For builders
Build on IBKR: The Wall Nobody Warns You About
Serve IBKR data from your server and the exchanges treat you as a licensed data vendor. Here's the rule, what it costs, and the way around it.
Educational information only.
Two ways to build — one has a $60k door
The decision that shapes everything: does market data flow through your own servers (redistribution), or straight to each user's own machine (not redistribution)?
- $60k IBKR Web API integration fee (nonrefundable)
- Exchange market-data licenses on top — separate cost, required to show charts at all
- Need 250 active users before you can even apply
- 3–4 months: compliance review + CEO approval
- $0 licensing spend
- Runs on your users' own IBKR subscriptions
- No scale gate, no audits
- Ship now — differentiate on the local + AI layer
The $60k is IBKR's Web API integration fee; exchange market-data licenses are a separate, additional cost. Figures change — verify current terms with IBKR and the exchanges.
The rule, in one sentence
Exchanges license their price data; the moment it flows from infrastructure you operate out to your users, you're a redistributor — regardless of it coming from IBKR.
A local app, where each user connects their own IBKR session under their own subscriptions, never redistributes anything, so the licenses, fees, and gate simply don't apply.
Go Deeper
- How to legally display IBKR market data without becoming a data vendor
The redistribution rule, and the one architecture that sidesteps it. Start here.
- The IBKR market-data license costs nobody warns builders about
The $60k IBKR integration fee, the separate exchange licenses on top, and the 250-user gate — verify current terms with IBKR.
- Why your IBKR trading app should be local, not cloud
The trade-off, plainly: convenience vs the exchange-vendor regime.
- Build a local IBKR + AI chart app: the MCP + Connector pattern
The concrete architecture — local host, connector, and an MCP write channel.
- Build your own IBKR tool, or use one? A cost and compliance checklist
Decide between building, adopting a local tool, or getting help.
See the pattern in action
MyLinedChart is the local, IBKR-only, MCP-native reference.
These show what the local + AI layer actually does: draw support and resistance with Claude · custom indicators in plain English · let your AI set up the chart.