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IBKR Trading Web API

Source: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/campus/ibkr-api-page/web-api-trading/ Last Updated: 2026-02-26

Table of Contents

Getting Started

Clients with **fully open and funded accounts**may use the Web API's Trading features to trade their accounts immediately, without any onboarding or approval process.

The Web API's Trading functionality is accessible via several authentication methods:

  • OAuth 2.0 (beta)
  • OAuth 1.0a
  • SSO (for Financial Advisors and Introducing Brokers)
  • Client Portal Gateway (for individual clients)

Trading Access

For Organizations

Enterprise and Institutional clients have several authorization methods:

Method First-Party Third-Party Features
OAuth 2.0 (beta) Yes Yes Account management + Trading
OAuth 1.0a Yes Yes Trading only
SSO Yes No Account management + Trading

For Individuals

Trading requires:

  • IBKR username and password
  • **IBKR Pro**account type (fully open and funded)
  • Can access both live and simulated paper accounts

For Third Parties

Third-party developers (vendors with no formal relationship to IB clients):

  • Must receive Compliance approval
  • Only OAuth 1.0a is currently available
  • Onboarding process takes approximately**8-14 weeks**

API Support

Contact options:

  • Create a Support Ticket
  • Chat Live with API Support
  • Get Help by Phone

Troubleshooting checklist before contacting support:

  • Does the issue persist in other platforms (TWS, Client Portal)?
  • When was the issue first observed?
  • Do similar requests yield expected responses?
  • Did the request include all required parameters?

Usage and Availability

Scheduled Server Maintenance

The Web API is accessible 24 hours a day during weekdays, with maintenance only on Saturday evenings.

Brokerage functionality (/iserver endpoints) is briefly unavailable each evening:

Region Maintenance Onset
North America (NY, Chicago) 01:00 US/Eastern
Europe 01:00 CEST
Asia 01:00 HKT

Pacing Limitations

***Global rate limit**: 50 requests per second per authenticated username

***CP Gateway users**: 10 requests per second

When rate limits are exceeded, the API returns 429 Too Many Requests. Violator IPs may be penalized for 10 minutes.

Per-Endpoint Request Rate Limits

Endpoint Method Limit
/iserver/marketdata/snapshot GET 10 req/s
/iserver/scanner/params GET 1 req/15 min
/iserver/scanner/run POST 1 req/sec
/iserver/trades GET 1 req/5 sec
/iserver/orders GET 1 req/5 sec
/portfolio/accounts GET 1 req/5 sec
/pa/performance POST 1 req/15 min

Trading Sessions

A **brokerage session**is associated with an IB username and permits access to:

  • Trading functionality
  • Market data consumption
  • All /iserver endpoints

A single username can only have**one brokerage session active at a time**across all IB platforms.

Session Types

1.Read-Only Session- Required for any Web API request, permits access to non-/iserver endpoints 2.Brokerage Session- Established after read-only, permits trading and market data via /iserver endpoints

Instrument Discovery

The Web API requires IB's**Contract ID (conid)** to uniquely specify instruments.

Contract IDs for Equities

GET /trsrv/stocks?symbols=AAPL
Response:

{
  "AAPL": [
    {
      "name": "APPLE INC",
      "assetClass": "STK",
      "contracts": [
        {
          "conid": 265598,
          "exchange": "NASDAQ",
          "isUS": true
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Contract IDs for Futures

GET /trsrv/futures?symbols=ES

Finding Options Chains

***Step 1**: Get underlier conid and contract months

GET /iserver/secdef/search?symbol=AAPL&secType=STK

***Step 2**: Get valid strike values

GET /iserver/secdef/strikes?conid=265598&exchange=SMART&sectype=OPT&month=OCT24
Response:

{
  "call": [212.5, 215.0, 217.5, 220.0],
  "put": [212.5, 215.0, 217.5, 220.0]
}

***Step 3**: Get option contract conids

GET /iserver/secdef/info?conid=265598&exchange=SMART&sectype=OPT&month=OCT24&strike=217.5

Finding Event Contracts

Event Contracts are modeled as options (ForecastEx) or futures options (CME Group).

CME Group Workflow

GET /iserver/secdef/search?symbol=NQ&secType=IND
Then filter by tradingClass prefix "EC" for Event Contracts.

ForecastEx Workflow

GET /iserver/secdef/search?symbol=FF
GET /iserver/secdef/strikes?conid={index_conid}&exchange=FORECASTX&sectype=OPT&month=SEP24
GET /iserver/secdef/info?conid={index_conid}&exchange=FORECASTX&sectype=OPT&month=SEP24&strike=3.125

Market Data

Top-of-Book Snapshots

Required:

  • Contract ID (conid)
  • Field identifiers for desired data points
  • Username with market data subscriptions

  • Brokerage session

  • Pre-flight request (must be made first to start streaming):

GET /iserver/marketdata/snapshot?conids=265598,8314&fields=31,7059,84,88,86,85
First response (no data yet):

[
  {"conid": 265598, "conidEx": "265598"},
  {"conid": 8314, "conidEx": "8314"}
]
Subsequent requests return data:

[
  {
    "31": "168.42",
    "84": "168.41",
    "85": "600",
    "86": "168.42",
    "88": "1,300",
    "7059": "100",
    "conid": 265598
  }
]

***Common field tags**: - 31 - Last price - 84 - Bid - 85 - Bid size - 86 - Ask - 88 - Ask size - 7059 - Volume

Streaming Top-of-Book Data

Via WebSocket:

smd+CONID+{"fields":["field_1","field_2",...,"field_n"]}
Example:

smd+8314+{"fields":["31","84","85","86","88","7059"]}
Cancel stream:

umd+CONID+{}

Orders

New Order

***Required values**: - Account ID - Contract ID (conid) - Order type (orderType) - Side (BUY or SELL) - Time in force (tif) - Quantity

POST /iserver/account/{accountId}/orders
Request body:

[
  {
    "conid": 265598,
    "side": "BUY",
    "orderType": "LMT",
    "price": 165,
    "quantity": 100,
    "tif": "DAY"
  }
]
Response:

{
  "order_id": "987654",
  "order_status": "Submitted",
  "encrypt_message": "1"
}

Order Reply Messages

Some orders require confirmation before execution:

[
  {
    "id": "07a13a5a-4a48-44a5-bb25-5ab37b79186c",
    "message": ["Order price exceeds constraint. Are you sure?"],
    "messageIds": ["o163"]
  }
]
Confirm the order:

POST /iserver/reply/{messageId}
{"confirmed": true}

Order Reply Suppression

Suppress specific message types for the session:

POST /iserver/questions/suppress
{"messageIds": ["o163"]}
Reset suppression:

POST /iserver/questions/suppress/reset

Modifying Orders

POST /iserver/account/{accountId}/order/{orderId}

***Important**: Must include ALL original order attributes with modified values:

{
  "conid": 265598,
  "side": "BUY",
  "orderType": "LMT",
  "price": 170,
  "quantity": 100,
  "tif": "DAY"
}

Canceling Orders

DELETE /iserver/account/{accountId}/order/{orderId}
Response:

{
  "msg": "Request was submitted",
  "order_id": 987654
}

Bracket Orders

Submit parent and child orders together:

{
  "orders": [
    {
      "acctId": "U1234567",
      "conid": 265598,
      "cOID": "Parent",
      "orderType": "MKT",
      "side": "Buy",
      "quantity": 50
    },
    {
      "acctId": "U1234567",
      "conid": 265598,
      "orderType": "STP",
      "side": "Sell",
      "price": 157.30,
      "quantity": 50,
      "parentId": "Parent"
    },
    {
      "acctId": "U1234567",
      "conid": 265598,
      "orderType": "LMT",
      "side": "Sell",
      "price": 157.00,
      "quantity": 50,
      "parentId": "Parent"
    }
  ]
}

Combo/Spread Orders

Use conidex field instead of conid:

Format: {spread_conid};;;{leg_conid1}/{ratio},{leg_conid2}/{ratio}

***Currency Spread ConIDs**: | Currency | Spread ConID | |----------|--------------| | USD | 28812380 | | EUR | 61227069 | | GBP | 58666491 | | JPY | 61227069 | | CAD | 61227082 | | AUD | 61227077 |

Example for US stock combo:

28812380;;;265598/1,-265599/1

Monitoring Live Orders

GET /iserver/account/orders?filters=filled&force=true&accountId=U1234567

Portfolio and Positions

Querying Accounts

GET /portfolio/accounts
For tiered accounts (FA, IBroker):

GET /portfolio/subaccounts

Querying Currency Balances

GET /portfolio/{accountId}/ledger
Response includes per-currency:

  • Settled cash
  • Cash balance
  • Net liquidation value
  • Unrealized P&L
  • Realized P&L

Querying Equity and Margin

GET /portfolio/{accountId}/summary
Returns equity and margin values for:

  • Entire U-account (aggregate)
  • Regulatory segments (securities vs commodities)

FYIs and Alerts

Types of Notifications

  • FYIs- Portfolio notifications and disclaimers
  • Alerts- Mobile trading alerts
  • Bulletins - System announcements

Get Unread Count

GET /fyi/unreadnumber
Response:

{"BN": 1}

Get All Notifications

GET /fyi/notifications
Response fields:

  • R - Read status (0 = unread)
  • MS - Title
  • FC - FYI code
  • ID - Unique identifier
  • MD - HTML-formatted message

Mark as Read

PUT /fyi/notifications/{notificationID}

Manage Subscriptions

GET /fyi/settings

Accept Disclaimer

GET /fyi/disclaimer/{typecode}
PUT /fyi/disclaimer/{typecode}

Additional Resources