Real time options data
Real time options data is the continuous stream of trades, quotes, volume and open interest produced by listed options contracts during market hours. Realtime Options publishes it as near real-time analytics for US stocks and ETFs: continuously updated with minimal latency, derived from licensed third-party market data rather than a direct exchange feed, at $25 per month after a 7-day trial on 15-minute delayed data.
- Coverage
- US-listed stock and ETF options
- Latency
- Near real-time on Pro, 15-minute delay on trial
- Source
- Licensed third-party market data, not a direct exchange feed
- Price
- $25/month, 7-day trial, no card required
- Programmatic access
- None. Dashboards only, no public API
What counts as real time options data
Four distinct data types get grouped under the term, and they are not interchangeable. Knowing which one a vendor sells is the difference between paying for what you need and paying for a quote screen you already have in your broker.
- Trade prints: every executed options contract with size, price and timestamp. This is what options flow is built from.
- Quotes: the live bid and ask on each contract. Brokers give you this free; standalone vendors charge for it.
- Volume and open interest: how many contracts traded today, and how many are still held open. Open interest updates once per day after the close, so it is never truly real-time.
- Derived analytics: gamma exposure, net premium, put/call ratio, weighted flow. Computed from the first three, which is where the research value sits.
Near real-time versus real-time, honestly
Realtime Options is near real-time, not a direct exchange feed. Data arrives through licensed third-party APIs and goes through proprietary processing before it reaches a dashboard, which adds latency measured in seconds rather than microseconds.
That distinction matters if you are running latency-sensitive execution. It does not matter much if you are researching where premium is concentrated across strikes, which is what these dashboards are for. Direct exchange feeds with OPRA entitlements cost several hundred dollars a month before you write a line of code.
Where free real time options data actually exists
Genuinely free real-time US options data does not exist outside a funded brokerage account. Anything advertised as free real-time options data is one of three things: 15-minute delayed data, a broker platform you already pay for through order flow, or a trial.
- Your broker: real-time quotes and chains, free with a funded account, no flow analytics.
- Delayed feeds: Yahoo Finance, CBOE's public pages. 15 minutes behind, fine for end-of-day study.
- Trials: this platform gives 7 days of full dashboard access on 15-minute delayed data with no card required.
What Realtime Options gives you and what it does not
The platform is research software. It aggregates and visualises options market data; it does not execute trades, issue signals or provide financial advice.
| Included | Not included |
|---|---|
| Weighted net call and put flow against price | Order entry or broker connectivity |
| Premium heat grid by strike and expiry | A raw option chain quote screen |
| Gamma, vanna and charm by strike | Buy or sell signals and trade alerts |
| 0DTE gamma exposure around spot | A public options data API |
| Open interest by strike with premium overlay | Indian F&O or non-US markets |
| Historical flow for pattern research | Personalised investment advice |
Questions people ask about this
Is real time options data worth paying for?
It depends on which of the four data types you need. Quotes are free from your broker, so paying for them again is waste. Derived flow analytics are not available from a broker, and building them yourself means licensing raw prints and writing the aggregation, which costs more than $25 per month in both fees and time.
How delayed is the free trial data?
15 minutes. Every dashboard works during the trial and shows real market data, just shifted back a quarter of an hour. That is enough to judge whether the analytics are useful before subscribing, and not enough to trade on intraday.
Do you republish raw exchange data?
No. Market data is licensed from third-party providers and processed through proprietary analytics before display. What you see is aggregated output for independent research, not a redistributed exchange feed.
Realtime Options is a data analytics and visualisation platform. It does not provide financial advice or trading recommendations, and it is not a registered investment advisor or broker-dealer. Options trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors.