How to get historical market data from the Kraken API

The Kraken API provides historical OHLC cryptocurrency data via its public endpoint, requiring no API key but adhering to rate limits of 15 calls per minute.

Aug 07, 2025 at 03:02 pm

Understanding the Kraken API and Its Data Capabilities

The Kraken API is a powerful interface that allows developers and traders to access real-time and historical market data for a wide range of cryptocurrency pairs. To retrieve historical market data, users must interact with the public endpoints provided by Kraken, particularly the OHLC (Open, High, Low, Close) endpoint. This endpoint returns candlestick data at various time intervals, which is essential for technical analysis, backtesting trading strategies, or building data-driven dashboards. The data includes timestamp, open price, high price, low price, close price, volume weighted average price (VWAP), volume, and the number of trades for each period.

Accessing the API does not require authentication for public data, meaning no API keys are needed to fetch historical prices. However, rate limits apply: Kraken allows up to 15 calls per minute from a single IP address. Exceeding this limit will result in temporary blocking. To ensure consistent access, implement delays between requests or use exponential backoff strategies in your code.

Identifying the Correct Endpoint for Historical Data

The primary endpoint for retrieving historical market data is:

https://api.kraken.com/0/public/OHLC

This endpoint requires two parameters: pair and interval. The pair parameter specifies the trading pair, such as XBT/USD for Bitcoin to US Dollar, or ETH/EUR for Ethereum to Euro. The interval parameter defines the timeframe for each candlestick and must be one of the following values: 1 (1 minute), 5 (5 minutes), 15 (15 minutes), 30 (30 minutes), 60 (1 hour), 240 (4 hours), 1440 (1 day), 10080 (1 week), or 21600 (1 month).

To request data, construct a URL with these parameters. For example, to get 1-hour OHLC data for Bitcoin/USD:

https://api.kraken.com/0/public/OHLC?pair=XBT/USD&interval=60

The response will be in JSON format, containing an array of OHLC data points and a last timestamp indicating the most recent data point, which is useful for pagination.

Using Python to Fetch and Parse Kraken OHLC Data

To programmatically retrieve historical data, Python is a popular choice due to its simplicity and powerful libraries. The requests library handles HTTP calls, while pandas can structure the data for analysis.

Install the required packages:

pip install requests pandas

Below is a complete script to fetch and parse OHLC data:

import requests
import pandas as pd
def get_ohlc_data(pair, interval=60, since=None):
url = "https://api.kraken.com/0/public/OHLC"
params = {'pair': pair, 'interval': interval}
if since:
    params['since'] = since

response = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = response.json()

if data['error']:
    raise Exception(f"API Error: {data['error']}")

ohlc_data = data['result'][pair]
df = pd.DataFrame(ohlc_data, columns=[
    'timestamp', 'open', 'high', 'low', 'close', 'vwap', 'volume', 'count'
])
df['timestamp'] = pd.to_datetime(df['timestamp'], unit='s')
df.set_index('timestamp', inplace=True)

last_timestamp = data['result']['last']
return df, last_timestamp
Example usage
df, last = get_ohlc_data('XBT/USD', interval=60)
print(df.head())

This script returns a pandas DataFrame with properly formatted timestamps and numerical values, making it ready for plotting or analysis. The since parameter allows fetching data after a specific timestamp, enabling incremental data collection.

Handling Pagination for Extended Historical Data

Kraken limits each API call to 720 data points (e.g., 720 hourly candles = 30 days). To retrieve longer historical series, use the since parameter iteratively.

• Make the initial request without the since parameter
• Extract the last value from the response
• Use this last value as the since parameter in the next request
• Repeat until no new data is returned or the desired date range is covered

Example loop:

all_data = []
last = None
for _ in range(5):  # Retrieve up to 5 pages
df, last_timestamp = get_ohlc_data('XBT/USD', interval=1440, since=last)
all_data.append(df)
last = last_timestamp
time.sleep(1)  # Respect rate limits
full_history = pd.concat(all_data)

This approach ensures complete historical coverage without exceeding rate limits.

Validating and Cleaning Retrieved Data

After fetching data, validation is crucial. Check for missing values, duplicate timestamps, or inconsistent formatting. Use pandas methods:

• df.isnull().sum() to detect missing values
• df.index.duplicated().any() to find duplicate timestamps
• df.sort_index() to ensure chronological order

Handle gaps in time series:

full_range = pd.date_range(start=df.index.min(), end=df.index.max(), freq='H')
df = df.reindex(full_range)

This creates a continuous timeline, filling missing periods with NaN, which can later be interpolated or marked as gaps.

Commonly Asked Questions

What trading pairs are supported by the Kraken OHLC endpoint?

Kraken supports a wide variety of pairs, including major cryptocurrencies like XBT/USD, ETH/USD, ADA/EUR, and stablecoin pairs such as USDT/USD. A full list can be obtained by calling the AssetPairs endpoint: https://api.kraken.com/0/public/AssetPairs.

Can I get tick-level historical data from Kraken?

No, the public API only provides candlestick (OHLC) data at minimum 1-minute intervals. Tick-level (trade-by-trade) historical data is not available through standard API endpoints. For granular trade data, consider third-party aggregators or commercial data providers.

Why am I getting an empty result or error when calling the OHLC endpoint?

Ensure the pair parameter uses the correct Kraken symbol format. For example, use XBT/USD, not BTC/USD. Also verify that the interval value is one of the allowed integers. Network issues or exceeding rate limits can also cause empty responses.

Is there a way to retrieve data in CSV format directly from Kraken?

The Kraken API only returns data in JSON format. You must convert the JSON response to CSV manually using tools like pandas:

df.to_csv('kraken_xbtusd_hourly.csv')