The short answer: Our pick for a free stock scanner is the free version of Finviz: a screener, market heat maps and charts with a registered account, on delayed quotes that refresh every 3 minutes. TradingView Basic is the free pick for charts.
Streaming Alerts (Scanner) that report events as they print, Top Lists that refresh every 15 seconds, 308 alerts and 249 filters, and the AI Assistant in every TI Pro plan.
Price
TI Standard: $1,068 a year (about $89/mo) or $127 a month. TI Premium: $2,136 a year (about $178/mo) or $254 a month.
Worth knowing: Trade Ideas is not a free tool. It is on this list for the moment a free screener stops being enough: when you trade during the session and a 3-minute refresh is too slow.
Best for: Traders who have outgrown a free screener and trade while the market is open.
Unusual options heat map and Top Lists.
Free vs paid
When to move to a paid scanner
Stay free while you research after the close. Consider paying when one of these is true:
You trade during the session and a delayed quote or a 3-minute refresh means you see moves late.
You want an alert to tell you when a stock does something, instead of re-running a screen.
You want to test a scan before you trade it. In Trade Ideas, that is OddsMaker, part of TI Premium.
To see whether a real-time scanner fits, open a free account with Trade Ideas.
Past results, including backtests, don't guarantee future results.
Method
How we checked
Free tiers from vendor pages. What each free tier includes comes from that company's own pricing or plans page, read on October 9, 2026.
Order. Free tools first, by how much a free account gets you. Trade Ideas is last because it is a paid tool.
For most people, the free version of Finviz: a screener, heat maps and charts with a free registered account. Its quotes are delayed and the screener refreshes every 3 minutes. TradingView Basic is a good free choice if charts come first.
Is there a free real-time stock scanner?
thinkorswim costs nothing for Schwab clients. Most free tiers use delayed data or skip auto-refresh: Finviz free is delayed with a 3-minute refresh, and TradingView lists screener auto-refresh on paid plans.
Usually real-time data, auto-refresh, alerts, saved screens and exports. Which ones depends on the tool.
When is a paid stock scanner worth it?
When you trade during the session and need to know what is moving now, or want alerts and backtesting. If you research after the close, a free screener may be all you need.
What does Trade Ideas cost per month?
On a yearly bill, TI Standard works out to $89 a month, charged as $1,068 a year; month to month it is $127. TI Premium works out to $178 a month on a yearly bill ($2,136 a year) or $254 month to month. Premium is the plan with Holly AI Signals, OddsMaker backtesting, Money Machine, Smart Risk Levels and RBI/GBI windows. You can open a free account to try it. Prices checked October 2026 on trade-ideas.com/pricing.
