Google Finance

Empower your agents to fetch real-time stock quotes, financial data, and chart history through Google Finance, powered by SerpApi.

This guide will walk you through obtaining a SerpApi key, configuring the SVAHNAR tool, and building financial data workflows.

💡 Core Concepts

To configure this tool effectively, you need to understand the underlying capabilities, the ticker symbol format, and the available query parameters.

1. What can this tool do?

The Google Finance tool queries Google Finance via SerpApi to retrieve real-time and historical financial data for stocks, indices, currencies, and ETFs.

Capability	Description
Stock quotes	Fetch real-time price, change, and percentage movement for any ticker.
Company lookup	Search by company name or ticker symbol across global exchanges.
Chart history	Retrieve price history across configurable time windows (1D to MAX).
Currency pairs	Look up forex exchange rates between currency pairs.
Market localization	Scope results to a specific country's market and language.

note

This tool is read-only. It fetches financial data and quotes — it does not place trades, manage portfolios, or connect to brokerage accounts. For trade execution, use the Zerodha tool.

2. Authentication

This tool uses a SerpApi API Key — a static key passed with every request.

• No OAuth required: Generate a key once from the SerpApi dashboard and paste it into SVAHNAR. No per-user login flow needed.
• Rate limits: SerpApi enforces monthly search credit limits based on your plan. Each tool call consumes one search credit.
• Maintenance: API keys do not expire automatically. They are invalidated only if manually rotated from the SerpApi dashboard.

tip

If you already use the Google Jobs tool, your SerpApi key is the same — one key works across all SerpApi-powered tools in SVAHNAR. No separate account needed.

3. The q Ticker Format

The q parameter accepts ticker symbols in two formats:

Format	When to use	Example
TICKER	When the exchange is implied by gl and gl is set.	"RELIANCE"
TICKER:EXCHANGE	When targeting a specific exchange explicitly. Always preferred for accuracy.	"AAPL:NASDAQ", "RELIANCE:NSE"

Common exchange codes:

Exchange	Code
NASDAQ	NASDAQ
New York Stock Exchange	NYSE
National Stock Exchange (India)	NSE
Bombay Stock Exchange (India)	BSE
London Stock Exchange	LON
Frankfurt Stock Exchange	FRA
Tokyo Stock Exchange	TYO

Currency pairs use the format CURRENCY1-CURRENCY2:

"USD-INR"   → US Dollar to Indian Rupee
"EUR-USD"   → Euro to US Dollar
"BTC-USD"   → Bitcoin to US Dollar

4. Parameter Reference

Parameter	Type	Required	Description	Example
q	string	Yes	Ticker symbol, company name, or currency pair.	"AAPL:NASDAQ", "USD-INR"
engine	string	No	Must be "google_finance" when specified.	"google_finance"
window	string	No	Time range for chart data. See table below.	"1M"
gl	string	No	2-letter country code for market context.	"us", "in"
hl	string	No	2-letter language code for result language.	"en"

Window values for chart history:

Window	Time Range
1D	Last 1 day (intraday)
5D	Last 5 days
1M	Last 1 month
6M	Last 6 months
YTD	Year to date
1Y	Last 1 year
5Y	Last 5 years
MAX	Maximum available history

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🔑 Prerequisites

Create a SerpApi Account

1. Go to https://serpapi.com and sign up for an account.
2. SerpApi offers a free tier with 100 searches/month — sufficient for development and light agent usage.
3. For production workloads or high-frequency financial monitoring, select a paid plan based on your expected monthly query volume.

Get Your API Key

1. After signing in, go to your SerpApi Dashboard.
2. Copy the API Key shown on the dashboard.

caution

Never commit this key to version control or hardcode it in config files. Use SVAHNAR Key Vault (${serpapi_key}) to reference it safely. If you are already using the Google Jobs tool, the same key applies here — no need to generate a separate one.

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⚙️ Configuration Steps

Add the Tool in SVAHNAR

1. Open your SVAHNAR Agent Configuration.

2. Add the Google Finance tool and enter your SerpApi credentials:

   • api_key — your SerpApi API key

3. Save the configuration.

Verify the Connection

To confirm your API key is working:

1. Trigger a test agent run with a simple payload — e.g., {"q": "AAPL:NASDAQ", "gl": "us", "hl": "en"}.
2. A valid response will return current price, price change, and percentage movement for Apple Inc.
3. If you receive an Invalid API key error, verify the key was copied in full from your SerpApi dashboard.
4. If you receive a credits exhausted error, your monthly search quota has been reached — upgrade your SerpApi plan or wait for the next billing cycle.

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📚 Practical Recipes (Examples)

Recipe 1: Stock Price Lookup Agent

Use Case: An agent that fetches real-time price and movement data for any stock or index on demand.

create_vertical_agent_network:
  agent-1:
    agent_name: stock_lookup_agent
    LLM_config:
        params:
          model: gpt-4o
    tools:
      tool_assigned:
        - name: GoogleFinance
          config:
            api_key: ${serpapi_key}
    agent_function:
      - You are a real-time stock quote assistant.
      - When the user asks about a stock, construct a payload with 'q' set to 'TICKER:EXCHANGE' format — e.g., 'RELIANCE:NSE' for Indian stocks or 'AAPL:NASDAQ' for US stocks.
      - Always set 'gl' and 'hl' to match the target market — use 'gl:in' for Indian stocks and 'gl:us' for US stocks.
      - Return the current price, today's change, and percentage movement in a clean one-line summary.
      - If the user asks for multiple stocks, run separate queries for each and compile the results.
    incoming_edge:
      - Start
    outgoing_edge: []

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Recipe 2: Portfolio Monitor Agent

Use Case: An agent that checks real-time prices for a watchlist of stocks and flags significant movers.

create_vertical_agent_network:
  agent-1:
    agent_name: portfolio_monitor_agent
    LLM_config:
        params:
          model: gpt-4o
    tools:
      tool_assigned:
        - name: GoogleFinance
          config:
            api_key: ${serpapi_key}
    agent_function:
      - You are a portfolio monitoring assistant.
      - Fetch current prices for each stock in the configured watchlist by running one query per ticker using the 'TICKER:EXCHANGE' format.
      - Calculate and present each stock's daily change and percentage movement.
      - Flag any stock with a movement greater than ±2% as a significant mover and highlight it.
      - Return a clean portfolio digest — ticker, current price, change, and a status indicator (📈 / 📉).
    incoming_edge:
      - Start
    outgoing_edge: []

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Recipe 3: Cross-Tool — Google Finance → Zerodha Trade Trigger Agent

Use Case: An agent that monitors a stock price and triggers a trade via Zerodha when a threshold is crossed.

create_vertical_agent_network:
  agent-1:
    agent_name: price_alert_trade_agent
    LLM_config:
        params:
          model: gpt-4o
    tools:
      tool_assigned:
        - name: GoogleFinance
          config:
            api_key: ${serpapi_key}
        - name: Zerodha
          config:
            api_key: ${zerodha_api_key}
            access_token: ${zerodha_access_token}
    agent_function:
      - You are a price-alert trade assistant.
      - Use Google Finance to fetch the current price of the configured stock using 'TICKER:NSE' format with 'gl:in'.
      - Compare the fetched price against the user-defined target price threshold.
      - If the price has crossed the threshold, present the current price to the user and ask for explicit confirmation before placing any order.
      - Only after receiving clear confirmation, use Zerodha 'place_order' with the configured trading_symbol, transaction_type, quantity, and order_type.
      - Report the Zerodha order_id after placing and use 'order_history' to confirm the status.
    incoming_edge:
      - Start
    outgoing_edge: []

danger

Always require explicit user confirmation before placing any trade. Never trigger a Zerodha order automatically without a human-in-the-loop confirmation step. Financial losses from automated trades are not reversible.

💡 Tip: SVAHNAR Key Vault

Never hardcode your api_key in plain text files. Use SVAHNAR Key Vault references (e.g., ${serpapi_key}) to keep credentials secure. The same SerpApi key used for Google Jobs works here — no separate credential needed.

💡 Tip: Indian Market Queries

For NSE/BSE stocks, always use these parameters together for the most accurate results:

{
  "q": "RELIANCE:NSE",
  "gl": "in",
  "hl": "en"
}

Omitting gl: "in" may cause Google Finance to return data from the wrong exchange or an incorrect price in a different currency.

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🚑 Troubleshooting

• Invalid API key Error

  • Your SerpApi key is incorrect or was not copied in full. Go to your SerpApi Dashboard, copy the key again, and update it in SVAHNAR Key Vault.

• Credits Exhausted Error

  • Your monthly SerpApi search quota has been reached. Each Google Finance query consumes one credit — watchlist agents that run frequently can deplete a free tier quickly.
  • Upgrade your plan at serpapi.com/pricing or reduce query frequency.

• Wrong Price or Wrong Currency Returned

  • Always use the TICKER:EXCHANGE format in q. Without the exchange suffix, Google Finance may resolve the ticker to a different exchange or a different market listing.
  • Always set gl to match the target market — "in" for India, "us" for the US. Mismatched gl values can cause results to reflect the wrong regional market.

• window Parameter Returning No Chart Data

  • Not all tickers have historical data available for every window. Newly listed stocks may not have 5Y or MAX data — try a shorter window like 1M or 6M first.
  • The window parameter affects chart/historical data in the response, not the real-time quote — the current price is always returned regardless of window.

• Currency Pair Not Found

  • Ensure the format is CURRENCY1-CURRENCY2 with a hyphen, not a slash — "USD-INR", not "USD/INR".
  • Verify both currency codes are valid ISO 4217 codes. Crypto pairs like BTC-USD are supported but not all crypto tokens are indexed.

• engine Field Causing Errors

  • If specified, engine must be exactly "google_finance". Any other value routes to a different SerpApi engine and will return unexpected results. When in doubt, omit the field entirely — it defaults correctly.