A dilution research tool needs to show what could increase a company's share count, on what terms, and where the evidence comes from. A summary risk score alone can't answer those questions.
This guide gives you six checks for evaluating a small-cap dilution API, then shows how Ask Edgar handles each one, with links to the docs, the limits worth knowing and a worked example.
What dilution research needs from data
Dilution happens when a company issues new shares, which reduces each existing shareholder's ownership stake. Small-cap companies often raise money this way, so researchers need to see both what has already been issued and what could still be issued.
- Warrants: rights to buy shares at a set price, with exercise and expiration dates. Exercisable warrants can add shares when the stock trades above the exercise price.
- Convertibles: debt or preferred stock that can turn into shares at a conversion price. Conversions can add shares, sometimes below the market price when the terms include variable pricing or price-reset protection.
- Offerings: registered offerings, at-the-market (ATM) sales, private placements and similar raises. They show how often and how recently a company has raised money.
- Float and shares outstanding: how many shares exist and how many trade freely. That's the baseline for measuring how much new supply matters.
- Cash and burn rate: how much cash is left and how fast it's being spent. A short runway raises the odds of a new raise.
A useful API returns these as structured fields, not just links to filings, so your code can compare, filter and alert on them.
Six checks before you build on a dilution API
These apply to any provider. They're our recommendations, based on what a dilution research tool needs to work reliably.
- Instrument-level detail. Does it return each warrant tranche and convertible with its price, dates and remaining amount, or only a summary score? You need the detail to explain why a stock is risky.
- Stable company identifiers. Small caps change tickers, reverse split and sometimes reuse symbols. Can you look companies up by CIK, the SEC's permanent company ID, so historical results don't break?
- Traceability and freshness. Can you get from a number back to the filing it came from, and see when that filing was made and when the record was last updated? Your users will ask.
- Honest handling of gaps. When data is missing or not covered, does the API say so clearly, or return a value that looks real?
- Predictable cost. Is pricing per request, per record or per volume of data? Can you estimate a query's cost before you run it?
- Easy to integrate. Is there a single base URL, clear auth, documented rate limits and error codes? If you code with an AI assistant, can it read the docs or call the API directly?
Run your own shortlist of tickers through any API you're considering, including a few that recently changed tickers or reverse split. That's where gaps show up.
One more thing to confirm with any provider: whether its license covers how you'll use the data. Personal research and a product your customers see are often licensed differently.
What about other providers?
There are few options built specifically for small-cap dilution data. Dilution Tracker, a dilution research app, offers its API to institutional clients only, according to the FAQ on its pricing page (as of October 2026). For a closer look at the app itself, see our Dilution Tracker review. Whichever provider you consider, run the six checks above on your own ticker list.
How Ask Edgar handles each check
Everything below comes from the Ask Edgar API docs as of October 2026. Follow the links to confirm details before you build.
Instrument-level detail. Dilution Data returns the warrant records available for each ticker, including ones already exercised, with amount, remaining, exercise price, exercisable and expiration dates and registration. Each convertible comes with its conversion price, remaining debt, underlying shares remaining and maturity date, plus a floor_price for price protection. Dilution Ratings adds an overall offering-risk grade, with plain-language explanations and documented thresholds (for example, cash need is High with under 6 months of runway), and cash runway in months. For holders, underwriters and full price-protection terms, Dilution Data Advanced adds owners, bank and pp_clause fields at a premium rate.
Stable identifiers. Historical Float Pro supports lookup by CIK, with data back to 2015. Historical dilution ratings can also be looked up by CIK for a given date, with data back to 2021 according to the October announcement. Most current endpoints, including dilution data, take a ticker.
Traceability and freshness. Dilution data results include an askedgar_url that opens the source SEC filing, along with a filed_at date. Offerings include an askedgar_url linking to the event page. Each dilution record also has a last_updated timestamp. Historical Float Pro separates reported_date (when the share counts apply) from filed_at (when the filing became public), and its ownership data includes a source URL pointing to the filing used.
Handling gaps. Audited numeric data covers companies under about $1B market cap. For larger companies, affected fields return null and the response message says so. See Pricing & Credits.
Predictable cost. Prepaid credits, charged by the volume of data returned, with rates varying by endpoint. A free /estimate endpoint, with no key needed, returns the estimated cost before you query. Every response also reports what the call cost. Credits don't expire, requests blocked for low balance aren't charged, and there's no self-serve free tier. See Pricing & Credits.
Easy to integrate. One base URL (https://eapi.askedgar.io) and an API-KEY header. Every endpoint returns the same paginated response shape. The retail rate limit is 200 requests per minute. The docs include a public MCP server that AI assistants can use to explore endpoints without a key. See the Quick Start, Rate Limits and MCP / AI pages.
Limits worth knowing up front: Dilution Data Advanced and Offerings Advanced share a cap of 75 distinct companies per rolling 24 hours on Retail plans (Enterprise has no cap). Standard API access is licensed for personal use. A business, institutional or customer-facing product, or any redistribution of the data, needs a separate license. Email support@askedgar.io to arrange one. See the Terms of Service.
Try it: estimate first, then query
1. Check the cost (free, no key needed). Open this address in your browser: https://eapi.askedgar.io/estimate?endpoint=dilution-rating&ticker=DVLT. The response includes estimated_cost_dollars for that query.
2. Get a ticker's dilution rating. Create an account, generate a key on the API platform and add credits. Every data request sends the key in an API-KEY header, for example: curl "https://eapi.askedgar.io/v1/dilution-rating?ticker=DVLT" -H "API-KEY: your_api_key"
3. Pull the warrants and convertibles behind the rating. Call the same way: curl "https://eapi.askedgar.io/v1/dilution-data?ticker=DVLT&limit=100" -H "API-KEY: your_api_key". The response lists the instrument records available for that ticker, including ones already exercised or converted. Results come in pages: if has_more is true, request the next page. Each result has a derivative_type (warrant, convertible debt or convertible preferred). To see what could still add shares, keep warrants where warrants_remaining is above zero and convertibles where underlying_shares_remaining is above zero. The Quick Start has Python and JavaScript versions of these requests.
For DVLT on October 20, 2026, the API returned 30 instruments. Six still reported shares remaining:
- August 2026 Convertible Promissory Note: 16,148,387 shares at $1.55, matures 2029-02-18
- June 2026 Placement Agent Warrants: 5,454,545 warrants at $0.633, expire 2031-05-03
- June 2026 Participation Warrants: 2,727,272 warrants at $0.633, expire 2031-05-03
- February 2026 Dividend Warrants: 9,723,244 warrants at $5.00, expire 2027-02-27
- October 2025 Senior Secured Convertible Note: 6,666,666 shares at $1.00, matures 2027-03-30
- March 2025 Convertible Note (issued in license agreement): 1,250,000 shares at $2.00, matures 2026-03-16
Each result also includes price_protection terms, a filed_at date and an askedgar_url that opens the source SEC filing. Every response ends with a usage block showing what the call cost and your remaining credits. Your output will differ as new filings come in. Note that the March 2025 note shows a maturity date that has already passed. A reported balance tells you what the records show, not that an instrument can still convert today, so check the latest filing through its askedgar_url before drawing conclusions.
Cost tip: returning more records generally costs more. Add show_in_play=true to return only instruments that pass a screen on remaining size and price relative to the market price, which the docs say can significantly reduce cost. The screen doesn't check maturity or expiration dates, so it can leave out instruments you'd still want to review. Run the free estimate first either way.
Coding with an AI assistant? Add the Ask Edgar MCP server to your AI tool's remote MCP settings. It can look up endpoints and fields for free and help you write the code. Data requests still use your API key and credits.
Start building
Run the six checks on your own ticker list. Estimate the cost first, then get your API key and follow the Quick Start to make your first request. Building something for a business or for customers? Email support@askedgar.io about a business license.