Unusual Whales

Verdict

Unusual Whales is browser and mobile software for scanning unusual options flow. Public product and pricing pages describe a live options-flow tape, dark-pool views, politician-trade information, Greek-exposure tools, an options profit calculator, stock and options screeners, alerts, and a Discord community. An API, a prediction-market product, and a Discord bot are sold as separate or bundled products.

The public free account uses data that is 15-minute delayed, with limited flow and options data. That is enough to open the dashboard and see what the tape looks like. Paid Dashboard & Tools cards on 2026-08-28 were Retail Basic at $50/mo, Retail Pro at $75/mo, and Retail Max at $120/mo, billed monthly. Annual cards on the same page showed $504/yr, $756/yr, and $1,224/yr. Pay when you want live data, more saved alerts and dashboards, or the 1-minute SPX market-maker-exposure view.

This is a directory listing of analysis software, not a brokerage, not a signal service, and not a source of investment advice. Public marketing pages we reviewed on 2026-08-28 describe a website, a mobile app, alerts, Discord, and an API — not account opening or order routing. Whether the product can send orders to a broker is unverified as of 2026-08-28. Do not treat this page as a how-to for placing trades.

Unusual Whales also publishes a mobile app (pricing page: website plus “a mobile app for alerts on the go”; older docs: iOS/Android). Exact feature parity between web and mobile is unverified as of 2026-08-28.

The homepage used the marketing line “Find your next trade before everyone else.” That is vendor copy, not a forecast from this directory. We are not saying Unusual Whales is the best flow tool, the best dark-pool tool, or the best purchase. We are not saying it will make a strategy profitable.

Best for

• Scan unusual options flow on a US-listed tape. Official pricing cards describe a “Real-Time Options Flow Feed,” “Full Tape, 100% market coverage, with unusual activity indicators and custom alerts.” The “What’s inside” block says “Real time trade data for every options trade across all US exchanges,” plus advanced filters and tools to identify unusual options activity. Older docs say the flow tool “tracks every options trade placed across the entire US stock exchange” in a customizable table, including views by ticker, sector, and strike. Treat those as product descriptions, not a claim that a print is a trade to copy.
• Starting on Free. Free accounts have 15-minute delayed data and limited flow. The pricing FAQ: create a free account; the Discord community is always free. Official landing pages say no credit card is required to create that account.
• Dark pool, politician trades, and Greek exposure as extra views on the same site. Paid dashboard cards list politician trade information, daily options and dark-pool downloads, a GEX heatmap for all US tickers, and SPX market-maker exposure (10-minute updates on Basic and Pro; 1-minute on Max). Those are extra views, not reasons to call the tool number one.
• US-listed OPRA focus. Official pages say “all US exchanges,” “GEX Heatmap for All US Tickers,” and (on the enterprise coverage table) “US OPRA feed” and “US Equity Markets.” The site hosts an OPRA subscriber agreement.

That is a fit for traders who want to watch unusual prints as a research input before they send an order somewhere else. It is not a claim that watching the tape improves results.

Skip if

• You want Unusual Whales to be the broker. This is not a broker comparison, and Unusual Whales is not listed here as a place to hold cash or clear trades. Whether the product can send orders to a broker is unverified as of 2026-08-28.
• You want stock picks, alerts-as-advice, or a ranked “best trade.” Official older docs say alerts are produced by an algorithm, “are not a recommendation to buy,” and that entry and exit are “entirely up to you.” Vendor testimonials on the pricing page talk about gains. Those are other users’ comments, not this directory’s ranking.
• You need commercial or redistribution rights on a retail seat. The pricing FAQ states that retail and API plans are for individual use. Building a product on the data, or commercial licensing, is pointed at business plans (Startup, Kafka, Enterprise). Confirm current policy with Unusual Whales.
• Your primary job is charting equities or drawing a payoff diagram. Official pages do list live charting and an options profit calculator, but those are extras on a flow product. Charting belongs on chart and screen stocks and on the TradingView listing. Payoff diagrams belong on visualize an options payoff and on the OptionStrat listing. Unusual Whales is not a Supercharts replacement.
• You need a verified Canadian-listed options chain. Official pages we reviewed emphasize US exchanges, US tickers, and a US OPRA feed. We did not find an official page stating that Canadian-listed options (TSX equities, Montréal Exchange options, CDRs, and similar) are supported. Canadian-listed coverage is unverified as of 2026-08-28. See the Canada note below.

What you get at each price

Public Dashboard & Tools prices on unusualwhales.com/pricing as of 2026-08-28. The page defaulted to Monthly. An Annual toggle is labeled “Annual saves up to $360 a year.” Annual dollar prices below are from the annual view of that same page.

	Free	Retail Basic	Retail Pro	Retail Max
Public price as shown	Delayed data; limited flow; no dollar price on the dashboard cards	$50/mo billed monthly	$75/mo billed monthly	$120/mo billed monthly
Annual as shown	—	$42/mo billed annually; $504/yr; “Save $96 a year”	$63/mo billed annually; $756/yr; “Save $144 a year”	$102/mo billed annually; $1,224/yr; “Save $216 a year”
Data as shown	“Free accounts have 15-min delayed data”; “Limited flow and options data is available for free users”	Real-time options flow; full tape, 100% market coverage	Same live tape as Basic	Same live tape as Pro
SPX market-maker exposure	Not listed on a free card	10-min updates	10-min updates	1-minute SPX market-maker exposure / GEX Periscope
Alerts / watchlists / dashboards / saved filters	Counts unverified as of 2026-08-28	25 custom alerts; 5 watchlists; 5 custom dashboards; 10 saveable filters per feed	Unlimited alerts, watchlists, custom dashboards, and saveable filters per feed	Unlimited alerts, watchlists, dashboards, and saveable filters per feed
Mr. Whale (AI) usage as shown	Unverified as of 2026-08-28	Listed; usage described as basic vs Retail Basic	“2x more usage than Retail Basic Monthly”	“3x more usage than Retail Basic Monthly”

Paid dashboard cards also list, on Basic, Pro, and Max: GEX heatmap for all US tickers; politician trade information; download daily options and dark-pool data; Unusual Predictions; a stock and options screener; Market Tide, Net Tide, and other labeled proprietary tools; Greeks and volatility dashboards; an options profit calculator; institutional holders and insider trade data; community Trading Discord and chat access.

Also listed on that page and on neighboring official pages:

• Free account. Pricing FAQ: create a free account; limited data; Discord community always free. API has a separate free one-week trial. Official landing pages say no credit card is required to create a free account.
• Cancel. Pricing FAQ: cancel in two clicks from the account page, no email required; access continues through the end of the paid period. Subscriptions auto-renew; you can turn that off.
• Refunds / wrong plan. Pricing FAQ: picked the wrong product, contact support within 7 days and they will switch the plan or “make it right.” An official landing page also states “All sales are final. No refunds on digital subscriptions.” Older docs (last updated 5/18/22) quote a TOS line that processed payments are non-refundable. Treat the current refund rule as confirm-on-the-pricing-page; we do not pick a winner between those sentences.
• Annual billing. You pay once for 12 months at the discounted rate. Upgrades prorate instantly; downgrades take effect at the next renewal.
• Retail vs business. Retail and API plans are for individual use. Commercial licensing is pointed at Startup, Kafka, and Enterprise.
• Whale Bundle. FAQ: Dashboard & Tools at the Retail Max tier, full API access, Unusual Predictions, and Data Shop credits (for annual), “about 30% less than buying the pieces separately.” The exact bundle dollar price was not shown as a number in the HTML we captured, so that dollar is unverified as of 2026-08-28.
• API (separate product; does not include the website or mobile app). Public cards on unusualwhales.com/pricing and unusualwhales.com/public-api as of 2026-08-28: API Trial - Basic (free, one week at a time); API Basic $150/mo billed monthly, or $125/mo billed annually ($1,500/yr, “Save $300 a year”); API Advanced $375/mo billed monthly, or $315/mo billed annually ($3,780/yr, “Save $720 a year”). Historical option trades are listed on the API docs at $250 per month for the full market.
• Enterprise / business. unusualwhales.com/enterprise: Startup $750/mo billed monthly; Startup + Kafka $3,000/mo billed monthly; Professional & Enterprise custom. The API pricing page also said business plans “from $625/mo billed annually.” Kafka annual dollar prices were not shown as a separate number, so those dollars are unverified as of 2026-08-28.
• Professional Dashboard & Tools plan names and dollars (the “Not a retail trader?” link) were not captured as filled cards, so those dollars are unverified as of 2026-08-28.
• Discord Bot and standalone Predictions plan dollars were not shown on the pages we captured. Standalone prices are unverified as of 2026-08-28. Paid dashboard cards do list Unusual Predictions and community Discord access as included features.
• Older docs (last updated 5/18/22) still name Free Shamu, Buffet’s Buffet, and Super Buffet with 2022 dollar prices. Those names and dollars are not current public plan cards. Use the 2026-08-28 pricing page.

Prices change. Confirm on Unusual Whales’ pricing page before you pay. This directory does not sell Unusual Whales and has no affiliate URL.

Pros and cons

Sourced from the official pages listed under Verified features. We do not invent partner-program payout rules.

Pros

• Live options-flow tape on paid dashboard plans: full tape, 100% market coverage, unusual-activity indicators, custom alerts, and filters. Free is delayed 15 minutes with limited flow.
• Dark pool, politician trades, GEX heatmap for all US tickers, stock and options screener, options profit calculator, and Discord access are listed on the paid dashboard cards — not only flow.
• Annual dashboard dollars are published ($504 / $756 / $1,224 per year). Cancel from the account page; access lasts through the paid period.
• A separate API (REST, WebSocket, MCP) exists if the job is building your own tools. API plans do not include the website.

Cons

• Retail and API plans are for individual use (vendor FAQ). Commercial use is a different product.
• Free data is delayed 15 minutes, with limited flow and options data.
• Official pages emphasize US exchanges, US tickers, and a US OPRA feed. Canadian-listed options coverage is unverified as of 2026-08-28.
• Not a broker. Whether Unusual Whales can send orders is unverified as of 2026-08-28.
• Whale Bundle dollars, Discord Bot standalone dollars, standalone Predictions dollars, and Professional dashboard-plan dollars are unverified as of 2026-08-28. Current refund wording disagrees across official pages (see the price section).

Vs OptionStrat, Cheddar Flow, and Market Chameleon

This is not a ranking. These are neighboring listings for the same job. We do not invent star ratings. We do not claim Unusual Whales is better.

	Unusual Whales	OptionStrat	Cheddar Flow	Market Chameleon
Status on this directory	Live review	Live review	Stub	Stub
Job	Scan unusual options flow	Visualize an options payoff; scan unusual options flow as an extra job	Scan unusual options flow	Visualize an options payoff; scan unusual options flow
What official pages describe	Live US options-flow tape, dark pool, politician trades, GEX, calculator, screeners, alerts, Discord; API sold separately	Interactive builder, 50+ templates, optimizer, OPRA data, unusual-flow feed	Real-time flow, filters, and related order details	Options data, screeners, and related analytics
Price captured here	Free (15-min delay) / Retail Basic $50/mo / Retail Pro $75/mo / Retail Max $120/mo as of 2026-08-28; annual $504 / $756 / $1,224	Free (15-min delay) / Live Tools $39.99/mo / Live Flow $99.99/mo as of 2026-08-26; annual dollars unverified	Current plan names and prices unverified as of 2026-08-26	Current plan names and prices unverified as of 2026-08-26
Canada	Canadian-listed coverage unverified as of 2026-08-28; US-listed OPRA focus	Canadian-listed coverage unverified as of 2026-08-26; US-listed OPRA focus	Canadian-listed support unverified as of 2026-08-26	Canadian coverage unverified as of 2026-08-26

On OptionStrat, flow is an extra job next to the payoff diagram. On Unusual Whales, flow is the job; the calculator and charts are extras. Cheddar Flow and Market Chameleon are stubs. None of those rows is a recommendation to switch, and none is a claim that Unusual Whales wins the job.

FAQ

Is the free plan enough?

For opening the dashboard and seeing what the tape looks like, yes — Free has 15-minute delayed data and limited flow. Pay when you want the live full tape, saved alerts and dashboards, politician and dark-pool downloads, or the 1-minute SPX market-maker-exposure view on Retail Max. Annual dashboard prices as shown were $504 / $756 / $1,224. The API has a separate one-week free trial; API plans do not include the website.

Does it work in Canada?

As analysis software in a browser, yes you can open the site from Canada. The product focus on pages we reviewed is US-listed underlyings, US exchanges, and a US OPRA feed. We did not find an official page stating that Canadian-listed options (TSX equities, Montréal Exchange options, CDRs, and similar) are supported. Canadian-listed coverage is unverified as of 2026-08-28. We found no official Unusual Whales page that lists Canadian brokers, Questrade, Wealthsimple, TD Direct Investing, or Interactive Brokers Canada as integrated execution partners. Named Canadian-broker integrations are unverified as of 2026-08-28. Do not infer them. Currency (CAD vs USD), registered-account constraints (TFSA, RRSP), and Canadian tax treatment of options are outside this review.

Do I need a broker?

No. Scanning flow, opening the calculator, and using alerts do not require a connected broker. Unusual Whales is not listed here as a broker. Whether the product can send orders is unverified as of 2026-08-28. Public pages describe a website, a mobile app, Discord, and an API — not account opening or order routing. Do not treat this page as a how-to for placing trades.

Verified features

Sourced from unusualwhales.com, unusualwhales.com/pricing, unusualwhales.com/public-api, unusualwhales.com/enterprise, unusualwhales.com/opra-pro, api.unusualwhales.com, docs.unusualwhales.com/features/1-welcome, docs.unusualwhales.com/features/3-subscription-tooling, and docs.unusualwhales.com/faq on 2026-08-28. Docs pages that still show 2022 plan names are cited only for feature descriptions, not for current prices. We do not list features we could not confirm on those pages.

Unusual options flow (publicly described)

• Pricing “What’s inside”: real-time trade data for every options trade across all US exchanges; advanced filters; tools to identify unusual activity. Limited flow for free users.
• Paid cards: real-time options flow feed; full tape, 100% market coverage; unusual-activity indicators; custom alerts.
• Older docs: customizable table of every US-exchange options trade; views by ticker, sector, and strike; save a trade, open it in the interactive options profit calculator, and view time-and-sales for a contract.
• Older docs on side labels: a print nearer the bid is treated as sold; nearer the ask as bought. Calls on the bid are labeled bearish; puts on the bid are labeled bullish, assuming the trade is to open. That is vendor labeling, not a forecast.
• Older alert FAQ: alerts are algorithmic; “not a recommendation to buy”; no human entry/exit. Alerts described as sent 10 AM–4 PM ET. Premium users receive all alerts with zero delay; free users receive only free alerts with a 5–12 minute delay. Whether those delay numbers still apply next to the current “15-min delayed data” FAQ line is unverified as of 2026-08-28 beyond both sentences existing.

Dark pool, news, politician trades, and insiders (publicly described)

• Pricing cards: politician trade information; download daily options and dark-pool data; institutional holders and insider trade data.
• “What’s inside”: news and dark pool, plus original research and reports.
• Homepage: “Congressional Trading” — track portfolios and trading activities of influential political figures and market makers.
• Enterprise table: politician portfolios labeled STOCK Act; insider filings labeled SEC-regulated US securities; dark-pool-related stock trades labeled “US Equity Markets.”
• Official landing page: dark-pool data is included in the base paid plan (you do not need to upgrade past Basic to see it). Confirm on the current pricing cards; Basic, Pro, and Max all list the daily dark-pool download.

Greek exposure and proprietary tape tools (publicly described)

• GEX heatmap for all US tickers on paid dashboard cards.
• SPX market-maker exposure: 10-minute updates on Retail Basic and Retail Pro; 1-minute on Retail Max (card: “1 minute GEX Periscope”).
• Market Tide, Net Tide, and other labeled proprietary tools; Greeks and volatility dashboards.
• Homepage: “Market Maker Exposure” — real-time gamma-exposure shifts.
• API categories listed on the public-api page include options flow, Greek exposure, volatility, dark pool, congressional, institutional, screeners, insider trades, news, and more.

Options profit calculator and charting (publicly described)

• Pricing “What’s inside”: pre-built strategies to help you determine how to trade the flow; visualize potential profit and loss over the course of a trade.
• Paid cards: options profit calculator; stock and options screener.
• Docs A–Z: live charting for all US stocks; preloaded technical indicators (examples named: VWAP, Bollinger Bands, Ichimoku Clouds); price-movement alerts.
• Pricing “What’s inside”: advanced live charts and charting tools to analyze stocks.
• These are extras on a flow product. This listing’s job is still scan unusual options flow.

Mr. Whale and alerts (publicly described)

• Homepage: “Mr. Whale” — AI companion; analysis covering labeled key metrics; can set alerts from chat or send a daily customized market brief.
• Paid cards: “Mr. Whale, your AI Analyst and Trade Finder.” Usage multipliers as in the price table. What a “usage” unit is remains unverified as of 2026-08-28.
• Alerts: website, mobile app, and push notification (pricing “What’s inside”). Retail Basic: 25 custom alerts. Pro and Max: unlimited.

Data and licensing (publicly described)

• Paid dashboard + tools plans: real-time data. Free accounts: 15-minute delayed data. All API plans: real-time data.
• OPRA subscriber agreement at unusualwhales.com/opra-pro. Nonprofessional use is addressed in that agreement’s addendum language. Older docs point readers to the OPRA Nonprofessional agreement.
• Retail and API plans: individual use. Redistribution of API data is stated as not allowed on the public-api terms blurb.
• Enterprise coverage table (as of August 2026 on that page): option trades and related derivatives analytics labeled US OPRA feed; stock trades labeled US Equity Markets; 13F / insider / ownership labeled SEC-regulated US securities.

API, Discord, mobile (publicly described)

• API: REST, WebSocket, MCP; 100+ endpoints claimed on the public-api page. API plans do not include the website or mobile app. WebSockets are listed on API Advanced in the pricing “What’s inside” API copy (“WebSockets included on API Advanced”).
• Discord: community trading Discord and chat access on paid dashboard cards; Discord community always free per the pricing FAQ. Older docs: link Discord on the settings page for subscriber channels; a free Discord bot with slash commands exists.
• Mobile: pricing page describes a mobile app for alerts; older docs name iOS/Android. Exact current store listing and feature parity are unverified as of 2026-08-28.

Homepage stats displayed on the vendor site

• Homepage (captured 2026-08-28): “11K+ tickers covered,” “1B+ data points,” “Real-time live market data.” Treat those as vendor-displayed figures, not a measurement we audited.

Canada note

This directory is written with readers in Canada as well as the United States.

US-listed focus. Official pages we reviewed say “all US exchanges,” “GEX Heatmap for All US Tickers,” “live charting for all US stocks,” and (enterprise table) “US OPRA feed” and “US Equity Markets.” Politician portfolios are labeled STOCK Act. We did not find an official page stating that Canadian-listed options (TSX equities, Montréal Exchange options, CDRs, and similar) are supported. Canadian-listed coverage is unverified as of 2026-08-28. Assume US-listed underlyings unless Unusual Whales shows you a specific Canadian symbol yourself.

Canadian broker compatibility. We found no official Unusual Whales page that lists Canadian brokers, Questrade, Wealthsimple, TD Direct Investing, or Interactive Brokers Canada as integrated execution partners. Any claim that Unusual Whales “works with” a named Canadian broker would be invented. Compatibility with a specific Canadian broker is unverified as of 2026-08-28. Because the public product is analysis software, many people use a flow tape in one browser tab and a broker in another — that workflow is a description of two separate products, not a verified integration.

Currency (CAD vs USD), registered-account constraints (TFSA, RRSP), and Canadian tax treatment of options are outside this review.

Confirm pricing, data rights, and symbol coverage on the official site. Official homepage only: unusualwhales.com. There is no affiliate link on this page.