Upcoming changes to pricing plans

Effective May 1, 2024, we're updating our usage-based pricing rates. These changes reflect improvements based on user feedback, as well as adjustments to account for external factors like rising venue licensing fees and colocation costs.

Usage-based customers can expect a slight increase in $/GB rates, but some will see a reduction. This table summarizes each pricing change per schema across datasets and our historical and live services. Prices which will be reduced are highlighted in green, while prices which will be increased are highlighted in red.

Databento is committed to improving your product experience. We're adjusting usage-based rates to make our data catalog's pricing more affordable and consistent across datasets. Here's a brief overview of the rationale behind these changes:

Following an internal study of usage behavior and feedback patterns, Databento's primary goal has been to address common concerns by lowering certain usage-based pricing rates. This includes substantially reducing costs for newer datasets like OPRA, ICE Europe, and ICE Endex, as well as for some of our popular schemas. For example, users have reported significant price increases for MBP-1 (up to 82x) compared to TBBO, and our updated rates will narrow this gap.

The same analysis also identified opportunities to drive cost savings and offer more flexibility for our users. Over the next four months, Databento will roll out the following enhancements:

• Expanded US equities coverage for all users.
• A new subsampled BBO schema to lower costs for entry-level users.
• An economical flat-rate (unlimited use) tier for non-commercial users.
• Reduced fees on Enterprise (unlimited use) tier plans for commercial users, as well as the option to subscribe to live and historical Enterprise plans separately.

While it may seem counterintuitive that some usage-based rates are increasing, these upticks lay the groundwork for more affordable flat-rate pricing plans and the introduction of more cost-effective schemas in the near future.

Databento uses a semi-automated approach to determine usage-based pricing against a basket of vendors' prices and venue licensing (distribution) fees. We resolved a few edge cases of our pricing algorithm, such as scenarios where MBO (L3, full order book) data is cheaper than MBP-1 (L1, top of book) data. The improvements will also reduce variance in pricing changes so that users will see more stable pricing going forward.

Datasets that cover multiple asset classes, like CME and ICE, can have drastic differences in trade-to-order ratios and liquidity profiles. This can create distorted effects, e.g., where a single unit price costs too little for options trades but is too expensive for futures trades. This is a complex problem to solve, and the updated rates are adjusted to be as fair as possible for all users.

All usage-based customers will be affected by the new pricing rates, starting May 1. Apart from reviewing the table linked above, you can:

• Check our Pricing page for new rates. If you're interested in an Enterprise flat-rate plan, some are now offered at a lower cost.
• Use our metadata.get_cost and metadata.list_unit_price API endpoint.
• Select instruments on our website to get an instant price quote.
• Set a monthly limit and monitor usage on your Data usage dashboard.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our support team. We'll always provide at least 30 days' notice for pricing changes as per Section 2.1(c) of the Databento User Agreement.