A market data feed delivers exchange prices and volume to your platform. For futures you pay CME exchange fees plus a feed provider. Level 1 gives you trades and top of book, Level 2 gives you order book depth. Non-professional status costs a fraction of professional, and most retail traders qualify.
This is the least interesting part of trading and one of the easiest places to either overspend or quietly undermine your own analysis.
Why the feed decides your data quality
Your platform draws the charts. Your feed supplies what it draws.
For most trading that distinction barely matters. For order flow it matters a great deal, because a footprint chart is built from individual trades. If your feed aggregates or samples ticks rather than delivering each one, the bid and ask numbers at each price are approximations, and imbalance ratios computed from approximations are not what they claim to be.
You will not see an error message. The chart will look completely normal. That is what makes it worth understanding.
Level 1 and Level 2
Level 1 gives you trades as they happen plus the current best bid and best offer. Every executed transaction with price and size.
Level 2 adds order book depth, the resting bids and offers at multiple price levels away from the top.
Here is the part people get wrong. Footprint charts, delta and volume profile all need only Level 1, because they are built from executed trades. Level 2 is required for the DOM and for heatmaps, which read resting orders.
So if your method is footprint and profile based, Level 1 is sufficient and Level 2 is an optional extra rather than a requirement. Plenty of traders pay for depth they never look at.
What it costs
Figures below were checked in August 2026 and change regularly. Treat them as an order of magnitude rather than a quote.
| Item | Approximate cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| CME Level 1, non-professional | Around 12 USD per month for all four CME exchanges | Roughly 4 USD per exchange individually |
| CME Level 2, non-professional | Around 41 USD per month bundled | Roughly 16 USD per exchange individually |
| Professional status | Several hundred per month | Same data, very different fee schedule |
| Rithmic | Around 20 USD per month per login | On top of exchange fees |
| dxFeed | Around 19 USD per month | Budget option for CME data |
| CQG | Varies by broker and package | Often bundled through the broker |
A realistic total for a retail futures trader taking Level 1 on the exchanges they actually trade, plus a feed provider, lands in the region of thirty to sixty dollars a month. Adding full depth roughly doubles it.
Professional versus non-professional
This is the single biggest factor in your bill, and the gap is large enough that it is worth understanding properly.
Non-professional status generally applies to individuals trading their own money who are not registered with a financial regulator, do not trade on behalf of others, and do not use the data for business purposes. Exchanges set the precise criteria and they are specific.
The distinction is about who you are and what you use the data for, not how much you trade or how large your account is. A full-time trader with a substantial account trading purely their own capital is typically still non-professional.
Do not guess, and do not misdeclare. Exchanges audit, and the correction is retroactive at professional rates.
The main providers
Rithmic
Widely used for futures, known for low latency and reliability. Common among active day traders and supported by essentially every serious order flow platform. Charged per login, which matters if you run more than one machine.
CQG
The other established name, with a long institutional history and a reputation for very clean data. Frequently bundled through brokers, so pricing varies more than a published rate would suggest.
dxFeed
A cheaper route to CME data that has become popular with cost-conscious retail traders. Worth evaluating on your own platform before committing, since fit varies.
Broker bundled feeds
Many futures brokers include a feed with the account. Often the simplest starting point, and worth checking what it actually delivers before assuming it is sufficient for tick level work.
Where people overspend
Buying depth they never read. If you trade footprint and profile, Level 2 is optional. Many traders pay for it because it sounded necessary and then never open a DOM.
Subscribing to exchanges they do not trade. CME Group covers four exchanges. If you only trade equity index products you may not need all of them, and per-exchange pricing exists for exactly this reason.
Multiple logins. Per-login charges add up quickly across a desktop, a laptop and a spare machine.
Paying for two platforms with two feeds. Running ATAS and Bookmap together can mean two data bills as well as two subscriptions, which is worth calculating before committing.
What actually matters
Three things, in order.
Unfiltered tick data. The feed must deliver individual trades rather than aggregated snapshots, or your footprint numbers are approximations. Ask providers directly rather than inferring from marketing copy.
Stability over speed. A feed that disconnects during the open is worse than one a few milliseconds slower. Unless you are doing something latency sensitive, reliability beats raw speed comfortably.
Platform compatibility. Check your platform supports the feed properly rather than nominally. Support quality varies, and a poorly integrated feed produces exactly the kind of subtle inaccuracy that is hard to detect.
Get those right and the rest is a rounding error against your trading costs. Get the first one wrong and everything downstream, including every level and every imbalance you read, is built on numbers that are close rather than correct.
Frequently asked questions
How much does CME market data cost for a retail trader?
Non-professional Level 1 is roughly 12 dollars a month for all four CME exchanges, or around 4 dollars per exchange. Level 2 depth is roughly 41 dollars bundled. Adding a feed provider such as Rithmic or dxFeed puts a realistic total in the thirty to sixty dollar range. Figures change, so verify current rates.
Do I need Level 2 data for order flow?
Not for footprint charts, delta or volume profile, which are all built from executed trades and need only Level 1. Level 2 is required for the DOM and for liquidity heatmaps, which read resting orders. Many traders pay for depth they never actually use.
What is the difference between professional and non-professional data?
The same data at very different prices. Non-professional status generally applies to individuals trading their own capital who are not registered with a regulator and do not use the data for business purposes. It depends on who you are and what you use it for, not on account size or trading volume.
Which data feed is best for futures?
Rithmic and CQG are the established choices, both well supported and reliable. dxFeed is a cheaper alternative that has become popular with retail traders. What matters most is unfiltered tick data, stability, and proper integration with your platform.
Why does tick data quality matter for footprint charts?
Because a footprint is built from individual trades. If the feed aggregates or samples rather than delivering every tick, the bid and ask figures at each price are approximations and imbalance ratios are unreliable. The chart still looks normal, which is what makes it worth checking.
Can I use free data for order flow?
Not for live trading. Free feeds are typically delayed or aggregated, both of which break order flow analysis. Free data is fine for learning chart structure, but the moment you are reading imbalances at individual prices you need real time unfiltered ticks.