The SEC EDGAR API is free — here's what you still can't do with it
SEC EDGAR is one of the great public data gifts in finance. Free. Fast. Authoritative.
We use it. We respect it. And we're honest: if your product stops at EDGAR, you're only halfway to global financial intelligence.
What EDGAR gives you (and it's real)
- Every US periodic filing, free
- Submissions API, full-text search, raw XBRL instances
- Apple FY2024 10-K: revenue $416.2B, operating margin 32.0% — it's all in there
For US-only, English-only, build-your-own-parser workflows, EDGAR is the right foundation.
What EDGAR doesn't give you
1. Parsed canonical KPIs. EDGAR serves raw XBRL. You still choose among Revenues, RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax, and filer-specific extensions. We see teams spend months here and still ship wrong margins.
2. Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, EU, UK, China. Toyota doesn't file on EDGAR. Samsung doesn't. Your "global comp sheet" ends at the water's edge.
3. Cross-GAAP normalization. Even if you parse US XBRL perfectly, 売上高 and 매출액 live on EDINET and OpenDART — different systems, different rules.
4. Structured narrative sections. Item 1A risk factors exist in HTML, but extracting them consistently across filers and formats is another engineering line item.
5. Native MCP for agents. EDGAR has no get_filing_kpis tool. Your LLM will still hallucinate without a verified tool layer.
What OpenFilings adds on top
Not a replacement for EDGAR. A layer above:
| Need | EDGAR alone | OpenFilings |
|---|---|---|
| US raw filings | ✅ | ✅ (sourced from EDGAR) |
| Canonical KPIs | ❌ build it | ✅ revenue, margins, cash flow |
| Japan / Korea / 20 markets | ❌ | ✅ |
| Cross-GAAP comparison | ❌ | ✅ one vocabulary |
| MCP for Claude/Cursor | ❌ | ✅ |
| Live enriched feed | ❌ | ✅ Filings |
| Red flags inline | ❌ | ✅ |
Apple, Toyota, Samsung in one query. That's the product.
Who should use what
- US quant shop, US-only universe — EDGAR may be enough (for now)
- Global coverage, AI agents, fintech apps — you need normalization + multi-market + tool access
EDGAR is the basement. OpenFilings is the building.