IBKR market data: the free feed shows no NBBO, and the number of live quotes you get is your monthly commissions divided by eight
What Interactive Brokers publishes about market data, read on 24 September 2026: the free streaming feed is non-consolidated, every account starts at 100 quote lines, and the allocation formula means 60 depth-of-market symbols requires $48,000 a month in commissions. The price list itself is not on the pricing page.
Interactive Brokers charges among the lowest commissions in the industry, which we set out in Tiered vs Fixed. Market data is priced on a different principle, and the rules for it are published while the prices largely are not.
What arrives free, and what it is missing
Read from IBKR’s market data pricing page on 24 September 2026:
| Included at no charge | The catch |
|---|---|
| Real-time streaming quotes on all US-listed stocks and ETFs, from Cboe One and IEX | Non-consolidated: it does not show the NBBO |
| Delayed data on other products where available | Delay is typically 10–20 minutes, 10 on CME, CBOT, COMEX and NYMEX, 15 on OPRA |
| 100 snapshot quotes a month | A snapshot is static, not streaming, and shown at the point of order entry |
The first row is the one that matters. IBKR’s own definition: consolidated data combines all exchanges to show the National Best Bid and Offer, and “non-consolidated real-time data only provides data from some exchanges and does not show the NBBO”. The free feed is a partial view of the market by design, and paying for Network A, B or C data is what buys the consolidated tape.
One line on the same page deserves reading twice: “in accordance with regulatory requirements, IBKR no longer offers delayed quotation information on U.S. equities to Interactive Brokers LLC clients”. So on US shares the choice is the free non-consolidated feed or a paid subscription. Delayed is not an option.
How many quotes you are allowed
Data is not only priced, it is rationed. Every account starts with 100 concurrent lines of real-time data and, in IBKR’s words, “always” has at least that. After the first month the allowance is the greater of three values:
| Basis | Formula |
|---|---|
| Commissions | monthly USD commissions ÷ 8 |
| Equity | USD equity × 100 ÷ $1,000,000 |
| Floor | 100 |
IBKR’s own worked examples: $16 of commissions with $950,000 of equity still gives 100 lines, because $16 ÷ 8 is 2 and $950,000 works out at 95. At $500 of commissions and $1,245,000 of equity the allowance is 124.
Turn the formula around and it prices attention:
| To get | You need |
|---|---|
| 100 lines | nothing, it is the floor |
| 200 lines | $1,600 a month in commissions, or $2m in equity |
| 500 lines | $4,000 a month, or $5m |
| 6,000 lines | $48,000 a month, or $60m |
Depth of market is rationed twice
The order book is allocated from the same allowance: one symbol for every 100 quote lines, minimum three, maximum 60. A default account can therefore watch the depth of three symbols at once. Reaching the cap of 60 takes 6,000 lines, which is $48,000 a month in commissions or $60m in equity.
Multiple windows on the same symbol are free. IBKR’s example: BookTrader, Market Depth and ISW open on IBKR at once still counts as one of the three.
For anyone comparing platforms on order flow tools, this is the line that decides whether the tool is usable. Depth is where the difference between platforms shows up, and we costed the dedicated ones in order flow platform pricing.
The prices are not on the pricing page
IBKR’s market data pricing page explains consolidation, billing, professional status, delays and allocation. What it does not carry is a list of subscriptions with their monthly fees. Those sit in the Market Data Assistant inside the account.
The page does name a few figures, and it names them inside an example of how commission waivers work rather than as a price list:
| Subscription, as shown in IBKR’s example | Fee | Commissions that waive it |
|---|---|---|
| US Securities Snapshot and Futures Value Bundle | $10.00 | $30.00 |
| OPRA Top of Book (L1), US option exchanges | $1.50 | $20.00 |
| Shanghai 5-second snapshot, via HKEx | $1.00 | $5.00 |
| Shenzhen 3-second snapshot, via HKEx | $1.00 | $5.00 |
Waivers are not cumulative and are “applied first to the highest priced service”. In the example, $30 of commissions waives the $10 bundle and nothing else; $60 waives all four.
Read that as a mechanism rather than as your bill. The figures come from a worked example, and the subscriptions you need will differ.
Four rules that cost money quietly
No pro-rating. Subscribe or unsubscribe mid-month and you pay the full month either way.
A minimum equity balance applies to subscribing at all: $500 for an individual account, $200 for non-professional advisors and introducing-broker clients, $100 for Indian residents on an IB India account. The page is explicit that this is on top of the cost of the service.
You can be billed for data on products you may not trade. A regulatory restriction on trading a product “does not prohibit you from subscribing to” its data, and if you subscribe, the fee applies.
IBKR keeps 5% to 10% of market data fees for administrative costs and passes the rest to the vendor. That is unusually candid for a pass-through line, and it means the fee is not purely the exchange’s.
Some data has a fee before any client subscribes
A separate IBKR page lists exchange access fees, charged to an organisation rather than to a retail client:
| Exchange access product | Monthly fee |
|---|---|
| BATS EU | GBP 950 |
| Nasdaq Global Index Data Service | USD 800 |
| Nasdaq Mutual Fund Dissemination | USD 230 |
| Nordic Equities, non-professional | EUR 800 |
| Nordic Equities, professional | EUR 2,140 |
| Eurex Core, Xetra, STOXX indices, Tradegate | waived |
An organisation may opt out by blocking its clients from subscribing. That is the published reason some feeds are simply unavailable on some accounts, and it has nothing to do with the client’s willingness to pay.
One more programme worth knowing, from the options commissions page: Cboe runs a Frequent Trader scheme with rebates on certain proprietary products, and clients “must contact the exchange directly” to apply, then notify IBKR by email so orders carry the right identifier. Nobody sets that up for you.
Before you subscribe
Check whether you need the NBBO. If you scalp US shares, the free feed does not show it.
Count your quote lines against the formula. At retail commission levels the answer is 100, whatever the platform can display.
Check the depth allowance if you trade the order book. Three symbols is the default, and raising it is a function of commissions or equity rather than a fee you can pay.
Decide inside one calendar month. There is no pro-rating in either direction, and whether your status is professional changes the price of every line: we set out that classification in professional market data status.
What we checked, and what we didn’t
The free-data terms, consolidation definitions, allocation formula, deep-data rule, minimum equity table, billing rules and waiver example were read from IBKR’s market data pricing page on 24 September 2026. Exchange access fees are from its knowledge base article on the subject, and the Cboe Frequent Trader note from its options commissions page. The commission and equity figures in our tables are arithmetic on IBKR’s published formula.
We have not reproduced the subscription price list, which IBKR does not publish on that page, and the four fees above appear there inside an example of the waiver mechanism. We hold no IBKR account and have not been billed for any of this.
Sources
- Interactive Brokers: market data pricing
- Interactive Brokers: market data exchange access fees
- Interactive Brokers: options commissions, exchange programmes