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FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)

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by Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis · Data service · also known as FRED, ALFRED, FRED API

Free economic database from the St. Louis Fed aggregating hundreds of thousands of US and international time series, with graphs, vintages (ALFRED), an Excel add-in and a keyed JSON/XML API

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Link verified Nov 2, 2026

Overview

FRED is the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis's free online database of economic time series, operating since 1991. It aggregates series from US statistical agencies, the Federal Reserve system, international organizations and private sources into one catalog browsable by category, release, source and tag, with interactive graphs, embeddable charts, saved data lists and mobile apps. Its companion ALFRED stores real-time vintages so researchers can retrieve the data as they were known on a given date, which matters for forecasting evaluation and policy analysis. An Excel add-in, an MCP connector for AI assistants and GeoFRED regional maps round out the interfaces.

The FRED API requires a free API key and returns XML or JSON from endpoint families for categories, releases, series (metadata, observations, search, tags, updates, vintage dates), sources, tags and maps; a bulk-oriented version retrieves all series in a release at once. Community clients exist for Python (fredapi, pandas-datareader), R (fredr) and most other languages, and EViews, Stata and other packages link to it directly.

The API terms of use require applications to display a notice that the product uses the FRED API but is not endorsed by the St. Louis Fed, prohibit replicating FRED's user experience and using the Bank's trademarks, and remind developers that third-party series may be copyrighted by their owners, whose permission is needed beyond personal use. The service is a mirror rather than a producer: revisions and release timing follow the source agencies, some series are restricted or carry copyright notes, and the site was not reachable from some networks during checks even though it loaded through a rendering fetcher.

Editorial note on uncertainty. fred.stlouisfed.org did not answer command-line requests from this network but loaded through a rendering fetcher; link checks may show transient failures. Integration list includes well-known community clients not individually re-verified.

Capabilities

  • Catalog of economic series by category, release, source and tag
  • Interactive and embeddable graphs
  • ALFRED real-time vintage data
  • JSON/XML API with free key
  • Excel add-in and mobile apps
  • GeoFRED maps API for regional data
  • MCP connector for AI assistants
  • Saved data lists and e-mail notifications

Typical workflows

  1. Pulling macro series into a Python or R notebook via the API
  2. Real-time forecasting evaluation with ALFRED vintages
  3. Embedding a live FRED chart in a course site
  4. Feeding EViews or Stata directly from FRED

Strengths

  • Free with a documented API
  • Vintage data for real-time analysis
  • Breadth of sources in one place
  • Widely supported by client libraries and software

Limitations

  • Third-party series may carry copyright restrictions
  • Apps must display the FRED API notice and avoid Fed trademarks
  • Data timing follows source agencies
  • Accessibility varied by network during checks

Prerequisites

  • Free FRED account and API key for programmatic access

Who it is for

  • Macroeconomists and forecasters
  • Students and instructors
  • Developers of economic dashboards

Alternatives & comparison

World Bank, IMF and Eurostat APIs are the primary international sources FRED partly mirrors; Statistics Canada is the Canadian counterpart; Nasdaq Data Link is a commercial marketplace that also carries macro series. FRED's distinguishing features are the unified catalog, vintages and the free API.

  • Alpha Vantage

    REST API for stock, ETF, options, forex, crypto, commodity and economic data plus fundamentals, news sentiment and technical indicators, with a free key tier and premium plans

    ProprietaryFreemium
  • Eurostat

    Statistical office of the European Union publishing harmonised EU and member-state data through the Data Browser, bulk downloads and SDMX/JSON APIs

    ProprietaryFree
  • IMF Data

    The IMF's statistical portal for World Economic Outlook, fiscal, balance-of-payments, reserves and price datasets with SDMX 2.1 and 3.0 APIs

    ProprietaryFree
  • Nasdaq Data Link

    Nasdaq's marketplace for financial, economic and alternative datasets (formerly Quandl) with a REST API, time-series and table endpoints and Python, R and Excel clients

    ProprietaryFreemium
  • Statistics Canada

    Canada's national statistical agency publishing census, economic and social data tables with open licensing and programmatic access via Web Data Service

    ProprietaryFree
  • World Bank Open Data

    Free access to World Bank development indicators by country and year through a web portal, bulk downloads and a public REST API

    ProprietaryFree
Compare FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) with its alternatives →

Sources & verification

Primary sources consulted for this record. Claims are tied to the fields each source supports; the automated link checker re-verifies every URL on a schedule.

Confidence
High
Reviewed
Nov 1, 2026
Links
Verified · Nov 2, 2026

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