FRED Economic Data

Search and retrieve economic time series from the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) API. Access over 800,000 economic indicators including GDP, unemployment, inflation, interest rates, and much more.

Features

• Search FRED's full database of 800,000+ economic time series
• Retrieve actual time series observations for any matching series
• Filter by date range to get historical or recent data
• Sort by popularity, title, or other criteria
• Free API key required — sign up at fred.stlouisfed.org
• Pure HTTP requests, no browser needed

Use Cases

• Financial Analysis: Track GDP growth, CPI, PPI, and employment data to inform investment decisions.
• Economic Forecasting: Build predictive models using decades of historical Federal Reserve data.
• AI Training Data: Gather structured economic time series for fine-tuning language models or building economic agents.
• Academic Research: Access the definitive source for US macroeconomic statistics with full documentation.
• Trading Signals: Correlate economic releases with market movements for systematic trading strategies.

Input

Field	Type	Description	Default
searchText	string	Required. Search keywords for economic series	—
api_key	string	Required. Your FRED API key	—
limit	number	Maximum series to return	100
sort_order	string	Sort order: "asc" or "desc"	desc
observation_start	string	Start date for observations (e.g. 2020-01-01)	—
observation_end	string	End date for observations (e.g. 2024-12-31)	—

Output

Example result:

{
  "series_id": "GDP",
  "title": "Gross Domestic Product",
  "units": "Billions of Dollars",
  "frequency": "Quarterly",
  "seasonal_adjustment": "Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate",
  "observation_start": "1947-01-01",
  "observation_end": "2024-10-01",
  "last_updated": "2024-12-19 07:58:02-06",
  "popularity": 93,
  "notes": "BEA Account Code: A191RL. Gross domestic product (GDP), the featured measure of U.S. output, is the market value of the goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States.",
  "observations": [
    { "date": "2024-07-01", "value": "29353.667" },
    { "date": "2024-04-01", "value": "28649.991" },
    { "date": "2024-01-01", "value": "28275.269" }
  ]
}

Field	Type	Description
series_id	string	FRED series identifier
title	string	Human-readable series title
units	string	Measurement units (e.g. "Billions of Dollars")
frequency	string	Data frequency (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, etc.)
seasonal_adjustment	string	Seasonal adjustment method
observation_start	string	Earliest available observation date
observation_end	string	Most recent observation date
last_updated	string	When the series was last updated
popularity	number	FRED popularity rank (0-100)
notes	string	Series description and methodology notes
observations	array	Array of {date, value} objects (only if dates provided)

Pricing

$1.50 per 1,000 results ($0.0015 per result).

How It Works

The actor first searches the FRED API for matching series using your search text. Each search result becomes one output record. If you provide observation_start or observation_end dates, the actor then fetches the full time series observations for each matching series. This is a two-step HTTP process — search, then retrieve. A free API key from the Federal Reserve is required for every request.

FAQ

Where do I get an API key? Go to https://fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/api_key.html — registration is free and the key is issued instantly.

How many observations can I get per series? Up to 1,000 observations per series. For very long time series (like GDP since 1947 at quarterly frequency), you may need to request in date windows.

How many series are available? Over 800,000 economic time series covering US and international macroeconomic data, employment, trade, banking, and more.

Does the search return observations automatically? Only if you provide observation_start or observation_end. Without date parameters, you get series metadata only (title, frequency, units, notes).

Limits & Rate Limits

• Maximum 1,000 results per search query
• Maximum 1,000 observations per time series request
• FRED API allows 120 requests per minute with a free key
• The actor handles pagination internally when results exceed the limit
• Historical data availability varies by series — some go back to the 1940s, others start recently