Economic data API

Access historical observations for a limited set of redistribution-approved economic series as JSON, with source details and observation dates.

Available series

The public API includes GDP data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, plus CPI, unemployment, and nonfarm payroll data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Other charts may be available to read on this site without approval for machine-readable redistribution.

Start with the economic data quickstart, browse the generated endpoint reference, or open the live JSON catalog. The OpenAPI contract describes the same keyless public endpoints.

Build with the economic data API

Try the open-source Charts Data Explorer on GitHub. This standalone Node.js example discovers approved series through the public catalog, plots source-dated observations, and shows the exact JSON request and pagination used for each view. It uses the same public API described here, not a separate data source.

git clone https://github.com/Grizzly-Bulls/charts-data-explorer.git
cd charts-data-explorer
npm start

Requires Node.js 24. The published example runs locally without an API key, account, or dependency installation. This is a source-code repository, not a hosted demo. Only the reviewed public series are accessible.

Historical observations

Use a series slug from the catalog to request dated observations. The optional from and to parameters are inclusive UTC dates in YYYY-MM-DD format. order is asc or desc. The default limit is 100, with a maximum of 250 per request; offset starts at zero and may be at most 10,000.

View GDP observations or view CPI observations.

GET /api/v1/charts/series/us-real-gdp/observations?from=2024-01-01&to=2025-12-31&order=desc&limit=20

Responses include the series metadata, an observations array, and pagination with nextOffset. Continue until nextOffset is null. The gapBefore field indicates a missing expected source period before an observation; missing observations are never interpolated.

Source dates, revisions, and access

A quarterly or monthly observation date identifies the period measured, not the date the data was released. The API provides source attribution, units, derivation details for calculated series, and revision notes. Values reflect the latest retained source history and may change after revisions; paginated requests are not a point-in-time snapshot. For BLS datasets, cite the source and retrieval date and retain the source-specific disclaimer in the JSON response. BLS does not endorse or validate downstream analysis.

This public API is always accessible without an API key. Only reviewed series are included. An invitation-only developer pilot, when available, uses separate URLs with account authentication and usage limits; it never changes access to these public endpoints. There is no self-service paid Charts plan today. If a series or its validated data is unavailable, the API returns a documented error rather than inventing observations.