edgarkit

EdgarKit vs OpenInsider

OpenInsider has been the go-to web dashboard for SEC insider trading data since the early 2010s. EdgarKit covers the same SEC source data, but as a JSON API for developers and quant teams. They solve adjacent problems.

The short answer

OpenInsider is a free, browser-based tool for humans. You go to the site, search a ticker or browse the cluster-buy screener, and read filings as HTML tables. There is no API.

EdgarKit is a JSON API. You build it into your code, a webhook, an alert system, an LLM agent, or a backtest. There's no dashboard.

If you're a discretionary investor checking insider buys before a trade, OpenInsider is fine. If you're building anything programmatic, you need an API.

What each one is good at

OpenInsider strengths

  • Free, no signup, immediate access.
  • Polished filters for the most-used insider screens (cluster buys, top dollar value, top officer buys).
  • Familiar to anyone who's followed insider data for the last decade.
  • Decent for one-off lookups and ad-hoc browsing.

EdgarKit strengths

  • JSON API: integrate into code, webhooks, AI agents, dashboards you build yourself.
  • Real-time push via webhook (paid tiers). OpenInsider has no webhooks.
  • Stable, versioned API contract. Build on it without worrying about HTML scraping breaking.
  • CUSIP-to-ticker mapping included in every response.
  • Includes Form 3, Form 5, 13D/G, 8-K, 10-K, 10-Q, 13F. OpenInsider only covers Form 4.

Side-by-side

| | OpenInsider | EdgarKit | |---|---|---| | Type | Web dashboard | JSON API | | Cost | Free | Free tier + $19/$79 paid | | API | None official; many people scrape it | Yes, primary product | | Forms covered | Form 4 only | Form 3, 4, 5, 13F, 13D/G, 8-K, 10-K, 10-Q, S-1, more | | Webhooks | None | Yes (paid tiers) | | Latency | Dashboard updates roughly hourly | ~30 seconds from SEC acceptance | | CUSIP to ticker | Implicit (display only) | Explicit in API response | | Cluster screener | Yes, built in | Build it yourself with the API (one query) | | Historical depth | Several years | Full history available | | Filings detail | Linked out to SEC | Inline JSON with all fields parsed |

The OpenInsider scraping trap

A lot of small projects start by scraping OpenInsider's HTML. It works for a weekend, then breaks for one of these reasons:

  • OpenInsider periodically changes its HTML structure. Your selectors stop matching.
  • It rate-limits aggressive scrapers (sometimes silently — you get partial results).
  • It has no SLA. If the site is slow or down, your product is too.
  • You're depending on a third party that's depending on the SEC, instead of going direct.

If you're considering scraping OpenInsider, EdgarKit's free tier covers the same data without the fragility.

When OpenInsider is the better answer

  • You're a human looking up insider data interactively, not building anything.
  • You like the screener UI and don't need to integrate the data anywhere.
  • You're not running a regular workflow that depends on it.

When EdgarKit is the better answer

  • You're building a product, an alert system, a newsletter pipeline, a dashboard, or an AI agent.
  • You need any form besides Form 4 (OpenInsider doesn't cover them).
  • You need real-time push (webhooks) rather than polling.
  • You want to write code, not write scrapers.

Replicating OpenInsider's cluster-buy screener via API

OpenInsider's most-loved screener is "cluster buys": multiple insiders buying the same stock within a tight window. Here's the same query through EdgarKit, returning a JSON list you can sort, filter, and ship to a customer or post to Slack:

# All open-market purchases (code P) over $50k in the last 14 days
curl "https://api.edgarkit.com/v1/filings?form_type=4&transaction_code=P&min_value=50000&since=2026-06-04&limit=200" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Then in your code, group by issuer_cik, count distinct reporter_cik values, and surface anything with 3+ distinct buyers. That's the cluster.

What about pricing?

OpenInsider is free, EdgarKit has a free tier (1,000 calls/month) and paid plans starting at $19/mo. For most personal projects and prototypes, the free tier is enough. The paid tiers exist when you're running an actual product.

FAQ

Does OpenInsider have an API?

No, OpenInsider does not publish an official API. People scrape the HTML, but it's fragile and breaks when the site updates. EdgarKit was built to be the API that OpenInsider's tooling community has been improvising for years.

Is the data different?

The source is the same: SEC Form 4 filings. OpenInsider displays the data through a curated dashboard; EdgarKit returns the data as structured JSON. Same underlying filings.

Can I get cluster-buy detection on EdgarKit?

Yes, but you write the cluster logic yourself with the API. The advantage is you can tune the window (7 days, 14 days, etc.) and the minimum thresholds to whatever your strategy needs, rather than being stuck with OpenInsider's defaults.

What's the fastest way to get started?

Sign up for a free EdgarKit API key, then run a single curl against /v1/filings filtered by form_type=4 and your ticker. You'll have the same data OpenInsider shows, structured as JSON, in under five minutes.

Does EdgarKit cover institutional holdings the way OpenInsider doesn't?

Yes. EdgarKit covers 13F filings (institutional quarterly holdings) and 13D/G (large beneficial owners), which OpenInsider doesn't surface at all.