Alpha Vantage MCP Server

What is Alpha Vantage MCP Server?

The Alpha Vantage MCP Server is the official hosted MCP server for the Alpha Vantage market data API. It lets Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code and other clients pull real-time and historical stock, options, forex, crypto, commodity, economic and technical indicator data.

Alpha Vantage is a long-running financial data API used by developers, investors, students and educators. The MCP server exposes Alpha Vantage functions directly as MCP tools: clients discover them with tools/list and call them by name, for example TIME_SERIES_DAILY(symbol="IBM", outputsize="compact"). It is listed in Claude's connector directory and ChatGPT's app directory, and its source code is on GitHub at alphavantage/alpha_vantage_mcp.

How to use Alpha Vantage MCP Server?

First, claim a free Alpha Vantage API key at alphavantage.co. The recommended remote connection uses OAuth:

https://mcp.alphavantage.co/mcp

When you connect, an authentication page opens in your browser where you enter and authorize your Alpha Vantage API key. To rotate the key later, disconnect, reconnect and enter the new key.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http alphavantage https://mcp.alphavantage.co/mcp

Then run /mcp, select alphavantage and authenticate in the browser. Alpha Vantage also documents a local option: claude mcp add alphavantage -- uvx marketdata-mcp-server YOUR_API_KEY.

Claude Desktop and claude.ai

Go to Settings → Connectors, click Add → Browse connectors, search for "Alpha Vantage", open Alpha Vantage MCP Server, click Connect, enter your API key on the authentication page and click Authorize Access. Any free or paid Claude account works.

Cursor

In ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "alphavantage": {
      "url": "https://mcp.alphavantage.co/mcp"
    }
  }
}

VS Code

In .vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "alphavantage": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.alphavantage.co/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Alpha Vantage's README also shows a legacy form that puts the key in the URL (https://mcp.alphavantage.co/mcp?apikey=YOUR_API_KEY) for clients without OAuth. It is marked deprecated, and a key in a URL is easy to leak, so prefer the OAuth URL.

Key features of Alpha Vantage MCP Server

• Official server from Alpha Vantage, with Anthropic- and OpenAI-verified connector listings.
• OAuth flow that stores your API key server-side instead of in local config files.
• Core stock APIs: intraday, daily, weekly and monthly time series (adjusted and raw), quotes, bulk quotes, symbol search and market status.
• Options data, plus Alpha Intelligence: news sentiment, earnings call transcripts, top gainers and losers, insider transactions and institutional holdings.
• Fundamentals: company overview, income statement, balance sheet, cash flow, earnings and IPO calendars.
• Forex, cryptocurrencies, commodities (oil, natural gas, metals, agriculture) and U.S. economic indicators such as GDP, CPI, treasury yields and unemployment.
• More than 50 technical indicators, including SMA, EMA, MACD, RSI and Bollinger Bands (BBANDS).
• Congressional trading data via CONGRESS_TRADES and POLITICIAN_METADATA.

Use cases of Alpha Vantage MCP Server

• Price history: "Give me last week's OHLCV data for IBM."
• Technical analysis: "Pull intraday prices and the RSI for NVDA and tell me if it looks overbought."
• Fundamentals: "Chart Apple's quarterly earnings for the last two years."
• Cross-asset comparison: "Compare the monthly performance of gold, silver and Bitcoin."
• Macro context: "What has the federal funds rate and CPI done over the past year?"
• News scan: "Summarize recent news sentiment for Tesla."

Troubleshooting Alpha Vantage MCP Server

• You hit request limits quickly. Alpha Vantage's standard free usage is 25 API requests per day. Premium plans raise the limit (from 75 requests per minute) and unlock premium functions.
• You need to change the API key. Disconnect the server, reconnect and enter the new key on the authentication page.
• The model answers from memory instead of calling tools. Alpha Vantage suggests telling the agent that its functions are exposed as MCP tools and to always use the server for market data.
• Your client has no OAuth support. Use the local uvx marketdata-mcp-server YOUR_API_KEY option, or the deprecated ?apikey= URL as a last resort.