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Authentication Basics

Authentication is how Intrinio verifies your identity and determines which datasets and API endpoints your account is authorized to access. Every API request must include valid authentication credentials.

Your API Key

After creating an Intrinio account, you'll receive an API key that uniquely identifies your account. You can find your API key by logging into your Intrinio account and navigating to Account → Access.

Keep your API key secure. Anyone with your API key can make requests against your account and consume your API usage.

Best Practice: Store your API key in an environment variable or a secure secrets manager. Avoid hardcoding it into source code or exposing it in public repositories.

Authenticating API Requests

Most REST API requests authenticate using HTTP Basic Authentication.

Use:

  • Username: Your Intrinio API Key
  • Password: Leave blank

Most HTTP clients and SDKs support Basic Authentication directly.

Example with cURL

curl -u YOUR_API_KEY: \ https://api-v2.intrinio.com/companies

Example Authorization Header

Authorization: Basic <base64(API_KEY:)>

Authentication Errors

If authentication fails, you'll typically receive one of the following responses:

401 Unauthorized

This means your request could not be authenticated.

Common causes include:

  • Invalid API key
  • Missing authentication credentials
  • Typographical errors in the API key
  • Expired or inactive subscription

Verify that you're using the correct API key from your Intrinio account.

403 Forbidden

Your authentication was successful, but your account does not have permission to access the requested endpoint or dataset.

This usually means:

  • Your current subscription does not include the requested data feed.
  • Your account does not have access to the required dataset.

To see what your subscription includes, log in to your account and review your available data feeds.

API Access Depends on Your Subscription

Authentication verifies who you are, while your subscription determines what you can access.

Different API endpoints require different data entitlements. Successfully authenticating does not automatically grant access to every endpoint.

The easiest ways to discover the endpoints available to your account are:

Option 1: From Your Account Dashboard (Recommended)

  1. Log into your Intrinio account.
  2. Navigate to Account → Subscription or Account → Access.
  3. Select one of your included data feeds.
  4. Click View API Documentation.

The API documentation will automatically filter to endpoints associated with that data feed. You can also switch between:

  • My Endpoints – Only endpoints available with your subscription.
  • All Endpoints – Every endpoint in the Intrinio API.

Option 2: Use the Intrinio MCP Server

The Intrinio Financial Data MCP Server understands your account's data entitlements and can recommend:

  • The appropriate datasets
  • Available API endpoints
  • Implementation guidance based on your subscription

Learn more about the MCP Server here:

https://intrinio.com/mcp

OAuth Authentication for the MCP Server

The Intrinio REST API uses your API key for authentication.

The Intrinio MCP Server does not.

The MCP Server uses OAuth 2.0 authentication.

Do not send your Intrinio API key as a Bearer token. For example, this will fail:

Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY

Instead:

  1. Complete the OAuth authentication flow.
  2. Obtain an OAuth access token.
  3. Connect using:
Authorization: Bearer <oauth_access_token>

If you're using one of the official MCP SDKs (such as Python or JavaScript), use its built-in OAuth support rather than manually implementing the authentication flow.

Best Practices

  • Never share your API key publicly.
  • Store credentials securely using environment variables or a secrets manager.
  • Rotate your API key if you believe it has been exposed.
  • Use the My Endpoints filter to avoid calling endpoints outside your subscription.
  • Use the MCP Server when you want AI-assisted guidance for selecting datasets and endpoints.

Need More Help?

If you're receiving authentication errors after verifying your API key, or you believe you need access to additional datasets, contact Intrinio Support or discuss expanded data access with our Enterprise team.