Quick start
Learn the essential commands to start querying crypto market data from your terminal.
Prerequisites
Make sure you’ve installed the CLI. Verify it’s working:
coinpaprika-cli --version
Optional: Set up your API key
The free tier works without an API key, but if you have one (or want to upgrade later), configure it now:
This interactive wizard will prompt you for your API key and save it to ~/.coinpaprika/config.json.
You can skip this step — the CLI works immediately with the free tier (20,000 calls/month).
Your first commands
Let’s explore the most useful commands for getting started.
Get global market overview
See high-level statistics about the entire crypto market:
Example output:
┌──────────────────────┬────────────────┐
│ market_cap_usd │ 2543678901234 │
│ volume_24h_usd │ 98765432109 │
│ bitcoin_dominance │ 54.23 │
│ cryptocurrencies │ 8234 │
│ market_cap_change_24h│ 2.15 │
└──────────────────────┴────────────────┘
Get real-time price for a coin
Query current price data for any cryptocurrency using its coin ID:
coinpaprika-cli ticker btc-bitcoin
┌──────────────────────┬────────────────┐
│ id │ btc-bitcoin │
│ name │ Bitcoin │
│ symbol │ BTC │
│ rank │ 1 │
│ price_usd │ 67432.15 │
│ volume_24h_usd │ 28934567890 │
│ market_cap_usd │ 1324567890123 │
│ percent_change_24h │ 3.24 │
│ percent_change_7d │ -1.52 │
└──────────────────────┴────────────────┘
Coin IDs follow the format symbol-name (e.g., btc-bitcoin, eth-ethereum, sol-solana). Use the search command to find the correct ID.
Search for coins, exchanges, and more
Find cryptocurrencies, exchanges, people, or tags by name:
coinpaprika-cli search ethereum
Currencies:
┌──────────────────┬──────────┬────────┬──────┐
│ id │ name │ symbol │ rank │
├──────────────────┼──────────┼────────┼──────┤
│ eth-ethereum │ Ethereum │ ETH │ 2 │
│ etc-ethereum-... │ Ethereum │ ETC │ 23 │
└──────────────────┴──────────┴────────┴──────┘
Exchanges:
┌─────────────────┬──────────────────┬──────┐
│ id │ name │ rank │
├─────────────────┼──────────────────┼──────┤
│ uniswap │ Uniswap │ 8 │
└─────────────────┴──────────────────┴──────┘
Get ticker data for multiple coins
List real-time prices for the top cryptocurrencies:
coinpaprika-cli tickers --limit 5
┌──────────────────┬──────────┬────────┬──────┬───────────┬──────────────┐
│ id │ name │ symbol │ rank │ price_usd │ market_cap │
├──────────────────┼──────────┼────────┼──────┼───────────┼──────────────┤
│ btc-bitcoin │ Bitcoin │ BTC │ 1 │ 67432.15 │ 1.32e12 │
│ eth-ethereum │ Ethereum │ ETH │ 2 │ 3456.78 │ 4.15e11 │
│ usdt-tether │ Tether │ USDT │ 3 │ 1.00 │ 9.87e10 │
│ bnb-binance-coin │ BNB │ BNB │ 4 │ 589.23 │ 8.76e10 │
│ sol-solana │ Solana │ SOL │ 5 │ 143.56 │ 6.54e10 │
└──────────────────┴──────────┴────────┴──────┴───────────┴──────────────┘
coinpaprika-cli ticker btc-bitcoin
--output json for structured data with metadata:
coinpaprika-cli --output json ticker btc-bitcoin
{
"_meta": {
"timestamp": "2026-03-03T10:30:00Z",
"api_version": "v1",
"credits": 1
},
"data": {
"id": "btc-bitcoin",
"name": "Bitcoin",
"symbol": "BTC",
"rank": 1,
"price_usd": 67432.15,
"volume_24h_usd": 28934567890,
"market_cap_usd": 1324567890123
}
}
Raw JSON for scripting
Use --output json --raw to get clean JSON without metadata, perfect for piping to other tools:
coinpaprika-cli --output json --raw ticker btc-bitcoin | jq '.price_usd'
Common use cases
Monitor Bitcoin price
Get a quick price check:
coinpaprika-cli ticker btc-bitcoin | grep price_usd
Compare multiple cryptocurrencies
coinpaprika-cli ticker btc-bitcoin
coinpaprika-cli ticker eth-ethereum
coinpaprika-cli ticker sol-solana
Find a coin by name
Use search when you don’t know the coin ID:
coinpaprika-cli search cardano
coinpaprika-cli ticker ada-cardano
coinpaprika-cli exchange binance
coinpaprika-cli exchanges --limit 10
Convert between currencies
Calculate conversions between any two currencies:
coinpaprika-cli convert btc-bitcoin usd-us-dollars --amount 0.5
Advanced features
Some features require a paid API plan. Run coinpaprika-cli plans to see what’s available.
Historical OHLCV data
Get candlestick data for charting (requires Starter+ plan):
coinpaprika-cli ohlcv btc-bitcoin --start 2024-01-01 --interval 24h --limit 30
Latest OHLCV (free tier)
Get the last full day of OHLCV data without a paid plan:
coinpaprika-cli ohlcv-latest btc-bitcoin
Ticker history
Query historical ticker snapshots (requires Starter+ plan):
coinpaprika-cli ticker-history btc-bitcoin --start 2024-01-01 --interval 1h --limit 24
Contract queries
Look up tokens by smart contract address:
coinpaprika-cli contract-ticker eth-ethereum 0xdac17f958d2ee523a2206206994597c13d831ec7
Interactive shell mode
For extended exploration, use the interactive REPL:
This launches an interactive session where you can run commands without the coinpaprika-cli prefix:
coinpaprika> global
coinpaprika> ticker btc-bitcoin
coinpaprika> search ethereum
coinpaprika> exit
API key management
You have three ways to provide your API key:
Config file (recommended)
Run the onboarding wizard to save your key:This stores your key in ~/.coinpaprika/config.json. Environment variable
Export your key in your shell:export COINPAPRIKA_API_KEY=your-api-key-here
~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc to make it permanent. CLI flag
Pass the key with each command:coinpaprika-cli --api-key your-api-key-here ticker btc-bitcoin
View your configuration
Check your current config:
coinpaprika-cli config show
coinpaprika-cli config set-key YOUR_NEW_KEY
coinpaprika-cli config reset
Check API status
Verify the CoinPaprika API is operational:
Get help anytime
View all available commands:
Get help for a specific command:
coinpaprika-cli ticker --help
Next steps
Explore all commands
Browse the complete command guide with examples
View pricing
Learn about free tier limits and paid plan features