FRED Releases Endpoints

FRED Releases Endpoints

Releases endpoints provide access to economic data releases and their publication schedules.

Table of Contents

1. fred/releases - Get all releases
2. fred/releases/dates - Get release dates for all releases
3. fred/release - Get a specific release
4. fred/release/dates - Get dates for a release
5. fred/release/series - Get series in a release
6. fred/release/sources - Get sources for a release
7. fred/release/tags - Get tags for a release
8. fred/release/related_tags - Get related tags
9. fred/release/tables - Get release table structure

About Releases

A "release" in FRED represents a publication of economic data, such as:

• Gross Domestic Product (release_id=53)
• Employment Situation (release_id=50)
• Consumer Price Index (release_id=10)
• Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization (release_id=13)

Releases have scheduled publication dates and may contain multiple related series.

fred/releases

Get all releases of economic data.

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

Required Parameters

Optional Parameters

Example

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/releases",
    params={
        "api_key": API_KEY,
        "file_type": "json",
        "order_by": "name"
    }
)

Response

{
  "realtime_start": "2023-08-14",
  "realtime_end": "2023-08-14",
  "count": 300,
  "offset": 0,
  "limit": 1000,
  "releases": [
    {
      "id": 9,
      "realtime_start": "2023-08-14",
      "realtime_end": "2023-08-14",
      "name": "Advance Monthly Sales for Retail and Food Services",
      "press_release": true,
      "link": "http://www.census.gov/retail/"
    },
    {
      "id": 53,
      "realtime_start": "2023-08-14",
      "realtime_end": "2023-08-14",
      "name": "Gross Domestic Product",
      "press_release": true,
      "link": "http://www.bea.gov/national/index.htm"
    }
  ]
}

fred/releases/dates

Get release dates for all releases of economic data.

URL: https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/releases/dates

Required Parameters

Optional Parameters

Note: These dates reflect when data sources publish information, not necessarily when data becomes available on FRED.

Example

from datetime import datetime, timedelta

# Get releases in next 7 days
today = datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d")
next_week = (datetime.now() + timedelta(days=7)).strftime("%Y-%m-%d")

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/releases/dates",
    params={
        "api_key": API_KEY,
        "file_type": "json",
        "realtime_start": today,
        "realtime_end": next_week,
        "order_by": "release_date",
        "sort_order": "asc",
        "include_release_dates_with_no_data": "true"
    }
)

Response

{
  "realtime_start": "2023-08-14",
  "realtime_end": "2023-08-21",
  "count": 50,
  "release_dates": [
    {
      "release_id": 21,
      "release_name": "H.6 Money Stock Measures",
      "date": "2023-08-15"
    },
    {
      "release_id": 10,
      "release_name": "Consumer Price Index",
      "date": "2023-08-16"
    }
  ]
}

fred/release

Get a specific release of economic data.

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

Required Parameters

Optional Parameters

Example

# Get GDP release info
response = requests.get(
    "https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/release",
    params={
        "api_key": API_KEY,
        "release_id": 53,
        "file_type": "json"
    }
)

Response

{
  "realtime_start": "2023-08-14",
  "realtime_end": "2023-08-14",
  "releases": [
    {
      "id": 53,
      "realtime_start": "2023-08-14",
      "realtime_end": "2023-08-14",
      "name": "Gross Domestic Product",
      "press_release": true,
      "link": "http://www.bea.gov/national/index.htm"
    }
  ]
}

fred/release/dates

Get release dates for a specific release.

URL: https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/release/dates

Required Parameters

Optional Parameters

Example

# Get historical GDP release dates
response = requests.get(
    "https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/release/dates",
    params={
        "api_key": API_KEY,
        "release_id": 53,
        "file_type": "json",
        "sort_order": "desc",
        "limit": 20
    }
)

Response

{
  "realtime_start": "1776-07-04",
  "realtime_end": "9999-12-31",
  "count": 250,
  "offset": 0,
  "limit": 20,
  "release_dates": [
    {"release_id": 53, "date": "2023-07-27"},
    {"release_id": 53, "date": "2023-06-29"},
    {"release_id": 53, "date": "2023-05-25"}
  ]
}

fred/release/series

Get the series on a release.

URL: https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/release/series

Required Parameters

Optional Parameters

Order By Options

• series_id
• title
• units
• frequency
• seasonal_adjustment
• realtime_start
• realtime_end
• last_updated
• observation_start
• observation_end
• popularity
• group_popularity

Example

# Get quarterly series from GDP release
response = requests.get(
    "https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/release/series",
    params={
        "api_key": API_KEY,
        "release_id": 53,
        "file_type": "json",
        "filter_variable": "frequency",
        "filter_value": "Quarterly",
        "order_by": "popularity",
        "sort_order": "desc",
        "limit": 10
    }
)

Response

{
  "count": 500,
  "offset": 0,
  "limit": 10,
  "seriess": [
    {
      "id": "GDP",
      "title": "Gross Domestic Product",
      "observation_start": "1947-01-01",
      "observation_end": "2023-04-01",
      "frequency": "Quarterly",
      "units": "Billions of Dollars",
      "seasonal_adjustment": "Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate",
      "popularity": 95
    },
    {
      "id": "GDPC1",
      "title": "Real Gross Domestic Product",
      "observation_start": "1947-01-01",
      "observation_end": "2023-04-01",
      "frequency": "Quarterly",
      "units": "Billions of Chained 2017 Dollars",
      "seasonal_adjustment": "Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate",
      "popularity": 90
    }
  ]
}

fred/release/sources

Get the sources for a release.

URL: https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/release/sources

Required Parameters

Optional Parameters

Example

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/release/sources",
    params={
        "api_key": API_KEY,
        "release_id": 51,
        "file_type": "json"
    }
)

Response

{
  "realtime_start": "2023-08-14",
  "realtime_end": "2023-08-14",
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": 18,
      "realtime_start": "2023-08-14",
      "realtime_end": "2023-08-14",
      "name": "U.S. Department of Commerce: Bureau of Economic Analysis",
      "link": "http://www.bea.gov/"
    },
    {
      "id": 19,
      "realtime_start": "2023-08-14",
      "realtime_end": "2023-08-14",
      "name": "U.S. Department of Commerce: Census Bureau",
      "link": "http://www.census.gov/"
    }
  ]
}

fred/release/tags

Get the tags for a release.

URL: https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/release/tags

Required Parameters

Optional Parameters

Example

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/release/tags",
    params={
        "api_key": API_KEY,
        "release_id": 53,
        "file_type": "json",
        "tag_group_id": "gen"
    }
)

fred/release/related_tags

Get related tags for a release.

URL: https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/release/related_tags

Required Parameters

Optional Parameters

fred/release/tables

Get release table trees for a release.

URL: https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/release/tables

Required Parameters

Optional Parameters

Response Fields

Example

# Get GDP release table structure
response = requests.get(
    "https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/release/tables",
    params={
        "api_key": API_KEY,
        "release_id": 53,
        "file_type": "json"
    }
)

Response

{
  "name": "Gross Domestic Product",
  "element_id": 12886,
  "release_id": "53",
  "elements": {
    "12886": {
      "element_id": 12886,
      "release_id": 53,
      "series_id": "GDP",
      "parent_id": null,
      "line": "1",
      "type": "series",
      "name": "Gross domestic product",
      "level": "0",
      "children": [12887, 12888]
    }
  }
}

Common Release IDs

Building a Release Calendar

from datetime import datetime, timedelta

def get_release_calendar(api_key, days_ahead=14):
    """Get upcoming data releases."""
    today = datetime.now()
    end_date = today + timedelta(days=days_ahead)

    response = requests.get(
        "https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/releases/dates",
        params={
            "api_key": api_key,
            "file_type": "json",
            "realtime_start": today.strftime("%Y-%m-%d"),
            "realtime_end": end_date.strftime("%Y-%m-%d"),
            "order_by": "release_date",
            "sort_order": "asc",
            "include_release_dates_with_no_data": "true"
        }
    )

    data = response.json()
    calendar = {}

    for item in data.get("release_dates", []):
        date = item["date"]
        if date not in calendar:
            calendar[date] = []
        calendar[date].append({
            "release_id": item["release_id"],
            "name": item["release_name"]
        })

    return calendar