> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.whitebit.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Market Data Quickstart

> Fetch live prices, orderbooks, and recent trades from the WhiteBIT API — no authentication required.

Fetch live market data from the WhiteBIT API in under 2 minutes. All Market Data endpoints are public — no account, no API key, no signing.

## Prerequisites

* A terminal or HTTP client (curl, Postman, or any programming language with HTTP support)
* No WhiteBIT account needed
* No API key needed

<Steps>
  <Step title="Check server availability">
    Confirm the API is reachable and operational.

    <Tabs>
      <Tab title="cURL">
        ```bash theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}}
        curl https://whitebit.com/api/v4/public/ping
        ```
      </Tab>

      <Tab title="Python">
        ```python theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}}
        import requests

        response = requests.get("https://whitebit.com/api/v4/public/ping")
        print(response.json())
        ```
      </Tab>
    </Tabs>

    **Expected response:**

    ```json theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}}
    ["pong"]
    ```
  </Step>

  <Step title="Fetch available markets">
    Retrieve the full list of trading pairs with minimum amounts and trading rules.

    <Tabs>
      <Tab title="cURL">
        ```bash theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}}
        curl https://whitebit.com/api/v4/public/markets
        ```
      </Tab>

      <Tab title="Python">
        ```python theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}}
        import requests

        response = requests.get("https://whitebit.com/api/v4/public/markets")
        markets = response.json()
        print(f"Total markets: {len(markets)}")
        print(markets[0])
        ```
      </Tab>
    </Tabs>

    **Expected response (trimmed):**

    ```json theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}}
    [
      {
        "name": "BTC_USDT",
        "stock": "BTC",
        "money": "USDT",
        "stockPrec": "6",
        "moneyPrec": "2",
        "makerFee": "0.001",
        "takerFee": "0.001",
        "minAmount": "0.0001",
        "minTotal": "1",
        "tradesEnabled": true,
        "type": "spot"
      },
      "..."
    ]
    ```

    The response contains 900+ markets. Key fields: `name` (pair), `stock` (base currency), `money` (quote currency), `minAmount` (minimum order quantity), `minTotal` (minimum order value).

    For Go and PHP examples, see [SDKs](/sdks).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Get BTC_USDT ticker">
    Fetch 24-hour pricing and volume data. The ticker endpoint returns all pairs — filter for the desired market.

    <Tabs>
      <Tab title="cURL">
        ```bash theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}}
        curl https://whitebit.com/api/v4/public/ticker
        ```
      </Tab>

      <Tab title="Python">
        ```python theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}}
        import requests

        response = requests.get("https://whitebit.com/api/v4/public/ticker")
        ticker = response.json()
        btc_usdt = ticker.get("BTC_USDT", {})
        print(btc_usdt)
        ```
      </Tab>
    </Tabs>

    **Expected response (BTC\_USDT entry):**

    ```json theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}}
    {
      "BTC_USDT": {
        "base_id": 1,
        "quote_id": 825,
        "last_price": "65432.10",
        "base_volume": "1234.567",
        "quote_volume": "80765432.10",
        "is_frozen": false,
        "change": "2.5"
      }
    }
    ```

    Key fields: `last_price` (most recent trade price), `base_volume` (24h volume in base currency), `quote_volume` (24h volume in quote currency), `change` (24h percentage change).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Fetch BTC_USDT orderbook">
    Retrieve the current orderbook depth. The `limit` parameter controls the number of price levels returned (1–100).

    <Tabs>
      <Tab title="cURL">
        ```bash theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}}
        curl "https://whitebit.com/api/v4/public/orderbook/BTC_USDT?limit=5"
        ```
      </Tab>

      <Tab title="Python">
        ```python theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}}
        import requests

        response = requests.get(
            "https://whitebit.com/api/v4/public/orderbook/BTC_USDT",
            params={"limit": 5}
        )
        orderbook = response.json()
        print(f"Best ask: {orderbook['asks'][0]}")
        print(f"Best bid: {orderbook['bids'][0]}")
        ```
      </Tab>
    </Tabs>

    **Expected response (trimmed):**

    ```json theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}}
    {
      "ticker_id": "BTC_USDT",
      "timestamp": 1700000000,
      "asks": [
        ["65450.00", "0.500"],
        ["65460.00", "1.200"]
      ],
      "bids": [
        ["65430.00", "0.800"],
        ["65420.00", "1.500"]
      ]
    }
    ```

    Each entry is a `[price, quantity]` pair. `asks` = sell orders (ascending by price), `bids` = buy orders (descending by price).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Fetch recent trades">
    Retrieve the most recently executed trades for BTC\_USDT.

    <Tabs>
      <Tab title="cURL">
        ```bash theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}}
        curl https://whitebit.com/api/v4/public/trades/BTC_USDT
        ```
      </Tab>

      <Tab title="Python">
        ```python theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}}
        import requests

        response = requests.get("https://whitebit.com/api/v4/public/trades/BTC_USDT")
        trades = response.json()
        print(f"Latest trade: {trades[0]}")
        ```
      </Tab>
    </Tabs>

    **Expected response (trimmed):**

    ```json theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}}
    [
      {
        "tradeID": 123456789,
        "price": "65435.50",
        "quote_volume": "0.015",
        "base_volume": "981.53",
        "trade_timestamp": 1700000000,
        "type": "buy"
      },
      "..."
    ]
    ```

    Key fields: `tradeID` (unique identifier), `price` (execution price), `type` ("buy" or "sell"), `trade_timestamp` (Unix time in seconds).
  </Step>
</Steps>

These five public endpoints cover one-shot lookups. For continuous updates, switch to the [WebSocket Quickstart](/guides/websocket-quickstart) — a single connection replaces every poll above.

<Accordion title="Why this works">
  **No authentication — by design** — Market Data endpoints are intentionally public. No API key, no HMAC signing, no account. WhiteBIT exposes pricing, orderbook, and trade data publicly to support price aggregators, data vendors, and integration testing without requiring account creation. Public endpoints have their own rate limits but no per-key restrictions.

  **Polling vs streaming** — The five steps above use REST (request → response). This is appropriate for one-time lookups but expensive for real-time monitoring: polling the ticker endpoint every second across hundreds of pairs exhausts rate limits quickly and adds latency. For continuous price or orderbook updates, use [WebSocket](/guides/websocket-quickstart) instead — a single persistent connection streams updates as they occur, with no polling overhead.
</Accordion>

## What's Next

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Spot Trading Quickstart" icon="arrow-right-arrow-left" href="/products/spot/quickstart">
    Place a first trade — requires an API key with Trading permission.
  </Card>

  <Card title="WebSocket Quickstart" icon="bolt" href="/guides/websocket-quickstart">
    Stream real-time price updates instead of polling.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Authentication" icon="key" href="/api-reference/authentication">
    Set up API keys and HMAC signing for authenticated endpoints.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>