# Redistribution

Also written redistribution rights, redistribute.

*https://cryptomarkets.tools/glossary/redistribution · next to Crypto Market Data APIs*

**Definition:** Redistribution is showing market data, or anything derived from it, to somebody outside your own organisation. Vendors licence it separately from the right to use the data internally, usually at a different price and often only by negotiation. Almost every free and entry-paid tier in this catalogue grants internal use and withholds redistribution, which is why a working prototype can still be unlicensed.

The word is not on the pricing page. It is in the terms, and most readers meet it for the first
time in the same week — the key works, the prototype renders a chart, and somebody asks whether
that chart can go in front of customers. The answer is a different product from the one they
bought, at a price that is usually not published.

## How it works

A market-data licence grants two things that read as one. The first is the right to *use* the
data — internally, for your own trading, research, risk and reporting. The second is the right to
put it in front of anybody who is not you, which covers users, clients, a public dashboard and an
API of your own. That second right is redistribution, and across this catalogue it is granted
separately, priced separately, and frequently not granted at all.

The distinction underneath is older than crypto and was inherited wholesale. The New York Stock
Exchange's Non-Display Use Policy defines non-display use as accessing, processing or consuming
market information "for a purpose other than in support of data recipient's display or further
internal or external redistribution" — three uses, licensed on three different bases. An algorithm
that reads a price and never shows it to a human is its own billable category there, declared
annually on a form. That is the vocabulary crypto vendors picked up, and they apply it unevenly.

[CoinAPI](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/coinapi)'s usage policy, as its card records, puts customer-facing dashboards,
public APIs, trading terminals, white-label platforms and market-data widgets on the
not-permitted side, and internal trading, research and risk on the allowed side — the display
line drawn exactly where an exchange would draw it. The terms behind the
[Coinbase Exchange API](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/coinbase-exchange-api) go further and reach display itself, barring
redistribution, display or dissemination of the data — or anything derived from it — to any third
party outside your organisation. CoinGecko's API terms, dated 5 September 2025, draw the line in a
third place: reselling, sub-licensing and syndicating access are prohibited, showing the data to
your users is expected, and the price of showing it is an attribution line. [Tardis.dev](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/tardis-dev)
sells a fourth shape, permitting resale of aggregated derived data at ten-minute resolution or
coarser, with Coinbase carved out of even that.

Same word, four meanings, none of them visible until you open the terms. Sixteen of the 92 cards
here carry a redistribution clause specific enough to write down, and no two of them say the same
thing.

## Why it matters here

**A free tier is a statement about the bill, not about the licence.** The three venue-direct feeds
in this catalogue are free and effectively keyless, and all three restrict what you may do with
what they serve: [Binance API](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/binance-api), [OKX API](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/okx-api) and the
[Coinbase Exchange API](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/coinbase-exchange-api) each require written consent before the data
reaches a third party, and OKX's clause catches the unpaid hobby dashboard as explicitly as the
commercial one. The same holds on paid platforms at the low end. [Dune](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/dune)'s own plan
comparison reads *Internal use only* on Free, Analyst and Plus alike, with a custom commercial
licence reserved for Enterprise — price is not what separates those tiers, the right to show the
numbers to anybody else is. [Glassnode](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/glassnode) starts commercial use at Professional
and still marks redistribution Custom above it. [Nansen](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/nansen) prohibits redistribution
of its labels and leaderboards outright, which is most of what it is bought for.

So the thing most readers are actually building — a dashboard, a widget, a public P&L page, an app
that shows a price — is the thing the tier they are building on does not license. The prototype
works, the invoice is zero, and the product is unlicensed. The exceptions exist and are worth
knowing: CoinMarketCap's free Basic tier carries commercial use rights, for one product with up to
100,000 users, and still forbids reselling the data as a standalone service.

Finding the price of the right tier is then a second problem, because redistribution is usually
the first tier with no number on it. That is the same wall described in
[the tools you cannot buy without a sales call](https://cryptomarkets.tools/collections/priced-on-request) and
[why this market won't quote you a price](https://cryptomarkets.tools/guides/why-half-this-market-wont-quote-a-price), and it
is why redistribution is the expensive word rather than merely the restrictive one.

## What to ask before you sign

**Which of the three am I buying?** Internal use, display to my own users, or the right to resell.
Ask for the answer per use, not per plan name, and get it in the order form rather than in an
email.

**Does the restriction follow derived data?** Charts, aggregates, indicators, a model trained on
the feed. Several terms here say yes in so many words, and a transformation you consider
substantial is not an exception unless the contract calls it one.

**What counts as my organisation?** Affiliates, contractors, a client on a shared dashboard, a
regulator. The boundary is defined in the terms and it is narrower than most teams assume.

**Is attribution the price, or a condition on top of the price?** Where display is permitted with
a credit line, the exact wording and placement are usually specified.

**What happens at the venue level?** A vendor reselling exchange data passes on obligations it
does not control, which is the subject of
[what exchange API terms actually let you do](https://cryptomarkets.tools/guides/exchange-api-terms). Ask which venues in the
feed are covered by the redistribution right you are being sold, and which are carved out.

## Where you will meet this

- [Coinbase Exchange API](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/coinbase-exchange-api.md)
- [CoinAPI Market Data API](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/coinapi.md)
- [Dune](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/dune.md)
- [Tardis.dev](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/tardis-dev.md)
- [Nansen](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/nansen.md)
- [AGGR](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/aggr.md)
- [Binance Market Data API](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/binance-api.md)
- [Bitquery](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/bitquery.md)
- [CoinGlass API](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/coinglass.md)
- [CoinMarketCap API](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/coinmarketcap-api.md)
- [CoinRoutes](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/coinroutes.md)
- [DEX Screener](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/dex-screener.md)

## FAQ

### Does a free API key give me redistribution rights?

Almost never, and the three venue-direct feeds catalogued here are the clearest case — Binance, OKX and Coinbase Exchange all serve public endpoints with no key and no fee, and all three bar redistributing or displaying that data to anyone outside your own organisation without written consent. Free is a statement about the bill, not about the licence.

### Is showing a price to my users the same as redistributing it?

It depends whose terms you are reading, which is the whole problem. Coinbase Exchange's market data terms bar displaying or disseminating the data to any third party outside your organisation. CoinGecko's API terms bar reselling and syndicating access but expect you to show the data, priced at an attribution line. Tardis.dev permits resale only of derived candles at ten-minute resolution or coarser. Read the sentence, not the word.

### Does derived data escape the restriction?

Usually not. Coinbase's terms extend to data, charts, analytics and research based on or derived from the feed. Velo names derived data explicitly. Tardis.dev's exception is a resolution threshold rather than a transformation test. Where an exception exists it is written down and narrow, and "we transformed it" is not one until a vendor says so in your contract.

### How do I find out what redistribution costs?

Usually by asking, because it is normally the first tier with no number on it. Dune reserves a custom commercial licence for Enterprise; Glassnode marks redistribution Custom even above its commercial threshold; Coinbase runs an authorised redistribution partner programme reached through a contact form. Budget a sales cycle, not an afternoon.

## Sources

1. [NYSE Market Information Non-Display Use Policy, January 2015 v2.0](https://www.nyse.com/publicdocs/nyse/data/Non-Display_Use_Policy.pdf) — New York Stock Exchange, read 2026-09-21
2. [CoinGecko API Terms of Service](https://www.coingecko.com/en/api_terms) — CoinGecko, 2025-09-05
3. [CoinGecko API plans and pricing](https://www.coingecko.com/en/api/pricing) — CoinGecko, read 2026-09-21
4. [CoinMarketCap API pricing and commercial use rights](https://coinmarketcap.com/api/pricing/) — CoinMarketCap, read 2026-09-21
5. [Coinbase Exchange API — welcome and terms notice](https://docs.cdp.coinbase.com/exchange/introduction/welcome) — Coinbase, read 2026-09-21

*Last updated 2026-09-21. A reference page, corrected in place — not a dated post.*