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Import Nasdaq Data Link Data to Google Sheets

Last Updated OnJanuary 8, 2024
byAna
< Knowledge Base

In this guide, we’ll walk through a simple but complete example of how to pull data from the Nasdaq Data Link (rebranded from Quandl in Sep. 2021) API directly into Google Sheets, using the API Connector add-on for Sheets.

We'll first get an API key, and then set up a request to pull in some data to your spreadsheet.

Contents

Before You Begin

Click here to install the API Connector add-on from the Google Marketplace.

Part 1: Get Your Nasdaq Data Link API Key

  1. If you haven't already, sign up for an account at https://data.nasdaq.com/sign-up
  2. To find your API key, navigate to your account settings page at https://data.nasdaq.com/account/api.
    nasdaq-api-key

  3. That's it. You can now access the Nasdaq Data Link API!
  1. Nasdaq provides a huge number of data sets. It's a bit overwhelming, so let's start by narrowing it down with a search. Navigate to https://data.nasdaq.com/search and search for a dataset of interest. Here I entered "bitcoin" and filtered for free data.
    nasdaq-search
  2. The cool thing about Nasdaq Data Link is they provide a lot of examples to get you started. Click into any dataset and then hit Expand.
    nasdaq-expand
  3. Once you click Expand, the right-hand sidebar will contain a section called "API" that contains the request URLs you need to replicate this table in Google Sheets. You can choose any format, but CSV works best in a table, so let's use that.nasdaq-examples-img2
  4. A modal will appear containing the full API request URL. Convenienently, your API key will be included as well.nasdaq-examples-img3
  5. Copy that to your clipboard. We now have our request URL!
https://data.nasdaq.com/api/v3/datasets/BITFINEX/LUNAF0USTF0.csv?api_key=1111111111111111

Part 3: Pull Nasdaq API Data into Google Sheets

Now let's copy and paste that URL into API Connector.

  1. Open up Google Sheets and click Extensions > API Connector > Open > Create request.
  2. In the request form enter the following:
    • Application: Custom
    • Method: GET
    • Request URL: https://data.nasdaq.com/api/v3/datasets/BITFINEX/LUNAF0USTF0.csv?api_key=1111111111111111
  3. Create a new tab and click Set current to use that tab as your data destination.
  4. Name your request and click Run. A moment later you’ll see the table we were just looking at replicated in your sheet.
    nasdaq-results1

Part 4: Get More Nasdaq Data

Besides the Expand tab, the Usage tab also contains sample URLs that can be copied and pasted into API Connector:
nasdaq-examples-img4

Just plug those in and hit Run to see the data in your sheet.

Hopefully this little introduction has given a sense for what's possible with Nasdaq Data Link. They provide many examples for each data set, so you can usually begin by searching for what interests you, pulling out an example API URL, and then modifying it as desired.

Part 5: API Documentation

Official API documentation: https://docs.data.nasdaq.com/docs/getting-started

4 thoughts on “Import Nasdaq Data Link Data to Google Sheets”

  1. Thank You so much for the easy to understand instructions!
    I have no problem pulling the data the first way by selecting expand and copying the URL but when I try to pull the data when under the usage and API section it just imports the code written on that page am I doing something wrong?

    Reply

    • Oh, I see, looks like they've wrapped these particular responses in HTML. Can you please add the following key/value pair under the Headers section? Key = Accept, Value = application/json. That should fix it.

      Reply

  2. The free data currently available on the NASDAQ API can be found using this URL https://data.nasdaq.com/search?filters=%5B%22Free%22%5D

    At the time of this writing, the free data can be summarized by stating that that no market data for securities is being made available without cost and that the free data are macroeconomic data reports produced by primarily by government agencies and a (very) few others.

    As a practical matter, the NASDAQ Data Link is a closed platform with high service fees that intended for use only by NASDAQ dealers and affiliated businesses.

    The statement "Nasdaq Data Link has a vast collection of free and open data collected from a variety of organizations: central banks, governments, multinational organizations and more" is literally true only if "vast" is a number close to 33.

    The free access to NASDAQ data is around because made some pledges to regulators about access to the inter-dealer price stream that would level the field for individual investors. In the wake of the RobinHood / GameStop ferrago NASDAQ dealers apparently decided they preferred to deal with the regulatory fallout and the free data streams vanished.

    Reply

    • Thanks for your comment. My article says "Nasdaq provides a huge number of data sets" (which I believe to be true), not "Nasdaq Data Link has a vast collection of free and open data", so I suppose your point of contention lies with how they're describing themselves, not with the content of my article. I do agree most of their data sets seem to be paid at this point.

      Reply

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