FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)
⚠️ FRED's terms bar AI/ML use and caching of its data
The FRED® API section of the FRED® Services Terms of Use says you may not:
“(k) Use the FRED® API to access the FRED® Services or FRED® Content in connection with the development or training of any software program or system or machine learning, including, but not limited to, large language models, deep learning, generative artificial intelligence, or any other program or process commonly known as artificial intelligence.”
“(l) Use the FRED® API in connection with storing, caching, or archiving any portion of the FRED® Services or FRED® Content; providing any stored, cached, or archived portion of the FRED® Services or FRED® Content to any third party; or incorporating any FRED® Content in any database, compilation, archive, cache, or other medium.”
Source: FRED® Services Terms of Use (checked Oct 30, 2026). This isn't legal advice.
For agents and AI pipelines, go to the original source. FRED republishes series from these sources, which have their own Signal Lab pages:
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
- U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data
- U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
- World Bank
Each source has its own terms; read its licence note before you use it.
FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)
REST API from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis covering economic indicators and financial time series.
The Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) database provides free access (free API key required) to over 825,000 economic time series from over 100 sources. Updated daily with macro indicators, employment data, inflation metrics, and more.
⚠️ REQUIRED NOTICE: This product uses the FRED® API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Note: Some series are owned by third parties and copyrighted (their notes include the word 'Copyright'). FRED's API terms say you must get the owner's permission before using those series for anything other than your own personal use.
Required Attribution:
Must display: "This product uses the FRED® API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis."
Coverage
800,000+ US and international series including GDP, inflation, employment, interest rates; updated daily
Good for
- Building macro feature sets for forecasting models
- Economic research and policy analysis
- Comparing cross-country economic indicators
Verdict
Modeling equity risk premia by regressing stock returns against unemployment rate, inflation, and Fed funds rate. Note: some series are owned by third parties and copyrighted; FRED's API terms require the owner's permission before you use them for anything other than your own personal use.
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Information and education only. Not financial, investment, legal or tax advice. Listings can be inaccurate, incomplete or out of date and are provided "as is". Free tiers, limits and licenses belong to each provider and can change, so check the provider's own terms before you rely on them. Terms & Disclaimer