Kraken API

Cryptocurrency / API Key Intermediate HTTPS
84 A
Measured Score 0 50 100 Speed 29/30 Consistency 17/20 Security 20/20 Browser access 10/15 Transparency 8/15 TESTED 2026-08-10

Overview

Kraken is one of the oldest and most trusted U.S.-regulated cryptocurrency exchanges, offering a robust REST API for accessing real-time market data, account management, and order execution. Public endpoints for ticker data, OHLC candles, and order books require no authentication, making it easy to start exploring without an account. Private trading endpoints use a HMAC-SHA512 signature scheme for secure access.

Beginner Tip

Try the public ticker endpoint first — it requires no API key and returns price data for any trading pair; Kraken asset names can differ from conventions (Bitcoin is "XXBT" not "BTC"), so check the /Assets endpoint to confirm correct names.

Measurement Record

What actually happened when we called this API from our own infrastructure. Every value below was recorded by the request, not copied from the provider's documentation.

Request
GET https://api.kraken.com/0/public/Ticker?pair=XBTUSD
Result
HTTP 200 · application/json · 309 bytes · compressed
Response time
35 ms (median of 3) · fastest 32 ms
Transport
TLSv1.3 · TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 · certificate issued by Google Trust Services
Browser CORS
Allowed — Access-Control-Allow-Origin: https://apisscore.com
Served by
cloudflare
Recorded
2026-08-10

Fields Returned

Top-level fields present in the response we captured, with the type and value we actually received.

Field Type Value received
XXBTZUSD object {9 fields}

Captured Response

Captured from a real request to https://api.kraken.com/0/public/Ticker?pair=XBTUSD on 2026-08-10. Long arrays and nested objects are truncated to keep the shape readable.

JSON Response · Captured
{
  "error": [],
  "result": {
    "XXBTZUSD": {
      "a": [
        "63953.60000"
      ],
      "b": [
        "63953.50000"
      ],
      "c": [
        "63951.90000"
      ],
      "v": [
        "1072.12575824"
      ],
      "p": [
        "64426.16452"
      ],
      "t": [
        38802
      ],
      "l": [
        "63750.00000"
      ],
      "h": [
        "65328.80000"
      ],
      "o": "64860.00000"
    }
  }
}

Field Reference

error List of error strings; empty array means the request succeeded.

Implementation Example

Calls a real endpoint of this API. Replace any placeholder credentials with your own key.

Request
const url = "https://docs.kraken.com/rest/";
// Replace headers or query params with the values required by this API.
const response = await fetch(url, {
  headers: {
  "X-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"
  }
});
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

What Can You Build?

Note: These code examples are AI-generated and unverified. Always refer to the official API documentation for accurate usage.

How This API Fails

We deliberately sent this API a broken request and recorded exactly what came back on 2026-08-10. Knowing the shape of an error before you hit it makes error handling much easier to write.

HTTP 404 Requesting a path that does not exist application/json
{
  "error": [
    "EGeneral:Unknown method"
  ]
}

Common Errors & Troubleshooting

Generated guidance based on this API's documentation, not observed by us. Treat it as a starting point and check against the provider's own error reference.

EGeneral:Invalid arguments (Unknown asset pair) Kraken uses its own internal naming: "XXBT" for Bitcoin and "ZUSD" for USD in pair names.
Call GET /0/public/AssetPairs to list all valid pair names, then use the exact "altname" value like "XBTUSD".
EAPI:Invalid nonce For private endpoints, the nonce must be a strictly increasing integer on every request.
Use Date.now() in JavaScript or int(time.time()*1000) in Python to generate a millisecond-precision nonce.
EAPI:Rate limit exceeded Kraken's tier-based rate limiting counts API calls within a 15-minute window.
Space out requests and consider using Kraken's WebSocket API for continuous market data instead of polling REST.

Measured Score Breakdown

Live HTTP request to the API endpoint

Speed 29/30
Consistency 17/20
Security 20/20
Browser access 10/15
Transparency 8/15
Endpoint Response Time 35ms

Fully tested on Aug 10, 2026

Technical Specifications

Auth API Key
HTTPS REQUIRED
CORS UNKNOWN
Category Cryptocurrency
Difficulty Intermediate
Endpoint last called: 2026-08-10

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