FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) API Reference

Overview

The FRED API, provided by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, offers access to over 800,000 economic time series from 100+ sources. Covers GDP, employment, inflation, interest rates, money supply, trade, housing, and much more.

Base URL

https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred

Authentication

• API Key: REQUIRED. Register at https://fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/api_key.html
• Pass as query parameter: &api_key=YOUR_KEY

Rate Limits

• 120 requests per minute per API key.
• No daily limit documented, but excessive use may trigger throttling.

Common Parameters (apply to most endpoints)

Key Endpoints

1. Series Observations (Time Series Data)

GET /fred/series/observations

Returns the data values for an economic time series.

Parameters:

Example:

https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/series/observations?series_id=GDP&api_key=YOUR_KEY&file_type=json&observation_start=2020-01-01&observation_end=2024-12-31&units=pch&frequency=q

Response:

{
  "realtime_start": "2024-11-01",
  "realtime_end": "2024-11-01",
  "observation_start": "2020-01-01",
  "observation_end": "2024-12-31",
  "units": "pch",
  "output_type": 1,
  "file_type": "json",
  "order_by": "observation_date",
  "sort_order": "asc",
  "count": 20,
  "offset": 0,
  "limit": 100000,
  "observations": [
    {
      "realtime_start": "2024-11-01",
      "realtime_end": "2024-11-01",
      "date": "2020-01-01",
      "value": "-1.3"
    },
    {
      "realtime_start": "2024-11-01",
      "realtime_end": "2024-11-01",
      "date": "2020-04-01",
      "value": "-8.4"
    }
  ]
}

Note: value is always a string. Missing values appear as ".".

2. Series Info (Metadata)

GET /fred/series

Returns metadata for a series.

Parameters:

Example:

https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/series?series_id=UNRATE&api_key=YOUR_KEY&file_type=json

Response:

{
  "realtime_start": "2024-11-01",
  "realtime_end": "2024-11-01",
  "seriess": [
    {
      "id": "UNRATE",
      "title": "Unemployment Rate",
      "observation_start": "1948-01-01",
      "observation_end": "2024-10-01",
      "frequency": "Monthly",
      "frequency_short": "M",
      "units": "Percent",
      "units_short": "%",
      "seasonal_adjustment": "Seasonally Adjusted",
      "seasonal_adjustment_short": "SA",
      "last_updated": "2024-11-01 07:41:02-05",
      "popularity": 95,
      "notes": "The unemployment rate represents..."
    }
  ]
}

3. Series Search

GET /fred/series/search

Search for series by keywords.

Parameters:

Example:

https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/series/search?search_text=consumer+price+index&api_key=YOUR_KEY&file_type=json&limit=5

Response:

{
  "realtime_start": "2024-11-01",
  "realtime_end": "2024-11-01",
  "order_by": "search_rank",
  "sort_order": "asc",
  "count": 1256,
  "offset": 0,
  "limit": 5,
  "seriess": [
    {
      "id": "CPIAUCSL",
      "title": "Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items in U.S. City Average",
      "observation_start": "1947-01-01",
      "observation_end": "2024-09-01",
      "frequency": "Monthly",
      "units": "Index 1982-1984=100",
      "seasonal_adjustment": "Seasonally Adjusted",
      "popularity": 95
    }
  ]
}

4. Category Lookup

GET /fred/category

Get info for a specific category.

Parameters:

Example:

https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/category?category_id=0&api_key=YOUR_KEY&file_type=json

GET /fred/category/children

Get child categories.

Example:

https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/category/children?category_id=0&api_key=YOUR_KEY&file_type=json

GET /fred/category/series

Get all series in a category.

Parameters:

Example:

https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/category/series?category_id=125&api_key=YOUR_KEY&file_type=json

5. Releases

GET /fred/releases

Get all economic data releases.

Example:

https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/releases?api_key=YOUR_KEY&file_type=json

GET /fred/release/series

Get all series in a specific release.

Parameters:

Example:

https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/release/series?release_id=53&api_key=YOUR_KEY&file_type=json

6. Tags

GET /fred/tags

Get all tags and their frequency of use.

GET /fred/series/search/tags

Get tags matching a series search.

Example:

https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/series/search/tags?series_search_text=mortgage+rate&api_key=YOUR_KEY&file_type=json

Commonly Used Series IDs

Notes

• Real-time periods: FRED supports vintage data. The realtime_start/realtime_end parameters let you retrieve data as it was known at a specific point in time (useful for analyzing data revisions).
• The units parameter for transformations is very powerful -- it avoids having to compute percent changes client-side.
• Values are returned as strings; "." means missing/unavailable.
• For FRED bulk data, they offer a download API at https://api.stlouisfed.org/geofred/ for geographic/regional data.