> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.coupler.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.coupler.io/sources/category/finance-and-accounting/coinmarketcap/best-practices.md).

# Best Practices

## Recommended setup

<table data-card-size="large" data-view="cards"><thead><tr><th></th><th></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Filter Quotes by symbol</strong></td><td>Don't pull all coins via Quotes — enter only the symbols you actually need. This keeps your dataset focused and saves API credits.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Use Listings for broad market scans</strong></td><td>For market-wide analysis, use the Listings entity instead of entering hundreds of symbols in Quotes. Listings returns ranked data for all coins in one call.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Join Listings with Quotes</strong></td><td>Use Coupler.io's Join transformation to attach real-time Quotes data to the ranked Listings table. This gives you both ranking context and precise quote figures in one sheet.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Separate latest and historical flows</strong></td><td>Create separate data flows for latest and historical data types. Mixing them in one flow makes it harder to troubleshoot and schedule independently.</td></tr></tbody></table>

## Data refresh and scheduling

<table data-card-size="large" data-view="cards"><thead><tr><th></th><th></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Match refresh rate to your API plan</strong></td><td>The free CoinMarketCap plan has limited monthly credits. Refreshing every few minutes will burn through credits fast — hourly or every 15 minutes is usually sufficient for most use cases.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Use timestamps to detect stale data</strong></td><td>Every entity returns a last_updated field. Include this in your destination to confirm data freshness and catch cases where the API returned a cached response.</td></tr></tbody></table>

## Performance optimization

<table data-card-size="large" data-view="cards"><thead><tr><th></th><th></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Aggregate category-level metrics</strong></td><td>Use Coupler.io's Aggregate transformation on Categories data to roll up sector performance (total market cap, average 24h change) without pulling individual coin-level data.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Append multi-account data cleanly</strong></td><td>If you manage crypto data for multiple clients or portfolios, create one data flow per symbol set and use Append to combine them into a single master table in BigQuery or Google Sheets.</td></tr></tbody></table>

## Common pitfalls

{% hint style="danger" %}
Don't enter unverified symbols in the Quotes entity — a single unrecognized symbol can cause the entire sync to return no data. Always verify tickers on the CoinMarketCap website first.
{% endhint %}

{% columns %}
{% column %}

### Do

* Verify each symbol on CoinMarketCap before adding it to your Quotes filter
* Use Listings for market-wide pulls and Quotes for watchlists
* Monitor your API credit usage in the CoinMarketCap Developer Portal
* Set the data type explicitly — leaving defaults untouched may not match your plan
  {% endcolumn %}

{% column %}

### Don't

* Assume historical data will work on a free API key
* Run duplicate data flows pulling the same entity at the same time
* Use Quotes without any symbol filter — it will fail
* Ignore the last\_updated field when comparing data across sources
  {% endcolumn %}
  {% endcolumns %}


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