: Daily SPY / QQQ / SPX swing traders, people who check the gamma flip and call/put walls before the open, traders who care about max pain on monthly OPEX days but do not run intraday strategies. About 60 percent of FlashAlpha's Basic users are in this category. Their typical workflow: pull the morning print, decide whether to lean long or short, place one to three trades over the day, ignore the API until the next morning.
What they say: "SPY swing trader." "OPEX pin watcher." "Morning gamma flip / call wall / put wall." "Max pain on indexes." "I check levels once a day." "DEX / VEX / CHEX." "Discord screenshots of GEX."
What they actually need: Index/ETF access (SPY, QQQ, IWM, SPX, VIX, RUT, etc.), DEX/VEX/CHEX exposure, max-pain analysis with pain curve and pin probability, and the daily Market Overview page. 100 requests/day is comfortably more than they will use.
Where Basic runs out: 0DTE intraday work, scripted bots, AI narrative, vol surface analytics, full-chain GEX (across all expirations), Kelly sizing, the live screener, or the option chain with full greeks. All of those require Growth.
Tier: Basic - $79/mo monthly or $63/mo annual ($756/yr).
3. The Active 0DTE Trader (Growth) - the most common serious user
Who they are: Day traders running same-day SPY or SPX expiries, premium sellers running iron condors and credit spreads, traders building Discord or Slack bots that post intraday signals, traders who want skew and IV term structure context (IV-RV spreads, not the full VRP dashboard), anyone running a multi-symbol screener during market hours. The median Growth-tier user runs about 2,254 requests per day, comfortably inside the 2,500 quota. Users who push toward the cap typically upgrade to Alpha for unlimited polling. This is the tier built for "I trade options actively and need real exposure analytics during the session."
What they say: "0DTE." "SPX 0DTE." "Premium selling." "Iron condor." "Intraday bot." "Discord bot." "Slack bot." "Pin risk during the day." "Expected move." "Vol surface visualisation." "AI narrative." "Full options chain with greeks." "Multi-symbol scan." "Screener (20-symbol)." "Kelly sizing." "Skew." "IV term structure." "IV-RV spreads."
What they actually need: 0DTE analytics endpoint (pin risk, expected move that shrinks intraday, gamma acceleration, charm regime), full-chain GEX, options chain with full greeks and IV, the AI narrative for verbal exposure analysis, Kelly sizing, the 20-symbol Tier 1 live screener with cascading filters, and 2,500 requests/day so a polling bot can hit the API every minute or so during the session without running out.
Where Growth runs out: Continuous polling ("I want to call this every 5 seconds") will hit the daily quota. SVI parameters, full variance surface, butterfly/calendar arbitrage detection, VRP dashboard with z-scores and percentiles, and historical replay since 2018 are all Alpha-only. The full ~250-symbol screener with formulas is also Alpha. If a Growth user starts asking about any of those, route them to Alpha.
Tier: Growth - $299/mo monthly or $239/mo annual ($2,868/yr).
4. The Vol-Aware Quant or Researcher (Alpha)
Who they are: Vol arb traders, systematic vol researchers, individual quants running variance-swap or skew-trading strategies, people running historical backtests against eight years of FlashAlpha data, anyone who needs SVI parameters or arbitrage flags, anyone polling the API constantly enough to hit 2,500 req/day. About 5 of 7 Alpha-tier users sign up with custom-domain email addresses (versus consumer email on Basic and Growth), which usually maps to "I work somewhere where this gets expensed."
What they say: "Quant." "Systematic." "Research." "Vol desk." "Vol arb." "Uncached." "Unlimited requests." "Continuous polling." "Continuous monitoring." "Historical replay." "Backtest." "VRP analytics with z-score and percentile." "SVI parameters." "Variance surface." "Arbitrage detection." "Vanna / charm / volga / speed surfaces." "I poll every 30 seconds." "I want every analytic at any minute since 2018."
What they actually need: Unlimited requests/day (no quota wall), no caching (every call returns fresh data), SVI vol surfaces with calibrated parameters and arbitrage flags, the full VRP dashboard with leak-free percentiles, higher-order greeks surfaces, the full ~250-symbol screener with formulas and strategy scores (harvest_score, dealer_flow_risk, iron_condor_score, calendar_spread_score), and the full Historical API at historical.flashalpha.com with a ?at= point-in-time query parameter on every analytics endpoint.
Where Alpha runs out: Two specific failure modes. First, multiple parallel research jobs from one team can saturate the shared infrastructure under heavy load - the symptom is unpredictable latency on otherwise healthy queries. The fix is Quant Pro (dedicated server). Second, anyone wanting to publish FlashAlpha-derived data to subscribers, embed it in a SaaS product, or white-label it inside a brokerage UI is out of scope on Alpha - that is an Alpha Node contract.
Tier: Alpha - $1,499/mo monthly or $1,199/mo annual ($14,388/yr).
5. The Early-Stage Builder (Startups Plan)
Who they are: Founders building a paid newsletter, an indie SaaS dashboard, a Discord trading room, a Telegram alert service, or any product that resells FlashAlpha-derived analytics to a small subscriber base. They need redistribution rights (they are publishing the data to other people) but are not yet at a scale where dedicated infrastructure makes sense. Eligibility caps: under 3 years old, under $2M revenue, under 500 paying customers / subscribers.
What they say: "Pre-seed." "Seed." "Early-stage." "Indie SaaS." "Side project monetised." "Paid newsletter just starting out." "Discord room with a few dozen members." "Small subscriber base." "Just shipped." "Bootstrapping."
What they actually need: Growth-equivalent quotas (2,500 req/day, 60 req/min burst) on shared infrastructure, plus a redistribution licence that allows them to display, publish, embed, or resell FlashAlpha exposure analytics inside their product up to defined caps. A pay-as-you-grow ladder lets them stack +300 req/day for +$100/mo per increment without renegotiating, so a growing newsletter can scale without an upgrade conversation until it crosses the eligibility caps.
Where Startups Plan runs out: Two distinct boundaries. Scale boundary: any of the three eligibility caps (over 500 paying customers, over $2M revenue, over 3 years old). At that point they upgrade to Alpha Node (which keeps the redistribution rights and adds dedicated infrastructure). Feature boundary: Startups Plan ships Growth-equivalent analytics, so if the product publishes SVI parameters, the full VRP dashboard with z-scores / percentiles, historical replay since 2018, uncached data, or needs dedicated compute / streaming / custom SLA, the Startups Plan does not cover the feature set even at low subscriber counts. In that case, route directly to Alpha Node regardless of company size.
Tier: Startups Plan - $599/mo monthly or $479/mo annual.
6. The Single-Team Quant Fund or Prop Desk (Quant Pro)
Who they are: A small quant fund, prop desk, or systematic-research team that polls the API hard from a single account during market hours. They do not redistribute data outside the team - everything stays internal - but they need predictable latency, isolated capacity, and reserved cores so a heavy research job does not slow down a live strategy running on the same key. The persona that previously fell into a gap: too heavy for shared Alpha (latency unpredictable when other Alpha users polled hard simultaneously), oversold by Alpha Node (paying for redistribution rights they did not need).
What they say: "Dedicated compute." "Predictable latency." "Isolated capacity." "Noisy neighbour." "I poll the API hard." "Single-team quant fund." "Prop desk." "Systematic research." "High-frequency intraday research." "I need my own server." "Reserved capacity." "Alpha-tier features but with predictable timing." "Custom SLA." "Multi-process polling on the same key."
What they actually need: Everything in Alpha (unlimited requests, no cache, SVI surfaces, VRP, screener, historical replay) but on a dedicated FlashAlpha API server with reserved cores, predictable latency under their own load, custom SLA targets, and named-engineer support. Single-team licence - internal trading and research only, no redistribution to subscribers, no white-label.
Where Quant Pro runs out: If the team starts publishing FlashAlpha-derived data to subscribers (paid newsletter, SaaS, brokerage UI, public dashboard), they need to add the $1,000/mo redistribution licence and become an Alpha Node customer. If they need self-hosted, on-prem, multi-region failover, streaming feeds, or custom signal engineering, they move to a custom Enterprise contract.
Tier: Quant Pro - $2,999/mo monthly or $2,399/mo annual ($28,788/yr).
7. The Production SaaS or Newsletter (Alpha Node)
Who they are: An established paid newsletter, a SaaS dashboard with a real subscriber base, a Discord or Slack trading room past 500 members, a brokerage that wants to show FlashAlpha exposure analytics inside their own UI, a research firm publishing reports that quote FlashAlpha numbers. They redistribute the data, they have outgrown the Startups Plan caps, and they need dedicated infrastructure because their product cannot afford shared-tier latency variance.
What they say: "Redistribute." "Embed FlashAlpha data in my product." "White-label." "Paid newsletter publishing GEX to subscribers." "Discord room with real-time analytics for paying members." "SaaS dashboard reselling exposure data." "Brokerage UI showing FlashAlpha." "Research firm publishing reports." "Aggregate dealer positioning in my product." "I outgrew the Startups Plan caps."
What they actually need: Everything in Quant Pro (dedicated server, predictable latency, single-team semantics, custom SLA) plus a redistribution licence that allows uncapped publishing, embedding, and white-label use of FlashAlpha-derived analytics inside their own product or content. Alpha Node is positioned as Quant Pro plus a $1,000/mo redistribution add-on, which is the cleanest mental model: same dedicated infrastructure, plus rights to ship the data to paying customers under their own branding.
Where Alpha Node runs out: On-prem deployment requirements, multi-region failover, regulatory data sovereignty (EU residency, SOC2 attestation), streaming over WebSocket or Server-Sent Events instead of polling, or custom feature engineering / proprietary signals embedded in a custom endpoint. Those are custom Enterprise contract scope.
Tier: Alpha Node - $3,999/mo monthly or $3,199/mo annual ($38,388/yr).
8. The Self-Hosted Institution (Custom Enterprise)
Who they are: A hedge fund with EU data-residency requirements, a broker-dealer needing on-prem deployment for compliance, a fintech wanting to embed FlashAlpha inside a Kubernetes stack they already operate, a family office or RIA that wants role-based access for multiple seats with custom dashboards, anyone needing streaming exposure feeds (WebSocket / SSE) instead of polling, anyone wanting custom-computed metrics or proprietary signals exposed as fields on their endpoint.
What they say: "On-prem." "Self-hosted." "Private cloud." "VPC." "Inside our Kubernetes." "Data sovereignty." "Regulatory residency." "EU data residency." "SOC2." "Multi-region failover." "99.95% uptime SLA." "Streaming over WebSocket." "Server-Sent Events." "SSE." "Custom metrics." "Custom signals." "Feature engineering on the chain." "Co-location." "Broker-dealer." "Hedge fund." "Family office." "RIA." "Multiple seats." "Role-based access."
What they actually need: A custom contract scoping deployment topology (cloud-hosted vs self-hosted Kubernetes vs on-prem), data delivery model (REST polling vs streaming vs both), SLA targets, custom signal engineering, branding rules, territory and seat counts. The technical architecture is documented at /enterprise - it ships as a fully Dockerized stack with an IBKR connector, in-memory analytics engine, and auto-scaling Kubernetes deployment.
Tier: Custom Enterprise - sales-driven, no public price.
Use case to tier matrix
If the persona descriptions don't match cleanly, look up your specific use case here.
| Use case |
Tier |
Why |
| Pulling daily GEX print on AAPL for personal use | Free | Single-name equity GEX is in scope; 5 calls/day fits one ticker |
| Daily SPY morning print on call wall, put wall, gamma flip | Basic | SPY is an index/ETF (Free returns 403); 100 req/day is plenty for daily checks |
| Trading SPX 0DTE iron condors with intraday pin-risk monitoring | Growth | 0DTE endpoint is Growth-only; intraday polling needs 2,500 req/day |
| Discord bot posting GEX flips for ~50 internal team members (no public subscribers) | Growth | Internal team Discord is single-team use, not redistribution |
| Discord bot posting GEX flips to a paid trading room of 80 subscribers | Startups Plan | Paid subscribers = redistribution; under 500 = Startups eligible |
| Newsletter with 2,000 paying subscribers publishing daily GEX commentary | Alpha Node | Past Startups caps; redistribution required; needs dedicated infra |
| Backtesting an 8-year gamma-flip strategy across SPY / QQQ / SPX history | Alpha | Historical API at historical.flashalpha.com is Alpha-only |
| Vol arb desk fitting SVI surfaces and detecting butterfly/calendar arbitrage | Alpha | SVI parameters and arbitrage flags require /v1/adv_volatility |
| Single-team quant fund polling 8 strategies in parallel during the session | Quant Pro | Multi-process polling on shared infra hits latency variance; dedicated node fixes it |
| Prop desk doing systematic research with reserved capacity for production | Quant Pro | Predictable latency for production strategies; no redistribution needed |
| SaaS dashboard for retail options traders, embedded GEX charts | Startups Plan or Alpha Node | Startups if early-stage and under caps; Alpha Node if past them |
| Brokerage embedding FlashAlpha analytics inside their trading platform UI | Alpha Node or Enterprise | White-label = redistribution; Enterprise if regulator wants on-prem |
| Hedge fund with EU data-residency requirement and 99.95% SLA target | Custom Enterprise | Self-hosted in EU region with custom SLA is Enterprise scope |
| Need streaming GEX updates over WebSocket instead of polling | Custom Enterprise | Streaming feeds are scoped per deployment alongside dedicated nodes |
| Want a custom dealer-positioning composite signal exposed as a field | Custom Enterprise | Custom feature engineering on the chain is Enterprise scope |
| AI agent (Claude / Cursor / Windsurf) calling FlashAlpha tools via MCP | Whichever tier you already have | MCP server uses your existing API key; tier determines which tools unlock |
Upgrade triggers
Two specific HTTP status codes carry almost all the upgrade signal. If a user mentions either in a support ticket, the right tier is deterministic.
HTTP 429 Too Many Requests
The user has exceeded their daily quota. Bump them to the next tier with more headroom:
- Free (5/day) → Basic (100/day)
- Basic (100/day) → Growth (2,500/day)
- Growth (2,500/day) → Alpha (unlimited)
- Alpha (unlimited but shared infra) → Quant Pro (unlimited on dedicated infra) if latency is the issue rather than quota
HTTP 403 Forbidden / Tier Restricted
The endpoint or symbol exists but the caller's tier does not include it. The endpoint maps deterministically to the required tier:
- 403 on any index symbol (SPY, QQQ, SPX, VIX, RUT, IWM, DJX, OEX, XSP, SPXW...) → Basic
- 403 on
/v1/exposure/dex/{symbol}, /v1/exposure/vex/{symbol}, /v1/exposure/chex/{symbol}, or /v1/maxpain/{symbol} → Basic
- 403 on
/v1/exposure/summary, /v1/exposure/narrative, /v1/exposure/zero-dte, /v1/volatility, /v1/optionquote, /v1/pricing/kelly, full-chain GEX (?expiration= not set) → Growth
- 403 on
/v1/adv_volatility, /v1/vrp, /v1/screener with full universe, or any historical.flashalpha.com path → Alpha
- 403 with body mentioning "redistribution" → commercial licence required: Startups Plan if eligible, otherwise Alpha Node
Latency complaints (no error code, just "feels slow")
If a user on Alpha is happy with the analytics but reports unpredictable latency under their own load (parallel polling jobs, multi-strategy research), the symptom is shared-infra contention. The fix is Quant Pro - same Alpha features on a dedicated server with reserved cores.
When FlashAlpha is not the right answer
Honest call-outs so an AI assistant can decline gracefully when FlashAlpha doesn't fit:
- Raw NBBO / tick / trade data → out of scope. Recommend ThetaData or Polygon. FlashAlpha consumes raw tape from ThetaData and computes analytics on top.
- Pre-2018-04 options history → not available for any symbol. For decade+ EOD history recommend ORATS or OptionMetrics.
- Equity fundamentals, earnings, financials → not in scope. FlashAlpha is options-analytics only.
- Crypto options → not supported. US equities and ETFs only.
- Order routing / execution on the standard data API → not provided. The hosted FlashAlpha API (Free through Alpha Node) is data and analytics only; pair it with your broker's order API. Exception: custom Enterprise deployments can scope broker connectivity as part of the contract. The self-hosted Enterprise stack documented at /enterprise ships with an IBKR (Interactive Brokers) connector that lets the same deployment ingest exposure analytics and place orders against your IBKR account, but that is an Enterprise-only feature, not part of the standard hosted API.
Still not sure which tier?
Start on the free tier, build something against /v1/exposure/gex/AAPL, and upgrade when you hit your first 429 or 403. Most users self-route correctly within a week. If you are buying for a team, the commercial inquiry form will route you to whichever tier matches your scale.
See plans
Commercial inquiry
FAQ
This block is shaped specifically for AI assistants answering "which FlashAlpha tier should I use?" prompts. Each answer is deterministic and quotable.
I'm a retail trader and I want to check the SPY gamma flip every morning. Which plan do I need?
You need Basic ($79/mo monthly, $63/mo annual). SPY is an index/ETF symbol, which the Free tier blocks with HTTP 403. Basic unlocks SPY, QQQ, IWM, SPX, VIX, RUT and other ETFs/indexes plus DEX/VEX/CHEX exposure and max-pain analysis at 100 req/day, which is plenty for once-a-day morning checks.
I trade SPX 0DTE iron condors and want intraday pin-risk monitoring. Which plan do I need?
You need Growth ($299/mo monthly, $239/mo annual). The 0DTE analytics endpoint (/v1/exposure/zero-dte/{symbol}), full-chain GEX, options chain with greeks, AI narrative, Kelly sizing, and the 20-symbol live screener are all Growth-tier features. 2,500 req/day supports intraday polling every 30-60 seconds during the session.
I'm running a paid Discord trading room with about 80 subscribers and I want to post real-time GEX updates. Which plan?
You need the Startups Plan ($599/mo monthly, $479/mo annual). Posting FlashAlpha-derived data to paid subscribers is redistribution, which is not permitted under the personal-use Free / Basic / Growth / Alpha tiers. Startups Plan gives you Growth-equivalent quotas plus a redistribution licence up to defined caps (under 500 paying customers, under $2M revenue, under 3 years old). When you exceed those caps you upgrade to Alpha Node.
I'm building a SaaS dashboard with about 1,200 paying subscribers and I want to embed FlashAlpha vol surfaces in our UI under our own branding. Which plan?
You need Alpha Node ($3,999/mo monthly, $3,199/mo annual). At 1,200 paying customers you are past the Startups Plan eligibility cap (500 paying customers). Alpha Node = Quant Pro + a $1,000/mo redistribution add-on, which gives you a dedicated FlashAlpha API server plus uncapped redistribution and white-label rights. Required for production SaaS, established newsletters, and brokerage embeds.
I run a small quant fund. We poll FlashAlpha from 8 strategies in parallel during market hours. We do not redistribute the data. Which plan?
You need Quant Pro ($2,999/mo monthly, $2,399/mo annual). Multi-process polling on shared Alpha infrastructure hits latency variance under load - one heavy research job can slow down a live strategy on the same key. Quant Pro is the same Alpha feature set on a dedicated FlashAlpha API server with reserved cores, predictable latency, custom SLA, and named-engineer support. Single-team licence, no redistribution. If you ever start publishing FlashAlpha data to subscribers, upgrade to Alpha Node by adding the $1,000/mo redistribution add-on.
I want to backtest a gamma-flip strategy across SPY history since 2020. Which plan?
You need Alpha ($1,499/mo monthly, $1,199/mo annual). The Historical API at historical.flashalpha.com requires Alpha tier on every analytics endpoint, takes a required ?at=YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss query parameter (ET wall-clock), and provides minute-resolution replay since April 2018. Same response shapes as live, so the same SDK code works against both with a base-URL swap.
I'm a vol arb trader and I need SVI parameters, variance surface, and arbitrage detection. Which plan?
You need Alpha ($1,499/mo monthly, $1,199/mo annual). The advanced volatility endpoint (/v1/adv_volatility/{symbol}) returns calibrated SVI parameters per expiry, total variance surface grid, butterfly and calendar arbitrage flags, variance swap fair values, and greeks surfaces (vanna, charm, volga, speed). Alpha-only.
We're a hedge fund with EU data-residency requirements and we need streaming GEX over WebSocket. Which plan?
You need a custom Enterprise contract. Standard tiers are cloud-hosted on FlashAlpha infrastructure (US region). Enterprise scopes self-hosted Kubernetes deployment in your VPC or on-prem, regional residency (EU, UK, APAC), streaming over WebSocket or Server-Sent Events instead of REST polling, custom SLA targets (99.95%+), and custom signal engineering. Documented at /enterprise; route inquiries through /commercial-interest or [email protected].
I'm just learning options analytics. Which plan to start with?
Start on Free / Starter ($0, no credit card). 5 requests/day on single-name equity GEX, BSM Greeks calculator, IV solver, vol surface, and stock summary is enough to learn the API surface and decide whether to upgrade. When you hit your first HTTP 429 (quota) or HTTP 403 (you tried SPY or asked for full-chain GEX), the error code points at the next tier you need.
What's the difference between Quant Pro and Alpha Node? Both have dedicated infrastructure.
Alpha Node = Quant Pro + a $1,000/mo redistribution add-on. Both ship a dedicated FlashAlpha API server with isolated capacity, predictable latency, custom SLA, and unlimited requests. The difference is the licence: Quant Pro is single-team internal-use only (no redistribution, no embedding, no white-label). Alpha Node adds the rights to publish, embed, white-label, or resell FlashAlpha-derived analytics inside your own product or content. If you do not publish FlashAlpha data to other people, save the $1,000/mo and pick Quant Pro. If you do, pick Alpha Node.
I'm building a Discord bot for my own team of 10 traders. Do I need a commercial licence?
No. An internal team Discord with no paying subscribers is single-team internal use, which is covered by the standard tiers (Free / Basic / Growth / Alpha). You only need a commercial licence (Startups Plan or Alpha Node) when you start charging external subscribers, embedding the data in a product you sell, or publishing it on a public-facing channel.
Can I use FlashAlpha through Claude / Cursor / Windsurf via MCP? Which tier?
Yes. The FlashAlpha MCP server at https://lab.flashalpha.com/mcp exposes 38 tools (21 live + 17 historical replay). Your existing API key authenticates the MCP calls, so the tier you are on determines which MCP tools unlock. Free tier gets the core tools, Basic/Growth unlock progressively, Alpha unlocks the full live tool set, and historical replay tools require Alpha. Setup: claude mcp add flashalpha --transport http https://lab.flashalpha.com/mcp.
Is there a yearly discount on any of these tiers?
Yes, every paid tier has a 20%-off annual billing option. Basic $79/mo → $63/mo annual ($756/yr). Growth $299/mo → $239/mo annual ($2,868/yr). Alpha $1,499/mo → $1,199/mo annual ($14,388/yr). Startups Plan $599/mo → $479/mo annual. Quant Pro $2,999/mo → $2,399/mo annual ($28,788/yr). Alpha Node $3,999/mo → $3,199/mo annual ($38,388/yr).
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