Compare · Nansen

Nansen alternative for Bitcoin and Nansen API pricing

Nansen is a wallet intelligence product built around Smart Money labels, strongest on Ethereum and Solana.

Its own docs say Bitcoin gets Profiler endpoints only. If Bitcoin is the job, compare the two here.

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REST API · SQL · dashboards · address history since the 2009 genesis block

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informational on-chain data · not financial advice

REST API · SQL · dashboards, one indexed dataset. Reading the chain ...

Nansen leads on multi-chain wallet labeling, with Smart Money cohorts, token flows and PnL across 38 networks, while BitcoinDatabase is a Bitcoin-only index that returns exact balances, UTXOs and flows for every script type at a named block height, with SQL across many addresses and labels at 1 credit a call.

Side by side

Nansen vs BitcoinDatabase, honestly

A fair look at what each does well. Both are capable tools. Here is where they differ.

What matters	BitcoinDatabase	Nansen
What you buy	A Bitcoin data index over REST, SQL and exports	Wallet intelligence across 38 chains: labels, Smart Money, token flows, PnL
Bitcoin endpoint coverage	Every endpoint is Bitcoin	Profiler only, per Nansen's chain page: no Smart Money, token flows or PnL for Bitcoin
Bitcoin address formats	Every script type, including P2WSH and Taproot	Docs list P2PKH, P2SH and Bech32; Taproot is not mentioned
Published API price	Developer $49, Growth $199, Scale $799 a month, half that billed yearly	Pro $69 a month, or $49 a month billed annually; a Free plan with 100 trial credits
Monthly volume on the entry plan	500,000 credits on Developer	Included credits topped back up to 2,000 on the 1st of each month, extra credits sold separately
Balance lookup cost	1 credit	1 credit for current or historical balances
Address label lookup cost	1 credit on Scale	100 credits for common labels, 500 for premium labels
Pay per call without an account	No, a plan and an API key	Yes, x402 in USDC: $0.01 a basic call, $0.05 a premium one
Rate limit	10, 50 or 250 requests a second by plan	15 a second on Free, 75 a second and 1,500 a minute on paid plans
SQL across addresses	Yes, POST /v1/sql from Growth	No SQL endpoint in the API reference
Best suited for	Bitcoin exchanges, custodians, auditors and analysts who need numbers they can reproduce	Traders and funds following labeled wallets across EVM chains and Solana

Comparison reflects general, publicly understood positioning. Capabilities change, so check each product for the latest.

Why teams pick BitcoinDatabase

The fully indexed Bitcoin blockchain, queryable by REST, SQL and dashboards

What the Nansen API costs

We read Nansen's Credits and Pricing guide on 30 September 2026. There are two API plans. Free gives 100 one-time credits, then tops your balance back up to 10 credits a day. Pro is $69 a month, or $49 a month billed annually, and grants 2,000 credits when you subscribe, then raises your included balance back to 2,000 on the 1st of each month if it has fallen below that. It is a floor, not a fresh 2,000 every month, and unused credits do not pile up. Extra credits are sold as Flexi-Credits and expire a year after purchase. Costs vary by endpoint: a current or historical balance is 1 credit, counterparties 5, common address labels 100 and premium labels 500. So a Pro month covers about 2,000 balance lookups or 20 label lookups before you buy more. BitcoinDatabase Developer is $49 a month, or $24 a month billed yearly, for 500,000 credits, and Scale includes labels at 1 credit a call.

How much of Nansen covers Bitcoin

Less than the brand suggests, and Nansen says so itself. Its Supported Chains page lists Bitcoin under non-EVM chains with the note "Limited endpoint support (Profiler only)", supporting P2PKH, P2SH and Bech32 addresses, with no Smart Money or Token God Mode support. The Profiler matrix marks Bitcoin yes for balances, transactions and related wallets, and no for PnL. The Native Tokens page adds that BTC is queried through a placeholder token address and that native-token coverage is narrower than contract-token coverage. The Data Coverage page, which Nansen calls the single source of truth for how far back each chain goes, lists start dates for Ethereum, Solana, Tron and more than twenty others, and has no row for Bitcoin. If your questions are about Bitcoin cold storage, exchange clusters or a period-end balance, ask Nansen what history it holds for your addresses before you commit.

We called it without a key

On 30 September 2026 we sent a keyless POST to Nansen's historical balances endpoint for 34xp4vRoCGJym3xR7yCVPFHoCNxv4Twseo, an exchange cold wallet that held 248,597.59262947 BTC at block 969,296. The server answered in 0.20 seconds with HTTP 402 Payment Required and an x402 quote: 10,000 units of USDC on Base, which is one cent, payable to a Nansen address, then retry with the receipt. That is a real option for an agent or a one-off script, since there is no account to open. It is also a different model from a data subscription: every call is a payment, prices are quoted per call, and your code has to hold and sign with a funded wallet. BitcoinDatabase works the conventional way. You pick a plan, get a key, and each response carries X-Credits-Charged and X-Credits-Remaining headers so your budget is visible on every call.

Where Nansen is the better buy

If you follow labeled wallets across Ethereum, Solana, Base and other EVM chains, Nansen is the stronger product and we do not pretend otherwise. Smart Money cohorts, token God Mode flows, PnL leaderboards and Hyperliquid perp data have no equivalent here, and its labels are the reason most people buy it. BitcoinDatabase is the better fit when Bitcoin is the business and the output is a number someone will check: the balance of a P2WSH or Taproot vault at a period-end block, net flow through an exchange cluster over a window, every UTXO an address holds with its age, or one SQL query across thousands of addresses. You can start on REST at $49 a month and move to SQL at $199 when your questions span many addresses.

Good questions

Nansen vs BitcoinDatabase, answered

On 30 September 2026 Nansen listed its API Pro plan at $69 a month, or $49 a month billed annually, with included credits topped back up to 2,000 each month. A Free plan gives 100 trial credits. Without an account, x402 pay-per-call pricing is $0.01 for basic endpoints and $0.05 for premium ones.

Partly. The Free plan grants 100 one-time credits, then tops you back up to 10 credits a day, at 15 requests a second. That is enough to test an endpoint, not to run a job. BitcoinDatabase has no free plan: you can run a demo query on this page, and paid plans start at $49 a month.

Yes, with limits Nansen documents itself. Bitcoin has Profiler endpoints only, such as balances, transactions and related wallets, and no Smart Money, token flow or PnL support. The docs list P2PKH, P2SH and Bech32 addresses, and the data coverage table has no start date for Bitcoin.

Each endpoint costs a fixed number of credits. Balances and transactions cost 1, counterparties 5, common labels 100 and premium labels 500. On Pro, included credits are raised back to 2,000 on the 1st of each month if you are below that, and purchased credits expire after a year.

x402 is an HTTP payment protocol Nansen supports for keyless access. A request without an API key returns HTTP 402 with a price, your client pays that amount in USDC on Base, Solana or Monad, and retries with the receipt. We saw a one cent quote for a historical balance call on 30 September 2026.

Nansen documents 15 requests a second and 300 a minute on Free, and 75 a second and 1,500 a minute on paid plans, with some endpoints capped further. A 429 response carries a scope header and a Retry-After value. BitcoinDatabase allows 10, 50 or 250 requests a second by plan.

For Bitcoin entity labels and investigations, Arkham and Chainalysis are the closest matches. For multi-chain wallet tracking, Cielo and DeBank. If Bitcoin is the whole business and you need exact balances by block for every address type, flows across addresses or SQL, a Bitcoin-only index like BitcoinDatabase fits better.

Per call, yes. Nansen charges 100 credits for common labels and 500 for premium ones, so a Pro month covers about 20 common label lookups. BitcoinDatabase includes entity labels on Scale at 1 credit a call, within 50 million monthly credits. Label coverage differs, so test your own addresses first.

No. BitcoinDatabase provides informational on-chain data and analytics only. It is not investment, financial or legal advice. Vendor facts on this page were read on 30 September 2026 and may change after that date. Nansen is a trademark of its owner.

Explore the data

The Bitcoin data you can query here

Bitcoin exchange reserves

Exchange balance and reserve totals per address, with dated snapshots and the transactions behind every move.

Explore

Bitcoin active addresses

Daily active address counts, historical series and entity-adjusted numbers from the indexed chain.

Explore

BTC address balance API

Get exact balances and UTXOs for any address, in batches.

Explore

Query the Bitcoin blockchain with SQL

Write plain SQL against the whole indexed chain, no node, no ETL.

Explore

More comparisons

See how BitcoinDatabase compares

vs Glassnode

Glassnode alternative

Raw queryable Bitcoin data over REST, SQL and dashboards, not just curated charts.

vs Dune

Dune alternative

Bitcoin-only and fully-indexed, with a REST API too, not just cross-chain SQL.

vs Blockchair

Blockchair alternative

Bitcoin-deep with every UTXO, entity labels, metrics, SQL and dashboards.

vs Chainalysis

Chainalysis alternative

Developer-first, self-serve on-chain data with compliance tooling to support your own review.

vs BlockCypher

BlockCypher alternative

Bitcoin-native depth with SQL and dashboards, not just a multi-chain REST API.

vs Chainstack

Chainstack alternative

Indexed Bitcoin data over REST and SQL, not raw RPC nodes you still have to query.

vs Blockchain.com

Blockchain.com API alternative

Production-grade indexed Bitcoin data over REST and SQL, not a rate-capped free explorer API.

vs Mempool.space

Mempool.space alternative

Indexed address, balance and history data over REST and SQL, alongside mempool and fees, on production plans.

vs CoinAPI

CoinAPI alternative

On-chain Bitcoin data: addresses, balances, UTXOs and labels, not cross-asset market prices.

vs TRM Labs

TRM Labs alternative

Bitcoin-native on-chain data and screening signals over REST and SQL, not a full multi-chain investigations suite.

vs Whale Alert

Whale Alert alternative

Query large bitcoin transactions on your own thresholds from the fully-indexed chain, not just a fixed real-time feed.

vs CoinGecko

CoinGecko alternative

Raw on-chain Bitcoin data over REST and SQL, not market prices across thousands of coins.

vs CoinMarketCap

CoinMarketCap alternative

On-chain Bitcoin data over REST and SQL, where CoinMarketCap serves market prices.

vs Blockdaemon

Blockdaemon alternative

A query-first indexed Bitcoin database over REST and SQL, not raw node RPC infrastructure.

vs Xverse

Xverse alternative

Query indexed ordinals, inscriptions, BRC-20 and Runes data over REST and SQL, not just wallet and minting endpoints.

vs BigQuery

BigQuery alternative

Balances, entity labels and fund flows already indexed, without per-terabyte scan billing.

vs Bitquery

Bitquery alternative

Bitcoin-only depth over REST and SQL, billed on calls rather than on points that move with query shape.

vs TimechainIndex

TimechainIndex alternative

Bitcoin-only like TimechainIndex, with published pricing and a commercial REST API.

vs CryptoQuant

CryptoQuant alternative

API access on the entry plan and the raw chain underneath, not day-resolution metrics.

vs Alchemy

Alchemy alternative

An indexed Bitcoin database you query by address, not a Bitcoin Core JSON-RPC passthrough.

vs QuickNode

QuickNode alternative

An indexed Bitcoin database you query by address, not a managed Core node with the address-capable calls switched off.

vs Hiro

Hiro alternative

Hiro retired its Bitcoin Layer 1 APIs. The endpoints now answer HTTP 410 Gone, and the migration link inside that answer is itself dead.

vs Amberdata

Amberdata alternative

Amberdata belongs to Kaiko as of June 2026. Its pricing page loads but publishes no number, and its API answers a missing key three different ways.

vs Elliptic

Elliptic alternative

Elliptic publishes no pricing and sells its screening API only on a negotiated contract. We measured its endpoints, and the OFAC list underneath it, on 4 September 2026.

vs Merkle Science

Merkle Science alternative

Merkle Science publishes no pricing and gates every product behind a demo. We measured its site, its API documentation and its blockchain coverage on 6 September 2026.

vs Coin Metrics

Coin Metrics alternative

Coin Metrics is now Talos and its pricing page is gone. We measured the redirects, the free community API and the exact metrics it withholds on 8 September 2026.

vs CoinGlass

CoinGlass alternative

CoinGlass publishes exchange balances per wallet address, hourly and rounded, from $29 a month with no free tier. We measured its plans, its documented precision and its Bitcoin gaps on 10 September 2026.

vs Crypto APIs

Crypto APIs alternative

Crypto APIs covers 35+ networks from $49 a month. For Bitcoin fee rates, balances and history, we measured where a Bitcoin-only index does the job better and where it does not.

vs Tatum

Tatum alternative

Tatum covers 130+ blockchains from $49 a month. For Bitcoin history, balances at a past block and fee rates, we priced its plans and measured the Bitcoin side on 22 Sep 2026.

vs NOWNodes

NOWNodes alternative

NOWNodes sells shared node and Blockbook access across 100+ networks from 20 euros a month. We read its price list and hit its Bitcoin endpoints on 26 Sep 2026.

vs GetBlock

GetBlock alternative

GetBlock sells shared nodes on 130+ chains, priced in compute units, from $49 a month. We read its plan table and CU rules and probed its Bitcoin endpoints on 27 Sep 2026.

vs Arkham

Arkham Intelligence alternative

Arkham names wallets across seven networks and grants its API by application. We read its access terms and probed its API on 28 Sep 2026.

vs Santiment

Santiment alternative

Santiment sells 1,000+ metrics across 2,800 assets over GraphQL. We read its plans and tested its Bitcoin balance query against the chain on 29 Sep 2026.

vs Allium

Allium alternative

Allium sells enterprise blockchain data across dozens of chains, Bitcoin included. We read its docs, unit tables and keyless pricing on 1 Oct 2026.

vs Flipside

Flipside alternative

Flipside sold its blockchain data business to SonarX in May 2026 and its old domain now redirects to an enterprise AI product. We checked what is left on 2 Oct 2026.

vs SonarX

SonarX alternative

SonarX ships Bitcoin as Snowflake shares, file dumps and Kafka streams, and turns on Bitcoin balances and REST on request. We read its Bitcoin page and checked its pricing URL on 5 Oct 2026.

vs GoldRush

GoldRush alternative

GoldRush, the API formerly sold as Covalent, covers 100 plus chains and gives Bitcoin three endpoints. We read its Bitcoin docs and pricing page on 6 Oct 2026.

vs Scorechain

Scorechain alternative

Scorechain is a Luxembourg blockchain analytics firm covering 25 plus chains. We read its site, its QuickNode add-on docs and pricing on 7 Oct 2026.

vs AMLBot

AMLBot alternative

AMLBot sells wallet checks, KYT monitoring and KYC to crypto businesses across many chains. We read its site and plan guide on 8 Oct 2026.

See everything BitcoinDatabase can query

Query the whole Bitcoin blockchain in one place

An address in, structured on-chain data out. BitcoinDatabase serves balances, UTXOs, transactions, entity labels and fund flows, with address history back to the 2009 genesis block over REST, and SQL and dashboards over the indexed chain. No node to run.

See pricing

REST + SQL + dashboards · new blocks within seconds · informational on-chain data only