aid: fred
name: FRED
description: >-
  The Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) API is a public web service operated
  by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. It provides
  programmatic access to more than 800,000 economic time series drawn from 100+
  data sources (BLS, BEA, OECD, World Bank, Census, Treasury, Eurostat, Federal
  Reserve Board, and others). The API exposes five primary endpoint families —
  Categories, Releases, Series, Sources, and Tags — plus an Observations
  endpoint that returns the underlying data values for any series, with optional
  frequency aggregation, unit transformations, and real-time / ALFRED vintage
  support. A companion Maps (GeoFRED) API surfaces regional data and GeoJSON
  shape files. All endpoints are HTTPS, return XML or JSON (CSV / Excel for
  observations), and require a free API key.
url: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/fred/
image: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/images/api/fred-square-blue.svg
specificationVersion: '0.20'
created: '2026-05-28'
modified: '2026-05-28'
x-source: public-apis/public-apis
x-type: government
x-category: Finance
x-tier: 1
x-tier-reason: comprehensive-pipeline-enrichment
tags:
  - Finance
  - Government
  - Economic Data
  - Federal Reserve
  - Time Series
  - Open Data
  - Public APIs

apis:

  - name: FRED API
    description: >-
      Core REST API for the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) database. Five
      endpoint families — Categories, Releases, Series, Sources, Tags — plus
      Series Observations for the underlying time-series values. Supports XML
      and JSON response formats, real-time periods (ALFRED), frequency
      aggregation, and unit transformations.
    humanURL: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/fred/
    baseURL: https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred
    tags:
      - Finance
      - Economic Data
      - Time Series
      - Categories
      - Releases
      - Series
      - Sources
      - Tags
    properties:
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/fred/
      - type: Overview
        url: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/fred/overview.html
      - type: APIKey
        url: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/api_key.html
      - type: TermsOfService
        url: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/legal/
      - type: Authentication
        url: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/api_key.html
      - type: RealTimePeriods
        url: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/fred/realtime_period.html
      - type: OpenAPI
        url: openapi/fred-openapi.yml
      - type: NaftikoCapability
        url: capabilities/fred-categories.yaml
      - type: NaftikoCapability
        url: capabilities/fred-releases.yaml
      - type: NaftikoCapability
        url: capabilities/fred-series.yaml
      - type: NaftikoCapability
        url: capabilities/fred-observations.yaml
      - type: NaftikoCapability
        url: capabilities/fred-sources.yaml
      - type: NaftikoCapability
        url: capabilities/fred-tags.yaml

  - name: FRED Maps API (GeoFRED)
    description: >-
      Geographic / regional view of FRED economic data. Exposes series-group
      metadata, regional-data lookups across geographies (state, county, MSA,
      country, census tract, etc.), and GeoJSON shape files for cartographic
      rendering of FRED indicators.
    humanURL: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/geofred/
    baseURL: https://api.stlouisfed.org/geofred
    tags:
      - Finance
      - Economic Data
      - Geographic
      - Maps
      - GeoJSON
    properties:
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/geofred/
      - type: APIKey
        url: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/api_key.html
      - type: OpenAPI
        url: openapi/fred-geofred-openapi.yml
      - type: NaftikoCapability
        url: capabilities/geofred-shapes.yaml
      - type: NaftikoCapability
        url: capabilities/geofred-series-group.yaml
      - type: NaftikoCapability
        url: capabilities/geofred-series-data.yaml
      - type: NaftikoCapability
        url: capabilities/geofred-regional-data.yaml

common:
  - type: Website
    url: https://fred.stlouisfed.org
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/fred/
  - type: APIKey
    url: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/api_key.html
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/legal/
  - type: PrivacyPolicy
    url: https://www.stlouisfed.org/privacy-notice-and-terms-of-use
  - type: PublicAPIsListing
    url: https://github.com/public-apis/public-apis
  - type: Blog
    url: https://fredblog.stlouisfed.org/
  - type: Twitter
    url: https://twitter.com/stlouisfed
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/stlouisfed
  - type: Tools
    title: MCP Server (stefanoamorelli)
    url: https://github.com/stefanoamorelli/fred-mcp-server
  - type: Tools
    title: MCP Server (Jaldekoa)
    url: https://github.com/Jaldekoa/mcp-fredapi
  - type: Tools
    title: MCP Server (cfdude/mcp-fred)
    url: https://github.com/cfdude/mcp-fred
  - type: Tools
    title: MCP Server (kablewy)
    url: https://github.com/kablewy/fred-mcp-server
  - type: Tools
    title: MCP Server (shanehull, full coverage)
    url: https://github.com/shanehull/fred-mcp
  - type: Tools
    title: MCP Server (QuentinCody)
    url: https://github.com/QuentinCody/fred-mcp-server
  - type: Tools
    title: US Gov Open Data MCP (includes FRED)
    url: https://github.com/lzinga/us-gov-open-data-mcp
  - type: SDK
    title: Python SDK (fredapi)
    url: https://pypi.org/project/fredapi/
  - type: SDK
    title: Python SDK (pyfredapi)
    url: https://pypi.org/project/pyfredapi/
  - type: SDK
    title: Python SDK (fred-py-api)
    url: https://pypi.org/project/fred-py-api/
  - type: SDK
    title: Python SDK (pystlouisfed)
    url: https://pypi.org/project/pystlouisfed/
  - type: SDK
    title: R SDK (fredr)
    url: https://cran.r-project.org/package=fredr
  - type: SDK
    title: Go SDK (fred)
    url: https://github.com/ChrisSwanson/fred
  - type: SDK
    title: Rust SDK (fred-rs)
    url: https://crates.io/crates/fred-rs
  - type: SDK
    title: Node.js / TypeScript SDK (fred-api-client)
    url: https://github.com/iamkanishka/fred-api-client
  - type: SDK
    title: .NET SDK (Xaye.Fred — archived)
    url: https://www.nuget.org/packages/Xaye.Fred
  - type: SDK
    title: Elixir SDK (Fred)
    url: https://hex.pm/packages/fred
  - type: Rules
    url: rules/fred-rules.yml
  - type: Vocabulary
    url: vocabulary/fred-vocabulary.yml
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/fred-rate-limits.yml
  - type: Plans
    url: plans/fred-plans-pricing.yml
  - type: JSONLD
    title: Unified FRED + GeoFRED context
    url: json-ld/fred-context.jsonld
  - type: JSONLD
    title: FRED API context
    url: json-ld/fred-api-context.jsonld
  - type: JSONLD
    title: GeoFRED Maps API context
    url: json-ld/fred-geofred-api-context.jsonld
  - type: JSONSchema
    title: JSON Schema directory (21 schemas)
    url: json-schema/
  - type: JSONStructure
    title: JSON Structure directory (21 structures)
    url: json-structure/
  - type: Examples
    title: Example payloads directory (21 examples)
    url: examples/

features:
  - name: 800,000+ Time Series
    description: >-
      Programmatic access to more than 800,000 US and international economic
      time series, sourced from 100+ data providers.
  - name: Real-Time / ALFRED Vintages
    description: >-
      Every endpoint supports realtime_start and realtime_end parameters,
      letting consumers reproduce the data as it existed on a historical date
      (Archival FRED).
  - name: Frequency Aggregation
    description: >-
      The series/observations endpoint can resample higher-frequency data
      (daily, weekly, monthly) into lower-frequency series (quarterly, annual)
      using average, sum, or end-of-period aggregation.
  - name: Unit Transformations
    description: >-
      Built-in transformations (level, change, percent change, percent change
      from year ago, compounded annual rate, natural log) applied at request
      time so consumers don't have to re-derive series.
  - name: Multiple Response Formats
    description: >-
      XML (default), JSON, CSV, and Excel (xlsx) responses controlled by the
      file_type query parameter.
  - name: Five-Family Endpoint Surface
    description: >-
      Discoverable taxonomy via Categories (hierarchy), Releases (publication
      schedule), Series (indicators), Sources (originating institutions), and
      Tags (faceted classification).
  - name: GeoFRED Maps API
    description: >-
      Companion geographic API returning regional indicator values and GeoJSON
      shape files for state, county, MSA, country, and census-tract geographies.
  - name: Free Public API
    description: >-
      Single self-service tier. Consumers register a free API key, abide by the
      rate limit (120 requests / minute / key), and operate at no cost.

useCases:
  - name: Macroeconomic Dashboards
    description: >-
      Build dashboards that pull GDP, CPI, unemployment, federal funds rate,
      and related indicators on a scheduled cadence.
  - name: Investment Research and Backtesting
    description: >-
      Pull historical series (Treasury yields, commodity prices, FX rates) to
      backtest trading strategies or seed macro factor models.
  - name: Academic and Policy Research
    description: >-
      Reproduce published research using point-in-time ALFRED vintages so the
      data matches what was available when the original analysis was run.
  - name: AI / LLM Tool Use
    description: >-
      Connect a FRED MCP server to Claude, Cursor, or another MCP host so an
      agent can answer ad-hoc economic questions with authoritative data.
  - name: Embedded Economic Charts
    description: >-
      Hydrate charts in news sites, fintech apps, or government dashboards
      directly from the FRED observations endpoint.
  - name: Regional Economic Analysis
    description: >-
      Use the GeoFRED API to render state-level or county-level heat maps of
      unemployment, income, housing, and demographic indicators.

integrations:
  - name: Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
    description: >-
      A large share of FRED series originates with BLS (CPI, employment,
      productivity).
  - name: Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)
    description: >-
      National-accounts series (GDP, personal income, trade balance) are
      sourced from BEA.
  - name: U.S. Census Bureau
    description: >-
      Demographic, housing, and survey series originate at Census.
  - name: U.S. Treasury
    description: >-
      Daily Treasury yield curve and debt series are republished through FRED.
  - name: Federal Reserve Board (FRB H.15)
    description: >-
      Interest-rate releases (H.15) and balance-sheet series (H.4.1) flow
      through FRED.
  - name: OECD
    description: >-
      International cross-country series.
  - name: World Bank
    description: >-
      Global development indicators republished through FRED.
  - name: Eurostat
    description: >-
      European Union economic and demographic statistics.
  - name: International Monetary Fund (IMF)
    description: >-
      Cross-country financial-soundness and balance-of-payments series.

solutions:
  - name: FRED Add-In for Microsoft Excel
    description: >-
      Official Excel plug-in that pulls FRED series into spreadsheets without
      writing API calls.
  - name: FRED Mobile Apps
    description: >-
      Free FRED iOS and Android apps for browsing series, releases, and
      categories on mobile devices.
  - name: FRED Graph Embeds
    description: >-
      Interactive charts that can be embedded directly into web pages.
  - name: FRASER Historical Archive
    description: >-
      Companion archive of historical economic data and policy documents from
      the St. Louis Fed.
  - name: ALFRED (Archival FRED)
    description: >-
      Point-in-time vintages of every FRED series, accessible through the same
      API via realtime_start / realtime_end.
  - name: FRED API MCP Ecosystem
    description: >-
      A dozen community-built MCP servers expose the FRED API to AI agents
      (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code Copilot) without writing custom code.

maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com