Best Free Tools for Students/Researchers

Portfolio123

Portfolio123 combines stock and ETF screens, ranking systems, point-in-time backtests, portfolio tracking, broker links, DataMiner, and API access.

Quartr

Quartr provides earnings calls, live transcripts, filings, reports, decks, estimates, AI chat, and investor-relations data. The app is useful for free call and transcript access; Pro and API serve professional research, MCP, webhooks, and integrations.

SEC.gov (EDGAR)

SEC.gov EDGAR is the official free source for U.S. company, fund, insider, and 13F filings, with full-text search, RSS, bulk archives, and public JSON APIs. It is the validation source for filings research, not a polished commercial terminal.

Stock Analysis

Stock Analysis combines screeners, financial statements, calendars, news, charts, forecasts, watchlists, and portfolios on web and mobile. Paid plans add longer history, higher limits, exports, ETF holdings, broker sync, and analyst filters. The service does not provide brokerage execution, advice, or programmatic data access.

TIKR

TIKR is a browser equity-research terminal for global fundamentals, statements, estimates, valuation, transcripts, filings, and screens. It suits long-term stock research; paid plans add history, coverage, exports, and higher workflow limits.

Alpha Spread

Alpha Spread combines DCF and relative-value estimates, stock reports, screens, alerts, analyst forecasts, watchlists, and a company-question assistant. Free use is metered weekly.

Alpha Vantage

Alpha Vantage is an API-first source for market and economic data. Developers, students, quants, and analysts can pull stocks, funds, FX, crypto, options, commodities, fundamentals, news, sentiment, and macro series with one key. The free quota is small, and commercial use needs separate licensing.

AlphaResearch

AlphaResearch puts filings, transcripts, press releases, estimates, news, insider trades, ownership, and fund holdings in one searchable workspace. It is aimed at document-heavy research. Global coverage and spreadsheet add-ins require Enterprise, and the premium trial asks for a card.

Bank of England

The Bank of England site is the primary free source for UK monetary-policy decisions, MPC minutes, Monetary Policy Reports, rates, exchange rates, statistics, and yield-curve files. It is a reference source for macro research, not a trading app. Some series arrive as downloads rather than through a complete API.

Bank of Japan (BOJ)

The Bank of Japan site publishes Japan's monetary-policy releases, meeting calendar, statistics, charts, time-series downloads, and API access. It is useful for primary-source rates, FX, money stock, TANKAN, balance-of-payments, and central-bank data. It is not a security research or trading terminal.

BIS Data Portal

The Bank for International Settlements' free data portal covers banking, credit, debt, derivatives, liquidity, property prices, exchange rates, central banks, and payments. It includes charts, downloads, a release calendar, and an SDMX API.

Börsdata

Börsdata gives investors long-history Nordic fundamentals, ratios, screens, ownership, insider and short-selling data, technical charts, reports, watchlists, calendars, and spreadsheet or API access. It is strongest for Nordic equities. Global data, holdings, Excel or Sheets workflows, and the REST API depend on the plan.

Calcbench

Calcbench extracts and standardizes financial data and disclosure text from SEC filings. Users can trace values to source documents, compare filings, work in Excel, or license API access separately.

Capitol Trades

Capitol Trades tracks U.S. congressional trading disclosures under the STOCK Act. Filter trades by politician, issuer, chamber, party, committee, state, asset, transaction type, sector, size, and filing details. Disclosures can arrive after the trade, and reported amounts are ranges rather than exact fills.

DATAROMA

DATAROMA is a focused tracker for superinvestor 13F portfolios, portfolio changes, and insider buying. It is handy for finding managers and ideas to investigate. Verify the filing date, position size, and current fundamentals before drawing a conclusion.

Dune

Dune lets users query decoded blockchain data with SQL and turn it into dashboards, APIs, alerts, uploads, and agent workflows. It is for custom onchain research across many chains, not a fixed crypto market-data screen.

ECB Data Portal

The European Central Bank's free portal provides euro-area statistics, policy rates, exchange rates, yield curves, macroeconomic series, metadata, and an SDMX API.

EDINET

EDINET is Japan's official corporate-disclosure system. Search issuers, securities, funds, stock codes, document types, keywords, and dates, then retrieve filings, XBRL resources, taxonomy files, and API results.

EIA Open Data

EIA Open Data is the U.S. government's source for energy statistics and operational data. Browse the series or use the free API, bulk files, and spreadsheet tools for commodity, utility, macro, and energy-market research.

EMMA

EMMA is the official transparency site for U.S. municipal securities. It combines trade prices, offering documents, continuing disclosures, ratings, issuer information, new-issue calendars, alerts, and market statistics for muni-bond research.

ETF Central

ETF Central is a free site for screening, comparing, monitoring, and learning about U.S.-listed ETFs. It includes flows, news, a 100-ETF watchlist, model portfolios, and a portfolio builder.

European Central Bank (ECB) - Statistics & Data

European Central Bank Statistics & Data is the ECB's primary source for euro-area statistics, policy rates, FX reference rates, yield curves, inflation, macro indicators, downloads, and SDMX access. It supplies the data behind macro research, not investment-app commentary.

EveryTicker

EveryTicker is a free research site for U.S. stocks, including companies with little analyst coverage. It has fundamental reports, a stock screener, watchlists, 13F holdings, financial data, and a weekly themes newsletter.

FDIC BankFind Suite (BankFind)

The FDIC's free lookup and data service covers insured U.S. banks and branches, bank histories, structure changes, failures, financials, deposits, API access, and bulk files.

Financial Modeling Prep (FMP)

Financial Modeling Prep provides API and spreadsheet access to market data, fundamentals, news, calendars, transcripts, ownership, and macroeconomic data. The free Basic tier is an end-of-day test plan. Real-time, global, transcript, 13F, intraday, and bulk access require paid plans. Display or redistribution requires a separate commercial agreement.

FinancialData.Net

FinancialData.Net provides market data, fundamentals, ownership, options, funds, ESG, calendars, and news through REST, Excel, and MCP interfaces. It covers stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, futures, crypto, foreign exchange, commodities, OTC securities, and indexes. The free plan is limited, and the homepage security claims are not supported by a public audit report.

FINRA Fixed Income Data

FINRA Fixed Income Data publishes U.S. bond details, TRACE transactions, trade history, and aggregate market reports. It is useful for checking executed prices and volumes. TRACE is not a live quote system, exchange, or execution venue.

FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)

FRED is the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis' free macroeconomic database. Use its series, charts, release calendar, Excel tools, mobile apps, and REST API for inflation, rates, GDP, employment, FX, credit, and market indicators. It is macro context, not equity fundamentals or brokerage infrastructure; API access needs a free key.

GeminIQ

GeminIQ organizes U.S. 10-K and 10-Q data into financial statements, calculated metrics, charts, tables, screens, watchlists, ownership views, and post-filing price analysis. Values retain XBRL tags and links to SEC filings, but new data arrives the next day rather than live.

Global Factor Data (JKP Factors)

Global Factor Data publishes equity factor returns, underlying portfolios, industry returns, reference files, and construction code. It covers 153 published factors across 93 countries and four regions. The data is for noncommercial research, not live trading.

Investopedia

Investopedia combines free finance education, market news, explainers, calculators, newsletters, and a Stock Simulator. It is useful for beginners, students, educators, and practice accounts. The simulator uses delayed data, limited exchanges, and limited options, so it is not live execution or professional trading infrastructure.

Marketstack

Marketstack is an APILayer REST service for prices, end-of-day history, intraday bars, corporate actions, reference data, ETF holdings, bond yields, commodities, analyst ratings, and SEC EDGAR datasets. It suits prototypes and products that need a simple stock API. It is not a charting app, broker, portfolio tracker, or unlimited institutional license.

MetricSide

MetricSide is a free fundamentals site for quarterly trends, valuation ratios, cash flow, margins, balance sheets, and a transparent 100-point health score. It is a quick first pass on listed stocks, with narrower coverage than a full database. Check important figures against filings.

OpenBB

OpenBB combines an open-source data layer with a hosted Workspace for dashboards, AI research, agents, and teams. It connects your providers, internal data, widgets, and MCP tools rather than supplying production market data itself. Community, Lite, and Pro cover different collaboration and enterprise needs.

PCAOB AuditorSearch

PCAOB AuditorSearch identifies the audit firm and engagement partner for U.S. public-company audit reports. The records come from Form AP filings submitted by registered firms.

SentiSense

SentiSense is a beta AI market-intelligence and data API service for stock data, sentiment, news clusters, social signals, institutional flows, insider trades, congressional disclosures, and generated analysis. It supplies research signals, not brokerage or advice.

StockInsights.ai

StockInsights.ai summarizes filings and earnings calls, categorizes disclosures, monitors watchlists, and exposes company data through APIs and MCP. It covers U.S. and Indian markets. Commercial use, redistribution, webhooks, and custom workflows require Business or Solutions terms.

Stockoscope

Stockoscope organizes U.S. stock research around quality, peers, valuation, analysts, and holdings. It adds scores, peer ranks, intrinsic-value models, estimates, ownership, screens, editable strategies, watchlists, and news. Coverage is U.S.-only and usually refreshes daily or after the close.

The Ledger Terminal

The Ledger Terminal is a web fundamental-research service with one-page U.S. stock sheets, valuation charts, quality checks, screens, comparisons, and SEC-linked history. It is built for long-term business analysis, not trading or portfolio accounting.

TickerTrends

TickerTrends estimates public-company KPIs from search, web traffic, apps, social, reviews, news, transcripts, financial data, and consensus. It can add alternative evidence for investors and quants, but the signals are proxies and need validation.