Metals.dev alternatives
Five ways to price gold and metals beyond metals.dev's blended-number, 30-day-history model, at every point on the price-to-depth spectrum.
At $1.79/mo for 2,000 requests, metals.dev is one of the cheapest ways into a broad multi-metal catalog: gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and a full industrial-metals list on one key, in 170+ currencies, with a free 100-requests/month tier that needs no card. Its authority endpoint names LBMA, LME, MCX, and IBJA as contributing benchmarks, a rare bit of transparency among blended-number catalogs.
The limits show up in depth rather than price. Historical requests cap at a 30-day window each, daily history only reaches 5+ years back, and the per-price blend weights across those four authorities aren't published. There's no MCP integration and no live-oracle real-time feed distinct from its delayed pricing (up to 60 seconds). Anyone who needs deeper history, agent integration, or a transparent per-source number ends up comparing alternatives.
metals-api.com
Same catalog shape, higher floor: broad multi-metal-plus-FX coverage, roughly tied on currencies (170+), and matched breadth on industrial metals. Entry price is $29/mo, well above metals.dev's $1.79/mo, and its own page doesn't detail a free tier or historical-depth figure the way metals.dev's 5+-years/30-day-window claim does.
MetalpriceAPI
A middle ground on price (seven tiers, $3.99/mo to $55.99/mo) and a narrower metals list (gold, silver, platinum spot only, no industrial metals). 150+ currencies against metals.dev's 170+. Update cadence scales up to 15-second on its top Business tier, faster than metals.dev's up-to-60-second delay.
goldprice.dev
Our productmetals.dev is cheaper to start and covers more metals. goldprice.dev makes up for that with a sources[] array carrying per-source license and timestamp rather than a blended number, MCP on every plan (nine tools, including Free), and daily XAU history back to 1996 with an unlimited query range on Pro, against metals.dev's 5+ years and 30-day-per-request cap. Gold starts at $10/mo Physical; silver and copper join at $30/mo Pro.
goldapi.io
The strongest historical-depth alternative: 20+ years of daily history and LBMA AM/PM fix redistribution rights, starting at $4.99/mo. Narrower catalog than metals.dev though, no platinum, palladium, or industrial metals. 160+ currencies. No WebSocket or MCP, matching metals.dev's own gaps there.
gold-api.com
The free-tier alternative for a gold-and-silver-only need: unlimited real-time pricing with no rate cap and no card required, plus Bitcoin on the same key. Historical and OHLC calls cap at 10/hour on free; the $10/mo Premium plan removes that cap. No platinum, palladium, or industrial metals, and no published methodology.
FAQ
- metals.dev names its sources (LBMA, LME, MCX, IBJA). Isn't that already transparent?
- More than most catalogs, yes. Its authority endpoint names the four benchmarks it blends, which beats a fully opaque single number. What it still doesn't disclose is the blend weights or a per-source breakdown at the individual price level, so two calls returning the same number could be weighted differently underneath.
- What's the cheapest way to get more historical depth than metals.dev's 5+ years?
- goldapi.io offers 20+ years of daily history from $4.99/mo. goldprice.dev goes back to 1996 on daily bars, though only from its paid tiers upward, and the 30-day window cap only applies to metals.dev, not to the others listed here.
- Which alternative covers the same breadth of industrial metals as metals.dev?
- metals-api.com. Both ship aluminum, nickel, zinc, and the rest of the industrial list on one key. The two are effectively tied on currencies, both at 170+, and metals.dev is cheaper to start at $1.79/mo versus $29/mo.
- Is there an MCP-native alternative for AI agent use?
- goldprice.dev. Its MCP server ships nine tools on every plan, including Free. metals.dev has no Model Context Protocol offering.
- What if I only need gold and want metals.dev's free tier without the 30-day history cap?
- gold-api.com's free tier is unlimited real-time gold and silver with no rate cap, though historical and OHLC requests cap at 10/hour until its $10/mo Premium plan removes the limit entirely.