The short answer
On Monday, June 22, 2026, Databento raised its CME Standard plan from $179 to $199 per month (re-read 2026-10-11). Customers who held CME Standard before then keep $179 for 12 months, then renew at $199, provided the plan stays continuously active. Existing Plus and Unlimited customers kept their pricing; metered per-GB historical pricing and the $125 credit did not change.
On Monday, June 22, 2026, Databento raised the CME Standard plan from $179 to $199 per month and lifted several Plus and Unlimited tiers for CME, ICE and US equities at the same time, as announced in its May 29, 2026 pricing-update post (re-read 2026-10-11)1. Subscribers who held CME Standard before the change keep $179 for 12 months, so until June 2027, then renew at $199, but only if the plan stays continuously active; cancel and restart and the new rate applies1. Databento's pricing page lists Standard at $199 today2. Databento cites higher exchange license fees and expanded historical coverage as the reason1. If you are weighing Databento against a flat-tier vendor, model the effective annual cost in the Data Vendor TCO.
TL;DR
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What changes | CME Standard subscription rate |
| Old price | $179/month |
| New price | $199/month |
| Effective | Monday, June 22, 2026 (in force) |
| Grandfathered | Existing customers keep $179 for 12 months |
| Catch | Plan must stay continuously active |
| Unaffected | Existing Plus and Unlimited plans |
All figures re-read from Databento's official pricing-update post on 2026-10-111. The new Plus and Unlimited rates in the same post: CME Globex MDP 3.0 $1,750 (Plus) and $4,500 (Unlimited), Databento US Equities $4,000 (Unlimited), and $2,500 for each ICE dataset on Unlimited1.
What changed on June 22
Databento's June 22 update touched its CME-anchored subscription ladder, not its metered historical model. The headline is the CME Standard plan moving from $179 to $199 per month1. Plus and Unlimited tiers for CME Globex MDP 3.0, ICE and Databento US Equities rose on the same date; Databento attributes the change to exchange license fees and broader included history1.
The metered, pay-per-GB historical pricing and the $125 in free credits for new sign-ups were not part of this announcement; the pricing page still shows both on 2026-10-11, with credits expiring after six months2. The change is narrowly about the recurring subscription rate, so a builder who only buys historical data by the gigabyte is not directly affected.
The grandfather clause, exactly
If you already hold a CME Standard plan, Databento keeps you at $179/month for 12 months, after which the plan renews at $1991. The condition is continuity: the plan "must remain continuously active," and "if it's canceled and later restarted, the new rate will apply"1. There is no partial credit for a lapse — a single cancel-and-resubscribe resets you to the $199 rate immediately.
For a quant running an always-on CME feed, the practical move is to avoid pausing the subscription over a quiet research month. The $20/month gap is small in absolute terms, but the grandfather window only pays off if the plan is never interrupted across the next year.
Why Databento raised it
Databento attributes the increase to two forces: "higher license fees introduced by several exchanges" and "the growing historical coverage included in these plans"1. The first is a pass-through — exchanges like CME set the underlying market-data license fees, and a redistributor's subscription has to absorb them. The second is a value argument: the included historical depth has grown since the CME Standard plan launched at $179 on April 16, 20253.
That framing matters for budgeting. This is not a one-off promotional reset; it tracks exchange licensing, which trends upward. A team planning multi-year data spend should treat $199 as the current floor for CME Standard, not a ceiling, and revisit at renewal.
Who is not affected
Databento is explicit that "existing Plus and Unlimited customers are not affected by these changes and their plans will remain at their current pricing"1. The CME Standard plan was introduced on April 16, 2025 to bridge usage-based and enterprise pricing, and the former Enterprise tiers were renamed Plus and Unlimited at that time3.
So the people who feel this are CME Standard subscribers and prospective buyers of the affected enterprise CME, ICE, and US-equities tiers. Pure metered historical users, and existing Plus and Unlimited holders, see no change. If you are net-new and only need occasional historical pulls, the $125 credit and per-GB billing remain the cheapest on-ramp2.
How this changes the Databento-vs-Polygon math
At $179, CME Standard undercut the flat $199/month Stocks Advanced tier at Polygon.io (now Massive); at $199 the two headline numbers match14. The products still differ: Databento's Standard plan is a CME futures dataset with depth (L2 and L3 history for the last month), while Massive's Stocks Advanced is US equities without order-book depth, and Massive's own CME futures data is a separate Futures Advanced plan, also $199/month4.
The decision logic holds: pick Databento when you need venue-level depth or bursty metered historical pulls, and Polygon's flat Advanced tier when you want predictable, unlimited real-time US-equity calls4. What June 22 removes is Databento's $20/month price advantage on the CME Standard line for new subscribers. Run your resolution and history depth through the Data Vendor TCO to compare Databento's flat plans with the flat-tier vendors; metered pulls are priced by Databento's own usage estimator, since it publishes no per-GB rates.
What should CME Standard users do now?
- Grandfathered at $179: keep the plan continuously active until the 12-month window ends; a cancel-and-restart moves you to $199 immediately1.
- New subscribers: the grandfather pool closed on June 22; budget $199/month2.
- Only need occasional history: the metered per-GB model plus the $125 credit is unaffected; no subscription decision needed2.
- Comparing vendors: headline prices now match Massive's $199 tiers, so decide on venue, depth and usage shape. For CME specifically, compare Massive's Futures Advanced plan; for equities, see Polygon.io vs Databento vs Alpaca 2026.
Verified figures
The $179-to-$199 CME Standard change, the June 22 2026 effective date, the new Plus and Unlimited rates, the 12-month grandfather term, the continuity condition, and the statement that existing Plus and Unlimited customers keep their pricing were re-read from Databento's official "Updates to subscription pricing" post on 2026-10-111. The $179 launch price and the Enterprise-to-Plus/Unlimited rename come from the April 16 2025 CME-plans post3. Metered pricing, the $125 credit and the current $199 Standard price were read from Databento's pricing page, and Massive's $199 tiers from massive.com/pricing, both on 2026-10-1124. Where a per-GB rate was not publicly displayed, it is omitted rather than estimated.
Connects to
- Is Databento Worth It in 2026: the worth-it question after the increase.
- Data Vendor TCO: compare Databento's flat plans with flat-tier vendors for your scenario.
References
Footnotes
-
Databento. "Updates to subscription pricing." (CME Standard $179→$199/month, effective Monday June 22 2026; 12-month grandfather for existing customers, continuity condition; reason = higher exchange license fees + growing historical coverage; existing Plus and Unlimited unaffected; new Plus and Unlimited rates). Posted 2026-05-29, re-read 2026-10-11. https://databento.com/blog/updates-to-subscription-pricing ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14
-
Databento. "Pricing" (Standard $199/month; metered per-GB historical; $125 free credits, six-month expiry). Re-read 2026-10-11. https://databento.com/pricing ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6
-
Databento. "Introducing new CME pricing plans" (CME Standard launched $179/month on April 16 2025; existing Enterprise plans renamed Plus and Unlimited; usage-based CME live pricing discontinued). verified 2026-10-18. https://databento.com/blog/introducing-new-cme-pricing-plans ↩ ↩2 ↩3
-
Massive (formerly Polygon.io). "Pricing" (Stocks Advanced $199/month real-time US equities, no depth-of-book product; Futures Advanced $199/month real-time CME, CBOT, NYMEX, COMEX). Re-read 2026-10-11. https://massive.com/pricing ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4
Verified engine output
Show the recompute-verified inputs and outputs
| vendor_id | databento |
|---|---|
| universe | medium |
| resolution | minute |
| needs_live | 1 |
| vendor › id | databento |
|---|---|
| vendor › name | Databento |
| vendor › url | https://databento.com |
| vendor › short pitch | Flat plans: Standard $199/mo (live data, 16+ years of trade and bar history), Unlimited $4,500/mo for years of order-book history. Strong for institutional-quality tick + L2 data. Usage-based historical is billed per GB. |
| vendor › has overage | false |
| vendor › last checked | 2026-11-02 |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › name | Standard |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › monthly | 199 |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › includes live | true |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › includes options | false |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › includes futures | true |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › resolutions › row 1 | daily |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › resolutions › row 2 | minute |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › resolutions › row 3 | second |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › resolutions › row 4 | tick |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › history years | 16 |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › notes › row 1 | Monthly subscription, no license fees: live data, 16+ years of L0 history (trades, OHLCV), 1 year of L1 and 1 month of L2/L3 (databento.com/pricing, read 2026-11-02) |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › notes › row 2 | The pricing page's plan table lists coverage as CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX; confirm the plan covers your dataset |
| vendor › tiers › row 1 › notes › row 3 | Usage-based alternative: historical only, billed per GB of uncompressed binary data with no subscription. Databento publishes no per-GB rates, so it is not priced here; $125 in free credits on signup (6-month expiry) |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › name | Unlimited |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › monthly | 4500 |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › includes live | true |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › includes options | false |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › includes futures | true |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › resolutions › row 1 | daily |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › resolutions › row 2 | minute |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › resolutions › row 3 | second |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › resolutions › row 4 | tick |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › resolutions › row 5 | level2 |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › history years | 16 |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › notes › row 1 | $4,500/mo in license fees on an annual contract: 16+ years in all schemas, L2/L3 order book included, and enhanced live data (databento.com/pricing, read 2026-11-02) |
| vendor › tiers › row 2 › notes › row 2 | Plus ($1,750/mo, annual contract) adds 16+ years of L1 history but keeps Standard's 1 month of L2/L3 |
| tier › name | Standard |
| tier › monthly | 199 |
| tier › includes live | true |
| tier › includes options | false |
| tier › includes futures | true |
| tier › resolutions › row 1 | daily |
| tier › resolutions › row 2 | minute |
| tier › resolutions › row 3 | second |
| tier › resolutions › row 4 | tick |
| tier › history years | 16 |
| tier › notes › row 1 | Monthly subscription, no license fees: live data, 16+ years of L0 history (trades, OHLCV), 1 year of L1 and 1 month of L2/L3 (databento.com/pricing, read 2026-11-02) |
| tier › notes › row 2 | The pricing page's plan table lists coverage as CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX; confirm the plan covers your dataset |
| tier › notes › row 3 | Usage-based alternative: historical only, billed per GB of uncompressed binary data with no subscription. Databento publishes no per-GB rates, so it is not priced here; $125 in free credits on signup (6-month expiry) |
| monthly | 199 |
| one time | 0 |
| annual total | 2388 |
| meets resolution | true |
| meets live | true |
| meets options | true |
| meets futures | true |
| meets history | true |
| history verified | true |
| meets all | true |
Computed live at build time.
| vendor_id | polygon |
|---|---|
| universe | medium |
| resolution | minute |
| needs_live | 1 |
| vendor › id | polygon |
|---|---|
| vendor › name | Massive (formerly Polygon.io) |
| vendor › url | https://massive.com |
| vendor › short pitch | Flat-rate subscription. Real-time + historical for US equities, with a separate Futures product line. Popular retail default. Rebranded from Polygon.io on 2025-10-30. |
| vendor › has overage | false |
| vendor › last checked | 2026-10-11 |
| vendor › tiers (7 items) | [...] |
| tier › name | Stocks Advanced |
| tier › monthly | 199 |
| tier › includes live | true |
| tier › includes options | false |
| tier › includes futures | false |
| tier › asset class | stocks |
| tier › resolutions › row 1 | daily |
| tier › resolutions › row 2 | minute |
| tier › resolutions › row 3 | second |
| tier › resolutions › row 4 | tick |
| tier › history years | 20 |
| tier › notes › row 1 | Full real-time |
| tier › notes › row 2 | Unlimited API calls |
| tier › notes › row 3 | 20+ years history; adds quotes; non-professional users only |
| tier › notes › row 4 | $1,920/yr billed annually |
| monthly | 199 |
| one time | 0 |
| annual total | 2388 |
| meets resolution | true |
| meets live | true |
| meets options | true |
| meets futures | true |
| meets history | true |
| history verified | true |
| meets all | true |
Computed live at build time.
Frequently asked questions
- When did the Databento price increase take effect?
- Monday, June 22, 2026. On that date CME Standard moved from $179 to $199 per month, and the Plus and Unlimited rates for CME, ICE and Databento US Equities rose for new customers (CME Plus $1,750, CME Unlimited $4,500). The metered per-GB historical model and the $125 sign-up credit were not part of the change.
- Are existing Databento customers grandfathered?
- Yes, for the CME Standard plan. Subscribers from before June 22, 2026 keep $179 per month for 12 months, after which the plan renews at $199. The catch is continuity: the plan must stay continuously active. If it is canceled and later restarted, the new $199 rate applies right away.
- Why did Databento raise its prices?
- Databento attributes the increase to higher license fees introduced by several exchanges, plus the growing historical coverage now included in these plans. The exchange-fee portion is a pass-through, so the $199 rate tracks underlying CME licensing rather than a one-off markup.
- Does the increase change Databento vs Polygon?
- It narrows the headline gap. At $179, CME Standard undercut Polygon's flat $199 Advanced tier; at $199 the two match. Polygon (now Massive) sells no order-book depth on its self-serve plans, and its CME futures data is a separate $199 Futures Advanced plan, so the choice stays about venue, depth and usage shape (re-read 2026-10-11).