Barchart Review (2026): Is It Worth It for Options Traders?
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Verdict: Barchart is a superb value for data-driven, value-conscious traders who want powerful screening and unusual activity tracking without paying premium flow-scanner prices, though its cluttered interface and limited options strategy tools make it better suited to self-directed intermediate traders than beginners.
Barchart delivers professional-grade screening, unusual options activity, and IV rankings for just $29.95/month, a fraction of what dedicated flow scanners charge. The tradeoff is a dense, dated interface and thin options strategy tooling, which makes it a smart pick for self-directed intermediate traders who care more about data depth than hand-holding.
Is Barchart good for options trading? Yes, especially if you value screening depth over premium price tags. This barchart review comes down to one thing: you get a genuinely powerful options screening suite, unusual activity tracking, IV rankings, and a covered call screener for $29.95/month on the Premier plan, well under the $100+ that dedicated flow platforms often charge. Barchart covers stocks, options, futures, and commodities in one place, so you can hunt setups across markets without juggling subscriptions. The catch is that the interface is dense and dated, and you won’t find a multi-leg strategy builder or P&L modeling here. That makes Barchart a strong fit for self-directed intermediate traders who know what they’re looking for, and a rougher landing for beginners who need more guidance and cleaner design.
Barchart’s own dashboard walkthrough — charts, watchlists and alerts.
Barchart Pricing: What Do You Actually Get?
Barchart runs three membership tiers, and the distinction matters more for options traders than for anyone else. There’s a free tier, a Plus plan at $9.99/month, and a Premier plan at $29.95/month. Both paid plans start with a 30-day free trial and bill monthly, with cheaper annual and biennial options.
Barchart membership pricing, verified on barchart.com in August 2026.
Both paid tiers open with a 30-day free trial, so you can test the options tools before paying anything.
Every single options tool on Barchart is locked to Premier. The $9.99 Plus plan gets you an ad-free site and more watchlists, but it does not include the options screeners, unusual options activity, options flow, options time & sales, or the volatility tools. If you are subscribing to Barchart for options, Plus is not a cheaper way in — your real price is $29.95/month, or $19.95/month if you pay annually.
Barchart’s own feature matrix: the three columns are Free, Plus and Premier. Every options tool is Premier-only.
Judged on that $29.95 Premier price, the value story still holds up. Standalone flow scanners run $50 to $150+ per month, so Barchart remains a bargain — particularly if you also trade futures or commodities and want everything under one login.
- Exceptional value with a robust free tier and Premier at just $29.95/month, well below dedicated flow scanners costing $100+
- Broad market coverage spanning stocks, options, futures, and commodities in a single platform
- Strong options screening suite including unusual activity, most active options, IV rankings, and a covered call screener
- Highly customizable screeners with deep filtering across technical and fundamental criteria
- Reliable, comprehensive market data with heat maps for quick visual scanning
- Dense, dated interface with a steep learning curve that can overwhelm newer traders
- Free tier is heavily limited by delayed data and view/refresh caps, pushing users toward Premier
- Lacks advanced options-specific tools like a strategy builder or P&L modeling found on dedicated options platforms
- Mobile app offers only partial feature parity and is less polished than the desktop experience
- Educational resources are thin compared to platforms geared toward teaching options strategies
How Good Is the Barchart Options Screener?
The barchart options screener is the platform’s real draw for derivatives traders. It’s deep, flexible, and priced well below what most standalone tools charge for comparable filtering.
You can screen across the entire options universe using filters for volume, open interest, implied volatility, moneyness, days to expiration, delta, and more. That means you can build a scan for, say, high-volume calls sitting 5% out of the money with elevated IV, then save it and rerun it every morning. If you’ve read our guide on finding options to trade, this is exactly the kind of repeatable workflow that separates disciplined traders from tape chasers.
The Barchart options chain for AAPL — moneyness, open interest change, IV and delta on a single row.
The chain itself is the workhorse. Barchart puts moneyness, open interest, change in open interest, implied volatility and delta on every row, with ATM implied volatility, historic volatility and IV rank pinned in a summary bar above the table. You can switch expirations, filter to near-the-money strikes, and export the whole thing to CSV.
Barchart’s unusual options activity page flags contracts trading well above their typical volume, which is the classic signal traders use to spot where larger orders may be positioning. It sorts by volume-to-open-interest ratio, so unusually large prints surface at the top rather than being buried under mega-cap volume.
Unusual Options Activity ranked by volume-to-open-interest, with bullish sentiment in green and bearish in red.
The IV Rank and IV Percentile screener rounds out the toolkit, letting you sort the whole options universe by volatility percentile to find rich or cheap premium quickly — the starting point for most premium-selling workflows.
The IV Rank and IV Percentile screener, sorted for high volatility names ahead of earnings.
Where it falls short is refinement. The screener output is table-heavy and text-dense, and there’s no visual flow feed with the polish you’d get from a dedicated flow scanner. You’re reading raw data, not curated alerts. For traders who want to interpret the numbers themselves, that’s a feature. For beginners, it can be a wall.
Don’t treat unusual activity as a buy signal on its own. Pair it with open interest data to confirm whether new positions are actually being opened versus existing ones being closed. A volume spike with flat open interest tells a very different story than a spike alongside rising open interest.
Can You Build Multi-Leg Strategies on Barchart?
Not really, and this is Barchart’s biggest limitation for options traders. There’s no true multi-leg strategy builder and no P&L modeling to visualize a spread’s payoff curve.
Barchart shines at discovery: finding the underlying, spotting the unusual activity, checking the IV rank, and analyzing the options chain. What it doesn’t do is help you construct and stress-test a vertical spread, iron condor, or calendar before you place it. For that, you’ll lean on your broker’s platform or a dedicated options analytics tool.
The options chain analysis view is solid for reading the tape. You get bid/ask, volume, open interest, implied volatility, and the Greeks laid out cleanly by strike and expiration. That’s enough to evaluate a single-leg call or put and gauge liquidity before committing. But if your edge lives in complex spread construction and scenario modeling, Barchart is a research layer, not an execution or planning cockpit.
IV Rank measures where current implied volatility sits relative to its own 52-week range, on a scale of 0 to 100. A high IV Rank means options premium is expensive relative to the past year, which can favor selling strategies. A low IV Rank suggests cheaper premium, often favoring buyers. Barchart’s IV ranking pages make this easy to scan across many tickers at once. For more on the mechanics of volatility, the CBOE education center is a solid reference.
How Usable Is Barchart Day to Day?
Here’s the honest answer: Barchart is powerful but not pretty. The interface is dense, information-packed, and feels a generation behind sleeker modern platforms.
There’s a real learning curve. Menus branch deeply, screeners have dozens of filter fields, and the sheer volume of data on any given page can overwhelm someone new to scanning. If you’ve never used a screener before, start with our primer on how stock scanners work so the filter logic clicks faster.
Once you invest the time, though, the depth pays off. Heat maps give you a fast visual read on sector and index movement, and saved screeners turn a chaotic homepage into a focused daily routine. The free tier is genuinely useful for exploring, but delayed data and view caps will push serious users to Premier fast.
The mobile app works, but it’s a companion rather than a full replacement. Feature parity is partial and the experience is less polished than desktop, so plan to do your heavy screening on a computer. If mobile-first workflow is a dealbreaker, weigh that carefully against Barchart’s otherwise strong value.
Who Is Barchart Best For?
- Value-conscious self-directed traders who want professional screening depth without paying premium flow-scanner prices.
- Multi-market traders who work across stocks, options, futures, and commodities and want one platform for all of it.
- Intermediate options traders comfortable interpreting raw data on unusual activity, IV rankings, and options chains without curated hand-holding.
- Premium sellers and covered call writers who’ll get real mileage out of the IV ranking and covered call screener tools.
Skip this if… you’re a beginner who needs a clean, guided interface, or an advanced options strategist who relies on multi-leg strategy builders and P&L modeling. In those cases, an AI-powered scanning tool or a dedicated options analytics platform will serve you better.
How Does Barchart Compare?
If you want a pure stock-screening comparison, our review of another popular stock scanner is worth a read. And if flow is your primary edge, our breakdown of a leading options flow platform covers the specialist alternative in detail.
How Do Other Reviewers Rate Barchart?
Our 3.5/5 is an options trader’s score. Step back to the whole platform, though, and the broader trading community rates Barchart highly across independent review sites:
PPP scores Barchart narrowly, on options-specific value: the tools options traders actually use day to day. These third-party scores rate the whole platform across all types of traders, which is a different lens, and both reads are useful. Ratings shown as of July 2026 and reflect each site’s full user base, not options traders alone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Barchart worth it for options traders?
For self-directed intermediate options traders, yes. At $29.95/month, Barchart’s Premier plan delivers unusual activity tracking, IV rankings, a covered call screener, and deep options chain data at a fraction of what dedicated flow scanners charge. The main tradeoffs are a dense interface and no multi-leg strategy builder, so it suits traders who prefer interpreting raw data over curated alerts.
Does Barchart have an options screener?
Yes. Barchart offers a robust options screener with filters for volume, open interest, implied volatility, moneyness, expiration, and the Greeks. It also includes dedicated pages for unusual options activity, most active options, and IV rankings, plus a covered call screener. You can save custom scans and rerun them daily, which makes it a strong discovery tool for finding tradeable setups.
How much does Barchart cost?
Barchart has a free tier with delayed data and basic screeners, a Plus plan at $9.99/month, and a Premier plan at $29.95/month. Options tools are Premier-only, so options traders should budget for Premier. Premier unlocks real-time data, advanced screeners, options flow, unusual activity tracking, and removes ads. Compared to standalone flow scanners that often run $100 or more monthly, Barchart’s pricing is one of the best values in the category.
Is Barchart free?
Barchart offers a genuinely useful free tier, but it comes with delayed quotes and daily view and refresh caps. You can explore screeners and market data at no cost, which is great for learning the platform. However, serious active traders will hit the limits quickly and need the $29.95/month Premier plan for real-time data and full screening access.
Barchart vs Finviz: which is better for options?
Barchart is the stronger choice for options traders because it offers dedicated options screening, unusual activity, and IV rankings that Finviz largely lacks. Finviz excels as a clean, visual stock screener and is easier for beginners. If options are your primary focus, Barchart’s derivatives tooling and broader market coverage give it a clear edge despite the busier interface.
Can I cancel Barchart anytime?
Yes. Barchart’s Premier plan is a month-to-month subscription with no long-term contract, so you can cancel through your account settings whenever you choose. As with any subscription, review the current terms and billing details on Barchart’s official website before signing up, since policies and pricing can change over time.
Barchart earns a solid 3.5/5 as one of the best-value screening platforms available. It’s ideal for self-directed intermediate traders who want deep options data and multi-market coverage on a budget, but beginners and multi-leg strategists should look elsewhere.
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Disclaimer: Pure Power Picks is not a licensed financial advisor. All content is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. Options trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Platform features and pricing may change, verify current details on the official website.
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The PPP Team brings decades of combined experience from some of the most well-known companies in the trading industry. Founded in 2020, Pure Power Picks delivers options trading education, platform reviews, and trade alerts to help everyday traders develop real skills. Our content is strictly educational.