Quiver Quantitative vs Unusual Whales for Congress Trades: Which Fits Your Workflow
Quiver Premium is $30/mo with a Congress backtester; Unusual Whales puts politician trades in options-flow plans from $50/mo. Compared.
Congress trades: which fits your workflow
At a glance
| Quiver Quantitative | Unusual Whales | Signal8 (we make this) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cheapest plan with congress trades (as of 2026-11-02) | Free Visitor plan lists live congress trading | Retail Basic, $50/month or $504/year (Politician Trade Information) | Free account |
| Next paid step | Premium, $30/month or $300/year | Retail Pro $75/month; Retail Max $120/month | Pro, $59/month or $588/year |
| Main product | Alternative data across many datasets | Options flow, dark pool and market tools | SEC filings, dilution, insider and congress data |
| Congress backtester | Yes, on Premium | Not listed on its pricing page | No |
| Politician portfolios | Yes, portfolios and leaderboard on Premium | Yes, a Portfolios tab in its politics section | Holdings and estimated P&L per politician |
| Unusual or conflict flags | Not listed on the pages we read | Yes: committee conflict, FEC donation conflict, unusually large trade and more (API docs) | Committee by sector conflicts leaderboard; policy event overlap |
| Late filings | Not listed on the pages we read | Yes, a late reports endpoint (API docs) | Yes, average filing delay per politician |
| Campaign finance | Election fundraising datasets | An FEC Data tab | Campaign Finance tab per politician |
| API | Separate, from $30/month | Separate, data-only API plans from $99/month | Included in Pro, plus an MCP server |
Quiver cells come from quiverquant.com and api.quiverquant.com; Unusual Whales cells from unusualwhales.com/pricing, unusualwhales.com/politics and its OpenAPI spec. All checked on 2026-11-02.
The short version
These two are not the same kind of product. Quiver Quantitative is an alternative-data site where congress trading is one of its headline datasets. Unusual Whales is an options-flow platform that also carries politician trades, and lists "Politician Trade Information" on each of its paid plans.
If congress trades are the main thing you want, Quiver's plans cost less: congress trading is on its free plan, and Premium is $30 a month. If you already pay for options flow, Unusual Whales gives you politician trades in the same subscription, with a set of "unusual trade" flags on top.
Congress features on Quiver Quantitative
Quiver's free plan lists live data on congress trading, and its site menu adds Congress Live Net Worth, Politician Search and election fundraising pages. Premium ($30 a month billed monthly, $300 a year billed yearly, as of 2026-11-02) is where the congress tooling sits:
- Congress Backtester: test strategies built on the trades members of Congress disclose.
- Politician Stock Portfolios and Leaderboard: holdings and returns of politicians' portfolios.
- Quiver Alerts, a cross-dataset stock screener and exportable data samples.
The Quiver API is a separate purchase from $30 a month and includes congress trades, congress holdings and politician net worth.
Congress features on Unusual Whales
Unusual Whales has a dedicated politics section with Politics Flow, Politicians, Portfolios, Midterms, Insider Trades, FEC Data and Unusual Trades tabs, and it publishes an annual congressional trading report.
Its API documentation spells out the most distinctive part. An unusual-trades endpoint flags congress trades by type: committee conflict, first person to trade, low market cap, unusual industry, unusually large trade and FEC donation conflict. Other endpoints return late reports, politicians' portfolios and which politicians hold a given ticker.
On price, every paid dashboard plan lists politician trade information: Retail Basic $50 a month ($504 a year), Retail Pro $75 ($756) and Retail Max $120 ($1,224), as of 2026-11-02. Those plans are built around real-time options flow, GEX and dark pool data. API plans are sold separately, from $99 a month for API Options Starter as of 2026-11-02, and are "data-only" (no website or app).
Where Signal8 fits
Signal8 is the third option, and we make it. Its free politician directory covers senators, representatives and executive branch officials, with Trades, Campaign Finance, Committees and Conflicts tabs. A conflicts leaderboard groups trades by committee and sector, and each politician page shows trades placed near executive orders that affect the same sector. Estimated P&L and win rate need a free sign-in.
Through the Signal8 Pro API and MCP server, an AI assistant can query congress and cabinet trades, committee conflicts, donor and trade overlap and P&L estimates directly. Yearly figures sit on the public congress trading statistics page.
Where Signal8 is weaker
- No backtester. Quiver Premium lists a Congress Backtester; Signal8 has nothing equivalent.
- No options flow. If you want politician trades beside options flow and dark pool prints, Unusual Whales has both in one plan. Signal8 does not sell options flow.
- No alternative datasets such as lobbying, government contracts or patents, which Quiver covers.
- The API needs Pro. Signal8's API and MCP server come only with the $59 plan, while Quiver's API starts at $30 a month on its own.
When each one fits
Quiver Quantitative fits if congress trades are your main dataset and you want to backtest them or follow politician portfolios, at the lowest paid price of the three.
Unusual Whales fits if you trade options and want congress trades, conflict flags and FEC data inside the same platform as your flow.
Signal8 fits if you want free politician pages that put trades beside donors, committees and filing delays, or congress data in an AI assistant through MCP.
New to these filings? The Academy guides on congressional trading data and STOCK Act disclosures cover what a periodic transaction report shows.
FAQ
Which is cheaper for congress trading data, Quiver or Unusual Whales?
As of 2026-11-02, Quiver lists live congress trading on its free plan and Premium at $30 a month or $300 a year. Unusual Whales lists politician trade information on its paid plans, which start at $50 a month or $504 a year. Both sell API access separately; Quiver's API starts at $30 a month and Unusual Whales' API plans start at $99 a month.
What counts as an unusual congress trade on Unusual Whales?
Its API documentation lists six flag types: committee conflict, first person to trade, low market cap, unusual industry, unusually large trade and FEC donation conflict. These are Unusual Whales' own classifications. A flag describes the trade's pattern; it is not a finding that anything improper happened.
Can I backtest congress trades?
Quiver Quantitative lists a Congress Backtester on its Premium plan as of 2026-11-02. We did not find one on the Unusual Whales pricing page, and Signal8 does not offer one. Any backtest of these trades has to account for the delay of up to 45 days, or more, between a trade and its disclosure.
Does Unusual Whales' free plan include politician trades?
Its pricing page lists Politician Trade Information under each paid plan and describes the free plan as delayed: options flow two trading days late, news 15 minutes and alerts 30 minutes. It did not say whether politician data is on the free plan, so check its site before relying on that.
Can I use congress trading data in Claude or ChatGPT?
Unusual Whales lists an MCP server for its API, Quiver's API site links an MCP server, and Signal8 Pro includes a hosted MCP server with congress and cabinet trade tools. Each one needs that vendor's API access, and the prices differ as shown above.
Sources and dates checked
Each vendor below was checked on its own website on the date shown.
- https://www.quiverquant.com/ checked 2026-11-02: Visitor plan Free with live data on Congress Trading and other datasets; Premium $30.00/month billed monthly or $25.00/month billed $300 yearly (price set by the page's Monthly/Yearly toggle); Premium lists Quiver Alerts, Politician Stock Portfolios & Leaderboard, Stock Screener, Congress Backtester, Customizable Watchlist, Exportable data samples; FAQ 7-day trial monthly, 30-day trial annual
- https://www.quiverquant.com/congresstrading/ checked 2026-11-02: menu lists Congress Trading, Congress Live Net Worth, Politician Search, Election Fundraising, Corporate Lobbying, Government Contracts
- https://api.quiverquant.com/ checked 2026-11-02: Quiver API 'starting from just $30/month'; Congress Trades, Congress Stock Holdings, Politician Net Worth datasets; MCP Server link in menu
- https://unusualwhales.com/pricing checked 2026-11-02: Free $0; Retail Basic $50/mo or $504/yr; Retail Pro $75/mo or $756/yr; Retail Max $120/mo or $1,224/yr; every paid plan lists Politician Trade Information and Institutional holders and insider trade data; free accounts see flow 2 trading days, news 15 minutes and alerts 30 minutes late; API plans are data-only and do not include the website or app; API has a free one-week trial; API data via REST, WebSocket, or MCP
- https://unusualwhales.com/pricing?product=api checked 2026-11-02: API plans API Options Starter $99/mo, API Basic $150/mo, API Advanced $375/mo, each listing Congressional and Insider Trades and MCP Support; business plans from $625/mo billed annually
- https://unusualwhales.com/politics checked 2026-11-02: Politics section tabs Overview, Politics Flow, Politicians, Portfolios, Midterms, Insider Trades, FEC Data, Unusual Trades; links a 2025 Congressional Trading Report
- https://api.unusualwhales.com/api/openapi checked 2026-11-02: congress endpoints include recent trades, late reports, politician portfolios and holders by ticker, and unusual congressional trades with types committee_conflict, first_person_to_trade, low_marketcap, unusual_industry, unusually_large_trade, fec_donation_conflict
- Signal8 politicians directory signal8.ai/politicians checked 2026-11-02: senators, representatives and executive branch officials; Overview, Trades, Campaign Finance, Committees and Conflicts tabs; Top Politicians by Est. P&L
- Signal8 politician page signal8.ai/politicians/nancy-pelosi checked 2026-11-02 logged out: Est. P&L and Win Rate show Account Required; Policy Event Overlap table
- Signal8 /mcp page checked 2026-11-02: Congress and Cabinet STOCK Act trades, committee conflicts, donor to trade overlap and P&L estimates as MCP tools; Pro 120 req/min, 10,000 req/day
- Signal8 /pro page checked 2026-11-02: Pro $59/mo or $588/yr; free account includes insider and congressional trade feeds
Check it on a live ticker
Compare the numbers yourself on Signal8
Every figure in a Signal8 dilution snapshot links to the filing sentence it came from, and anything we could not measure says so instead of showing zero. Start with the congressional trades.
Also on Signal8:Signal8 MCP serverSignal8 Pro
Related Academy guides
Signal8 Academy
Market Structure
Congressional Stock Trading Data: What It Shows
Limits of congressional stock trading data: amount brackets, reporting lag, spouse and managed accounts, and why a disclosed trade says nothing about intent.
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STOCK Act Disclosures: Periodic Transaction Reports
How members of Congress disclose stock trades under the STOCK Act: Periodic Transaction Reports, the 30 and 45 day deadlines, value brackets and late filings.
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Using Signal8
Track Congressional Stock Trades on Signal8
Track congressional and executive-branch stock trades on Signal8: trade history, late-filing flags, estimated P&L, and why each dollar figure is a range.
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Signal8 MCP Server: Use It With Claude and Cursor
Connect the Signal8 MCP server to Claude, Claude Code or Cursor in minutes, authenticate with an API key or sign-in, and try ten example prompts on real tools.
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