Options Flow API - Unusual Whales Flow Alerts, Dark Pool, GEX

Export unusual options flow, the option trades tape, option chains with greeks, gamma exposure, dark pool prints, congress trades and insider trades into an Apify dataset with your own Unusual Whales API token.

This actor wraps the Unusual Whales REST API. It turns a ticker list, an option contract or a set of flow filters into clean, deduplicated rows you can download as JSON, CSV or Excel, schedule every few minutes, or feed into trading bots, dashboards, spreadsheets and AI agents.

What it does

• Options flow alerts: unusual options activity alerts (repeated hits, ascending and descending fills, sweeps followed by floor, floor trades by market cap, OTM earnings floor), with premium, size, volume, open interest, volume to OI ratio, ask and bid side premium and greeks.
• Unusual options activity: the contracts flagged unusual on a trading day (volume above open interest, out of the money, 60 days or less to expiry, mostly ask side, 10,000 USD premium or more).
• Hottest chains: the option contract screener, sorted by premium, volume, open interest, IV, trades and more.
• Option trades tape: individual option prints of the latest trading day with NBBO, side volumes, tags, exchange and greeks.
• Option chain: every contract of a ticker with NBBO bid and ask, implied volatility, delta, gamma, theta, vega and rho.
• Option contract trades and history: the prints of one contract, or its daily open, high, low, close, volume, open interest and IV range.
• Greek exposure (GEX): daily market maker gamma, delta, charm and vanna exposure, and spot GEX per strike.
• IV rank, max pain and options volume: implied volatility rank history, max pain per expiry, and daily call and put volume, premium and open interest.
• Dark pool prints: the latest off-exchange prints across the market, or every print of a ticker on a day.
• Market tide: market wide net call and net put premium per 1 or 5 minute interval.
• Congress trades and insider transactions: stock trades reported by members of Congress, and SEC Form 3, 4, 5 and 144 insider filings.
• Pay only for results: empty answers are recorded as a free row that says why, never charged.

Input

Field	Used by	What it does
mode	all	flowAlerts, unusualActivity, hottestChains, optionTrades, optionChain, contractTrades, contractHistory, greekExposure, gexByStrike, ivRank, maxPain, optionsVolume, darkpoolRecent, darkpoolTicker, marketTide, congressTrades or insiderTransactions
tickers, excludeTickers	most modes	Symbols such as SPY, NVDA or SPX. Per-ticker modes read each one separately
contracts	contract modes	OSI option symbols such as TSLA250117C00250000
date	daily modes	Trading date such as 2026-01-30; defaults to the last trading day
from, to	flow alerts, tape, dark pool by ticker, insiders	Time window, read newest first
unusualPreset	flow alerts, hottest chains	The provider's unusual flow criteria in one switch
optionType, side, alertRules	flow modes	Calls or puts, ask or bid side, alert rules
minPremium, maxPremium, minSize	flow and dark pool modes	Premium in USD and size in contracts or shares
minDte, maxDte, expiry, minStrike, maxStrike	contract filters	Days to expiry, one expiry date, strike range
minVolumeOiRatio, volumeGreaterOi, sizeGreaterOi, openingOnly, otmOnly, multiLeg	flow modes	Classic unusual activity filters
issueTypes, sectors, minMarketcap, maxMarketcap	screening modes	Common stock, ETF, index or ADR; sectors; market cap
screenerSort, sortDirection	hottest chains	Order of the screen
lookback	greek exposure, IV rank	Such as 1Y, 6M or YTD
ownerName, insiderRole, transactionCodes, formTypes, minValue	insiders	Who, which role, which Form 4 codes and forms, how large
maxResults	all	Row ceiling for the run
apiKey	all	Your Unusual Whales API token (secret). Or set the DATA_API_KEY environment secret

Inputs a mode does not use are left off the request and named in the log, so a filter meant for another mode never silently empties your results.

How to get an API key

Subscribe to an Unusual Whales API plan at unusualwhales.com (API Basic for individual developers, API Advanced, or the Startup and Enterprise plans for products), then create a token in the API section of your Unusual Whales dashboard. The token is a UUID such as 123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426614174000. Paste it into the API key field.

Example output

{
    "mode": "flowAlerts",
    "recordType": "flowAlert",
    "identifier": "NVDA",
    "found": true,
    "id": "NVDA260116C00200000|2026-10-07 15:42:10.512000+00:00",
    "ticker": "NVDA",
    "optionSymbol": "NVDA260116C00200000",
    "optionType": "call",
    "strike": "200",
    "expiry": "2026-01-16",
    "date": "2026-10-07 15:42:10.512000+00:00",
    "premium": "1240500",
    "size": 1530,
    "value": "2.41",
    "alert_rule": "RepeatedHits",
    "has_sweep": true,
    "has_floor": false,
    "total_ask_side_prem": "1180000",
    "total_bid_side_prem": "60500",
    "trade_count": 41,
    "volume": 9120,
    "open_interest": 3784,
    "underlying_price": "186.20",
    "note": null
}

Every field the provider returns is kept. value is the headline number of each record type: the volume to open interest ratio for flow alerts, open interest for contracts, the price for prints, net gamma for greek exposure and spot GEX, IV rank, max pain, the put to call volume ratio for options volume, net premium for market tide, the amount band for congress trades and the price for insider transactions.

FAQ

What is the Unusual Whales API?

The Unusual Whales API is a commercial market data API from Unusual Whales covering the full US options tape (OPRA), rule based flow alerts, option chains with greeks, market maker greek exposure, volatility, dark pool prints, market tide, congressional trading and SEC insider filings. This actor calls its REST endpoints such as /api/option-trades/flow-alerts, /api/option-activity/unusual, /api/screener/option-contracts, /api/option-trades, /api/stock/{ticker}/option-contracts, /api/stock/{ticker}/greek-exposure, /api/darkpool/recent, /api/market/market-tide, /api/congress/recent-trades and /api/insider/transactions.

Do I need my own API key?

Yes. This actor is bring your own key: you need an active Unusual Whales API subscription. Your token is stored as an Apify secret, sent only in the Authorization: Bearer header, and kept out of every log line. Without a token the run stops immediately with a clear message and no charge.

How do I get unusual options activity for one stock?

Choose Flow alerts, put the ticker (for example NVDA) in Tickers, and set a minimum premium such as 100000. Tick "Unusual flow preset" to apply the same criteria as the provider's live options flow page, or combine your own filters: calls or puts, ask side, sweeps and repeated hits rules, volume above open interest, out of the money and days to expiry.

How far back can I read options flow?

Flow alerts and dark pool prints by ticker are read newest first and followed back in time until your row ceiling or the window you set in From and To. The option trades tape covers the latest trading day only; the provider serves earlier days as full tape file downloads from a separate endpoint, which this actor does not read. Your plan sets the historical lookback (the provider lists 2 years on its API plans and 90 days on Startup); an older date ends the run with the provider's explanation.

What is gamma exposure (GEX) and which mode gives it?

GEX is the assumed dollar gamma market makers hedge per 1 percent move of the underlying. Greek exposure returns one row per day with call and put gamma, delta, charm and vanna, and Spot GEX by strike returns the latest exposure per strike, both from open interest and from volume. The value column carries net gamma.

Does it cover SPX, VIX and other index options?

Index options appear in flow, trades and chains, but the provider returns CBOE index prices (the underlying price of SPX or VIX) as null unless your account has CBOE approval, and leaves index rows out when you filter on underlying price. This is a provider licensing rule.

What do I pay?

The actor charges per returned record: 0.01 USD per flow alert, 0.01 USD per option contract, 0.005 USD per option or dark pool print, 0.005 USD per series point (a day, strike, expiry or interval), and 0.01 USD per congress or insider trade, with Apify platform usage included. Empty results are free. Unusual Whales bills your API subscription separately, and each page is one request against your plan's per-minute cap.

What happens if my key is wrong or my plan does not cover a request?

A missing, malformed or revoked token (401), a request outside your plan such as an older date or an Advanced tier endpoint (403), or a spent daily allowance ends the run cleanly with the provider's own explanation as the status message. The per-minute rate limit (429) is waited out using the provider's reset header and retried.

Keyword map

options flow API, unusual options activity, Unusual Whales API, flow alerts, options sweeps, whale trades, option trades tape, hottest chains, option chain API, options greeks, gamma exposure GEX, IV rank, max pain, dark pool prints, dark pool API, market tide, congress trades, politician stock trades, insider trading API, Form 4 data.

Terms and data use

You need your own Unusual Whales API subscription, and your use of the data is governed by your agreement with Unusual Whales. Its API Basic plan is described as for individual developers; the provider sells commercial licensing on its Startup and Enterprise plans and redistribution licenses on Enterprise, so check your plan before you display the data to others or build a product on it. CBOE index prices need separate CBOE approval. Nothing here is investment advice. This actor is an independent tool and is not made or endorsed by Unusual Whales.