FRED API

What you can build

• Annotate a KPI move with the release behind it

  Read fred/releases/dates for the week. When a release lands on the day a metric moves, the operator proposes an annotation naming the release and the series it touched.

  With Change Annotation

• Refresh a demand outlook when its inputs update

  Poll fred/series/updates for the series in your outlook. When one carries a new last_updated, the operator proposes a rerun and shows the old and new observations side by side.

  With Demand Outlook

• Flag a price list that has drifted from its index

  Pull the index series with units=pch. When the cumulative change since the list's effective date crosses your threshold, the operator proposes a review and cites the observation dates.

  With Price List Drift

Requirements

• A fredaccount.stlouisfed.org account; keys cannot be requested or viewed without logging in
• A distinct API key for each application you build; every user of an application uses their own key
• The attribution notice from the Terms of Use, shown in any application that uses the API
• Series ids for the data you want, found through fred/series/search or the category and tag endpoints

Authentication

A free FRED API key, a 32-character lowercase alphanumeric string passed as api_key on every request, issued only after logging into a fredaccount.stlouisfed.org account.

Limits

• The Bank may impose or adjust the limit on bandwidth or the number of transactions; no numeric rate limit is published
• Some series are owned by third parties and marked Copyright in their notes; use beyond personal use needs the owner's permission
• fred/series/updates covers only series updated within the last two weeks, and its limit tops out at 1000
• Release dates come from the data sources and do not necessarily represent when data will be available on FRED

Questions and answers

Which formats does the API return?

Four. file_type accepts xml, json, xlsx, or csv, and defaults to xml. The same parameter applies across the endpoints in the categories, releases, series, sources, and tags groups.

Can I read a series as it looked on a past date?

Yes. realtime_start and realtime_end select the vintage window, and fred/series/vintagedates lists the dates on which a series was revised. Both realtime parameters default to today's date, so a plain call returns the current vintage.

Is there a rate limit?

The Terms of Use say the Bank may impose or adjust the limit on the amount of bandwidth you use or the number of transactions you send. No number is published. The terms also bar applications that replicate the essential user experience of FRED.