fred-economic-data/references/api_basics.md

FRED API Basics

Base URL

https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/

For GeoFRED endpoints:

https://api.stlouisfed.org/geofred/

Authentication

All requests require an API key passed as a query parameter:

api_key=YOUR_32_CHARACTER_KEY

Obtaining an API Key

1. Create account at https://fredaccount.stlouisfed.org
2. Log in and request an API key
3. Key is a 32-character lowercase alphanumeric string

Rate Limits

• API implements rate limiting
• HTTP 429 (Too Many Requests) when exceeded
• Contact FRED team for higher limits if needed

Response Formats

All endpoints support multiple formats via file_type parameter:

Format	Content-Type
xml	text/xml (default)
json	application/json

Some observation endpoints also support:

• csv - Comma-separated values
• xlsx - Excel format

Common Parameters

These parameters are available on most endpoints:

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
api_key	string	required	32-character API key
file_type	string	xml	Response format: xml, json
realtime_start	date	today	Start of real-time period (YYYY-MM-DD)
realtime_end	date	today	End of real-time period (YYYY-MM-DD)

Real-Time Periods (ALFRED)

FRED supports historical (vintage) data access through real-time parameters:

• realtime_start: Beginning of the real-time period
• realtime_end: End of the real-time period
• Format: YYYY-MM-DD

This allows you to see data as it appeared at specific points in time:

# Get GDP as it was reported on Jan 1, 2020
params = {
    "series_id": "GDP",
    "realtime_start": "2020-01-01",
    "realtime_end": "2020-01-01"
}

FRED vs ALFRED

• FRED: Shows current/most recent data values
• ALFRED: Shows historical vintages and revisions of data

Use real-time parameters to access ALFRED data through the same API endpoints.

Pagination

Many endpoints support pagination:

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
limit	integer	varies	Maximum results (typically 1000)
offset	integer	0	Number of results to skip

Example:

# First page
params = {"limit": 100, "offset": 0}

# Second page
params = {"limit": 100, "offset": 100}

Sorting

Many endpoints support sorting:

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
order_by	string	varies	Field to sort by
sort_order	string	asc	Sort direction: asc, desc

Error Responses

HTTP Status Codes

Code	Description
200	Success
400	Bad Request - Invalid parameters
401	Unauthorized - Invalid/missing API key
404	Not Found - Invalid endpoint or resource
429	Too Many Requests - Rate limit exceeded
500	Internal Server Error

Error Response Format

XML:

<error code="400" message="Bad Request. Variable api_key has not been set."/>

JSON:

{
    "error_code": 400,
    "error_message": "Bad Request. The value for variable api_key is not registered..."
}

Data Types

Date Format

All dates use YYYY-MM-DD format:

• Valid: 2023-01-15
• Invalid: 01/15/2023, Jan 15, 2023

Missing Values

In observation data, missing values are represented as a period:

{"date": "2020-01-01", "value": "."}

Always check for this when parsing values:

value = obs["value"]
if value != ".":
    numeric_value = float(value)

Tag Groups

Tags are organized into groups:

Group ID	Description
freq	Frequency (monthly, quarterly, etc.)
gen	General/topic tags
geo	Geography (usa, california, etc.)
geot	Geography type (nation, state, etc.)
rls	Release
seas	Seasonal adjustment
src	Source
cc	Citation/Copyright

Example API Call

import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/series/observations",
    params={
        "api_key": "YOUR_KEY",
        "series_id": "GDP",
        "file_type": "json",
        "observation_start": "2020-01-01",
        "units": "pch"
    }
)

data = response.json()
print(data)

Python Setup

Install required packages:

uv pip install requests pandas

Environment variable setup:

export FRED_API_KEY="your_32_character_key"

import os
api_key = os.environ.get("FRED_API_KEY")