SEC EDGAR API vs SecFeed API: Raw EDGAR or Clean JSON?

The official SEC EDGAR APIs are free and the primary source. SecFeed parses the same filings into ready rows. What each one gives you, and when the free one is enough.

Every number SecFeed serves comes from EDGAR. So the real question is not which data is better, it is whether you want to do the parsing yourself.

The short answer

• Use the free SEC APIs if you need XBRL facts (revenue, assets, shares) or a company's filing list, you are fine with quarterly bulk files for insider trades and 13F, and you can live with 10 requests per second.
• Use SecFeed if you need parsed rows from the filings themselves (insider trades, 13F holdings, 8-K items, 10-K sections, executive pay) as soon as they are filed, without writing and maintaining parsers.

At a glance

What the official APIs do well

They are the primary source, they cost nothing, and they need no account. The XBRL endpoints are excellent: companyfacts gives every reported fact for a company, and frames gives one fact across all companies for a period. The JSON updates during the day, and nightly bulk ZIPs let you mirror whole datasets. If your project is a financial ratio screen built on XBRL, the free API may be all you need.

Where the work starts

The SEC publishes filings as filed. Turning them into rows is your job:

• Insider trades. Live data means one XML document per Form 4, across several schema versions and amendments. The quarterly bulk files are cleaner but arrive months later.
• 13F. The same pattern: quarterly bulk files, or one information table per filing.
• 8-K and 10-K text. No item or section split. Each company's HTML is different, and it changes from year to year.
• Throughput. At 10 requests per second, walking millions of filings takes days, and the SEC may block IPs that go over or skip the User-Agent rule.

The same task both ways

Recent open market insider purchases over $100,000.

With the SEC APIs, you list recent Form 4 filings, download each XML document, parse the non derivative transaction table, keep code P, multiply shares by price and filter. That is a parser plus a crawler you maintain.

With SecFeed it is one call:

import os, requests

r = requests.get("https://secfeedapi.com/v1/insider-trading",
                 params={"code": "P", "minValue": 100000, "size": 50},
                 headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['SECFEED_KEY']}"}, timeout=60)
for t in r.json()["transactions"]:
    print(t["tx_date"], t["ticker"], t["owners"][0]["name"], t["value"])

When SecFeed is the wrong choice

If you only need XBRL numbers or filing lists, and you can wait for quarterly bulk files, use the free SEC APIs. Paying for data you can get in one free request is a bad deal. SecFeed earns its price when the parsing, the crawling and the upkeep would cost you more than $19 a month of your time.

For more on the official endpoints, see our SEC EDGAR API guide and the SEC fair access rules.

Facts about SEC EDGAR were taken from its public website and docs on 2026-10-22. Plans and prices change, so check their site before you decide. SEC EDGAR is a trademark of its owner; SecFeed is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by it. Spotted something wrong or out of date? Email support@secfeedapi.com and we will fix it.