econ.fred

Any series in the Federal Reserve's FRED database (800k+ US & international economic time series). HOW TO USE: if you know the series id, pass seriesId to get the series metadata (title, units, frequency, seasonal adjustment, observation range, last updated) + its most-recent observations (date + value, newest first; optionally bound the range with start/end YYYY-MM-DD and cap with limit). If you DON'T know the id, pass query to full-text search the catalog (returns ids + titles + units + frequency, most-popular first) — then call again with the seriesId you found. Popular ids: UNRATE (unemployment rate), CPIAUCSL (CPI), PCEPI (PCE price index), GDP / GDPC1 (nominal / real GDP), PAYEMS (nonfarm payrolls), FEDFUNDS (fed funds rate), DGS10 / DGS2 (10yr / 2yr Treasury), T10Y2Y (10y-2y spread), MORTGAGE30US (30yr mortgage), SP500, VIXCLS (VIX), DEXUSEU (USD/EUR), DCOILWTICO (WTI oil), HOUST (housing starts), UMCSENT (consumer sentiment), M2SL (M2 money supply). Each series' units and frequency come back in the metadata so you know how to read the values. Free, public-domain for most series (FRED attribution). Distinct from econ.indicator (a small curated headline set) — this is the FULL catalog. Companion endpoints: econ.fred-releases (when reports are published — the data calendar) and econ.fred-vintage (point-in-time / revised values for honest backtesting).

price
$0.0014 USDC per call
method
GET/api/econ/fred
payment
x402 v2 · USDC on Base (EIP-3009) or Solana (SPL transfer)
auth
None. Sign the payment, retry with PAYMENT-SIGNATURE.

Overview

The fred API is a pay-per-call econ endpoint built for AI agents and autonomous software. Any series in the Federal Reserve's FRED database (800k+ US & international economic time series).

There is no signup and no API key. An agent (or any HTTP client) hits the endpoint, receives an x402 "402 Payment Required" challenge, signs a sub-cent USDC payment on Base or Solana, and retries — the data comes back on the paid request. That makes it a drop-in fred data source for an agent tool-use loop, an MCP host, or a backend that needs econ data on demand without onboarding to yet another vendor portal.

Use cases

Parameters

NameTypeDescription
seriesIdstring
min 1 chars · max 60 chars
querystring
min 1 chars · max 120 chars
limitinteger
min 1 · max 100
startstring
match ^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}$
endstring
match ^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}$

Code samples

cURLbash
# 1. Probe with no auth → 402 envelope with PaymentRequirements
curl -sS 'https://2s.io/api/econ/fred?seriesId=example&query=example&limit=1&start=2024-01-01&end=2024-01-01'

# 2. Sign + retry with PAYMENT-SIGNATURE:
curl -sS 'https://2s.io/api/econ/fred?seriesId=example&query=example&limit=1&start=2024-01-01&end=2024-01-01' \
  -H 'PAYMENT-SIGNATURE: <base64-json-payload>'

# Or use the canonical runner (handles probe → sign → retry):
#   EVM_PRIVATE_KEY=0x... node --env-file=.env.local \
#     --experimental-strip-types scripts/x402-pay.ts \
#     'https://2s.io/api/econ/fred?seriesId=example&query=example&limit=1&start=2024-01-01&end=2024-01-01'
TypeScript / Node — @2sio/sdktypescript
import { TwoS } from '@2sio/sdk'

const client = new TwoS({
  privateKey: process.env.EVM_PRIVATE_KEY as `0x${string}`,
})

const result = await client.econ.fred({
  "seriesId": "example",
  "query": "example",
  "limit": 1,
  "start": "2024-01-01",
  "end": "2024-01-01"
})

console.log('endpoint:', result.endpoint)
console.log('cost:', result.costUsd, 'USDC')
console.log('tx:', result.settlement?.txHash)
console.log('data:', result.data)
Python — 2siopython
import os
from twosio import TwoS

client = TwoS(private_key=os.environ["EVM_PRIVATE_KEY"])

result = client.econ.fred(seriesId="example", query="example", limit=1, start="2024-01-01", end="2024-01-01")

print("endpoint:", result.endpoint)
print("cost:", result.cost_usd, "USDC")
print("tx:", (result.settlement or {}).get("tx_hash"))
print("data:", result.data)
MCP — Claude Desktop / AgentKit / any MCP hostjson
// 1. Add @2sio/mcp to your MCP host config (Claude Desktop example below).
//    EVM_PRIVATE_KEY funds x402 payments per call.

// claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "2sio": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@2sio/mcp"],
      "env": { "EVM_PRIVATE_KEY": "0x..." }
    }
  }
}

// 2. Once the server is running, agents call this tool via standard MCP:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "econ.fred",
    "arguments": {
      "seriesId": "example",
      "query": "example",
      "limit": 1,
      "start": "2024-01-01",
      "end": "2024-01-01"
    }
  }
}

Response

FieldTypeDescription
okboolean
one of: true
itemsarray
totalintegerTotal matching rows upstream; null when unknown.
sourceobject
Example response datajson
{
  "ok": true,
  "items": [
    {
      "id": "example",
      "title": "example",
      "units": "example",
      "unitsShort": "example",
      "frequency": "example",
      "frequencyShort": "example",
      "seasonalAdjustment": "example",
      "lastUpdated": "example",
      "observationStart": "example",
      "observationEnd": "example",
      "popularity": 1,
      "notes": "example",
      "observations": [
        {
          "date": "example",
          "value": 1
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "total": 1,
  "source": {
    "provider": "example",
    "url": "example",
    "license": "example"
  }
}

FAQ

Do I need an API key to use the fred API?
No. econ.fred is x402-native — there is no signup and no API key. Your client makes the call, receives a 402 with payment requirements, signs a USDC payment, and retries. Funds come from a wallet you control.
How much does the fred API cost?
$0.00144 USDC per call, charged per request. There are no monthly fees, seats, or minimums — you pay only for the calls you make.
Can I try the fred API for free first?
Yes. Add ?trial=1 (or the header X-2s-Trial: 1) to get a free real call per endpoint per hour, so you can verify the response shape before wiring payment.
Which networks and tokens are supported?
USDC on Base (via EIP-3009 transferWithAuthorization) or Solana (SPL transfer), using the open x402 payment protocol.
How do I call econ.fred from an AI agent or MCP host?
Use @2sio/sdk (TypeScript), 2sio (Python), or the @2sio/mcp server for any MCP host — each handles the probe → sign → retry loop for you. See the code samples on this page.

Discovery

Related: fred api · econ fred api · fred api for ai agents · x402 econ api · fred api no api key · pay per call fred api · econ api