Search Lite and Summary Lite: New Endpoints for Core Asset Data

There are two new endpoints in the FinImpulse API: Search Lite and Summary Lite, in addition to the existing Search and Summary endpoints. Both return a smaller, fixed set of fields compared to their standard counterparts and let the response be narrowed down further to only the fields a given request needs.

This article walks through how the two endpoints work, how they compare to Search and Summary, and where each one fits best in a typical integration.

Search vs. Search Lite & Summary vs. Summary Lite

The existing Search and Summary endpoints are broad and comprehensive.

• Search returns 65+ fields for cross-asset queries, covering classification, exchange details, pricing, technical indicators, dividends, market value, profitability, and growth data.
• Summary returns 235+ fields for a single symbol, spanning identity, address, sector and industry classification, governance risk indicators, pricing, valuation, ownership, analyst coverage, and fund-specific fields.

Search Lite and Summary Lite are lighter alternatives to these two endpoints: each returns a smaller, fixed set of fields, costs less (see API pricing), and allows the response to be further customized through a select_identifiers parameter that controls which of the available fields are returned.

It is important to note that the standard and Lite endpoints are separate and unrelated in terms of implementation: each has its own fixed field set, response schema, and pricing. Lite endpoints do not return a subset of every field available in Search or Summary — each Lite endpoint has its own smaller fixed set of fields.

Search Lite Endpoint

Search Lite returns a cross-asset search result across stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds. It uses the same search and filtering parameters as the standard Search endpoint: free-text search, quote type filtering, symbol lists, filter expressions, sorting, and pagination. The response contains 26 fields: identification data, current pricing, and frequently used performance metrics.

This makes Search Lite a fit for search interfaces and autocomplete components, where a query needs to return many matching assets quickly and only core identification and pricing data are required to render results. It is also a reasonable default for any integration that performs frequent search queries and does not require the broader fundamentals, technical indicators, or valuation data available through the standard Search endpoint.

Summary Lite Endpoint

Summary Lite retrieves a focused data snapshot for a single asset symbol, using the unified schema — fields that do not apply to a given asset type are returned as null or as an empty string (“”). The endpoint takes a single required symbol parameter, and the response includes 27 fields, covering identification, current pricing, dividend data, and a small set of market and valuation metrics.

Summary Lite is well-suited to compact asset detail views, dashboard widgets, or any workflow that needs a small, predictable set of pricing and valuation fields for a single symbol without retrieving the full Summary response. It is a reasonable choice whenever an integration displays only a handful of metrics per asset and does not require financial highlights, ownership data, analyst coverage, or fund performance history.

Select Identifiers Parameter

Both Search Lite and Summary Lite accept an optional select_identifiers parameter. The parameter accepts a list of field names and narrows the response down to only those fields.

Code example — a select_identifiers for Summary Lite:

  "select_identifiers": [
            "average_volume",
            "average_volume_10days",
            "market_cap",
            "fifty_two_week_low",
            "fifty_two_week_high",
            "current_price",
            "current_price_usd",
            "regular_market_price_usd",
            "pre_market_price_usd",
            "post_market_price_usd",
            "valuation_measures_forward_pe_ratio",
            "valuation_measures_pb_ratio",
            "valuation_measures_pe_ratio",
            "valuation_measures_ps_ratio"
    ]

Selection is limited to the fields available for each endpoint. The full list of available fields for Search Lite and Summary Lite can be found in their respective documentation.

There are a few important points to keep in mind regarding the parameter’s behavior:

• If the parameter is not provided, or is set to null, the full Lite field set is returned.
• The symbol and logo fields are always included in the response regardless of which fields are specified.

Therefore, the select_identifiers parameter becomes particularly valuable at scale. For integrations such as bulk exports, monitoring dashboards, or scheduled data pulls that only need a handful of specific fields per asset, it avoids the overhead of retrieving the full Lite response on every request.

The Bottom Line

New Lite endpoints, together with the select_identifiers parameter, enable more control over how much data comes back with each request — and, by extension, over response size and cost at scale.

For teams building search interfaces, compact detail views, or high-volume data pulls, this makes it easier to match the API response to what a given feature actually displays, rather than working around a fixed, broader payload.