COMPARISON

Filingrail vs sec-api.io

Both are REST APIs for SEC EDGAR data. This is an honest, factual comparison of how they differ on price, freshness, coverage, billing, and source-filing traceability — so you can pick the right one for your workload.

We name the facts as they stand today. Pricing and features change on both sides — verify the live figures on each provider’s own pricing page before you commit. sec-api.io is a separate company and an independent product; nothing here is endorsed by them.

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AT A GLANCE

The short version

If you want the cheapest credible commercial entry point, a single response envelope, and a link back to the source filing on every response, Filingrail is the leaner choice. If you need the widest catalog of per-form-type endpoints or streaming as a hard requirement, sec-api.io has a longer head start there.

  • Price entry point

    Filingrail’s first paid tier is $9/mo for 5,000 requests. sec-api.io’s lowest recurring commercial plan is $55/mo. The free tiers differ too: a recurring 50/day vs a one-time 100 lifetime calls.

  • Billing surface

    Filingrail bills through RapidAPI as merchant of record — one dashboard, one invoice, instant key issuance. sec-api.io is a direct account-and-card relationship on their own platform.

  • Source traceability

    Filingrail puts meta.source_filing_url on every response. That per-response link straight to sec.gov is the wedge for audit-conscious workflows.

SIDE BY SIDE

Filingrail and sec-api.io, dimension by dimension

Plain facts in both columns. Where a value depends on the provider’s current plan, we say so rather than pin a number that might drift.

Comparison of Filingrail and sec-api.io across pricing, billing, freshness, coverage, and source traceability.
Dimension Filingrail sec-api.io
Free tier $0 — 50 requests / day, renews daily. Full access to all seven endpoint groups. $0 — 100 requests total, one-time lifetime allowance (not a recurring quota).
Entry paid tier $9 / month — 5,000 requests / month. $55 / month (their lowest recurring commercial plan).
Mid paid tier $49 / month — 50,000 requests / month. $239 / month.
High-volume tier $199 / month — 500,000 requests / month. Custom / enterprise pricing (contact sales).
Billing surface RapidAPI. RapidAPI is the merchant of record — it issues your key, meters usage, and invoices you. No separate payment relationship with us. Direct account + payment relationship with sec-api.io. You create an account and add a card on their platform.
Source traceability meta.source_filing_url and meta.source_filing_date on every single response — a link straight back to the originating SEC filing on sec.gov. Returns SEC accession numbers and filing metadata in responses; a per-response source-filing URL is not a documented contract on every endpoint.
Data source SEC EDGAR directly. No third-party data brokers. Compliant User-Agent on every upstream call. SEC EDGAR directly.
Freshness Refreshed daily from EDGAR. New filings appear in the recent-filings endpoint within minutes of EDGAR acceptance during the daily ingest window; structured data follows the same nightly cycle. Offers near-real-time streaming on higher tiers; full streaming and historical depth are gated behind the paid plans.
Endpoint coverage Seven endpoint groups: company search, recent filings, financials (XBRL-normalized), financials history, insider trades (Form 4), 8-K events, 13F holdings. Broad catalog of per-form-type endpoints (one per filing type), plus full-text search and a query API.
Response shape One consistent envelope across all endpoints: a data object plus a meta object. Same shape everywhere. Endpoint-specific response shapes that mirror each form type.
MCP / agent support MCP Playground enabled through the RapidAPI listing — drop into Claude Desktop, Cursor, or any MCP client. REST API; MCP support is not a documented first-class feature.
Support Async email, support@hudsonenterprisesllc.com — same business day, no phone or video calls. Email support; response terms vary by plan.

sec-api.io figures reflect its public pricing and documentation at the time of writing and may change. Always confirm against the provider’s own current pricing page before deciding.

THE DECIDING WEDGE

Every value traces back to a source filing.

Filingrail attaches meta.source_filing_url and meta.source_filing_date to every response. You can trace any number on any chart back to the exact SEC filing it came from — no data-broker layer, no provenance gap.

For audit, compliance, and equity-research workflows, that per-response link is the practical difference between “here is the filing” and “trust our pipeline.” It is the single feature most worth checking when you compare any two SEC-data APIs.

filingrail · response · 200 OK 
{
  "data": { /* one row per filing, parsed and normalized */ },
  "meta": {
    "ticker": "AAPL",
    "as_of": "2026-06-04T08:00:00Z",
    "source_filing_url": "https://www.sec.gov/...10-K...",
    "source_filing_date": "2026-02-01"
  }
}

The two meta fields above are the traceability contract — present on every endpoint.

HONEST CALL

When each one is the better fit

Pick Filingrail when…

  • You want the cheapest credible commercial entry point ($9/mo for 5,000 requests).
  • You need a source-filing link on every response for audit or compliance.
  • You already run APIs through RapidAPI and want one billing surface.
  • You want a recurring free tier to evaluate against real workloads over days, not 100 lifetime calls.
  • The mainstream building blocks — financials, insider trades, 8-K events, 13F holdings — cover your needs.

Pick sec-api.io when…

  • You need the widest catalog of per-form-type endpoints, including niche forms.
  • Real-time streaming push for new filings is a hard requirement.
  • You want full-text search across the entire EDGAR corpus as a first-class endpoint.
  • You prefer a direct vendor account over a marketplace billing relationship.

Both products read from the same public source — SEC EDGAR — so the underlying filings are identical. The difference is in price, packaging, billing, freshness model, and whether every response carries a link back to its source filing. Try Filingrail’s free tier and judge it against your own workload.

FAQ

Common questions

Still deciding? Email support@hudsonenterprisesllc.com — same business day response.

Is Filingrail a drop-in replacement for sec-api.io?
Not literally — the two APIs have different URL shapes and response schemas, so you migrate rather than swap a base URL. What overlaps is the core job: structured access to SEC EDGAR data (financials, insider trades, 8-K events, 13F holdings, filings, company search) as clean JSON. If you are using sec-api.io for those building blocks and want a lower entry price, a single response envelope, and a per-response link back to the source filing, Filingrail covers the same ground.
How do the prices actually compare?
Filingrail is $0 for 50 requests a day (renewing daily), then $9, $49, and $199 per month for 5,000 / 50,000 / 500,000 requests. sec-api.io is $0 for 100 lifetime requests, then $55 and $239 per month, with enterprise pricing above that. The clearest gap is the entry commercial tier: $9 vs $55. Check both providers’ live pricing pages before you decide — pricing can change.
What is the free tier difference?
Filingrail’s free tier is a recurring daily quota — 50 requests per day, every day, so you can keep evaluating or run a small workload indefinitely. sec-api.io’s free allowance is a one-time pool of 100 lifetime requests, which is designed for a quick look rather than ongoing evaluation. If you want to test against real workloads over several days, the recurring daily quota is the practical difference.
What does “source-traceable” mean and why does it matter?
Every Filingrail response carries meta.source_filing_url (a link to the exact SEC filing on sec.gov) and meta.source_filing_date. When an auditor, compliance reviewer, or CFO asks where a number came from, you click the link instead of explaining a data pipeline. For regulated and audit-conscious workflows this provenance is the differentiator — it removes the “trust us” gap between a figure on your dashboard and the filing it came from.
Who handles billing — and do I create an account with Hudson Enterprises?
You subscribe through RapidAPI, and RapidAPI is the merchant of record. It issues your API key, meters your usage, and invoices you. You do not create a separate payment relationship with Hudson Enterprises LLC. sec-api.io, by contrast, is a direct account-and-card relationship on their own platform. If you already run other APIs through RapidAPI, Filingrail folds into that same dashboard and invoice.
Does Filingrail cover the same filing types?
Filingrail ships seven endpoint groups covering the most-requested SEC building blocks: company search, the recent-filings stream, XBRL-normalized financial statements, historical financials, Form 4 insider trades, 8-K material events with item-code tagging, and 13F-HR institutional holdings. sec-api.io maintains a wider catalog of per-form-type endpoints. If you need a niche or rarely-used form type, confirm coverage on both sides first; for mainstream fundamentals, insider, events, and holdings work, the two overlap directly.
How fresh is Filingrail’s data?
Filingrail is refreshed daily from SEC EDGAR. New filings appear in the recent-filings endpoint within minutes of EDGAR acceptance during the daily ingest window, and the structured endpoints (financials, insider, 8-K, 13F) follow the same nightly cycle. Filingrail is not a sub-minute real-time market feed — polling EDGAR that aggressively would breach EDGAR’s fair-access policy. If you need streaming push for new filings as a hard requirement, evaluate that capability on both providers.
How do I try Filingrail?
Subscribe to the free Basic tier on the RapidAPI listing — 50 requests a day, no credit card. Copy your X-RapidAPI-Key from the RapidAPI dashboard and make your first call. There is no separate signup with us; RapidAPI handles the key and the billing.

Try Filingrail free — decide for yourself.

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