FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) MCP Server

Access economic data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis - one of the most comprehensive economic databases with 800,000+ time series.

Data Available

• Interest Rates - Federal funds rate, Treasury yields, mortgage rates
• GDP & Growth - Real/nominal GDP, growth rates
• Employment - Unemployment rates, payrolls, labor force
• Inflation - CPI, PCE, inflation expectations
• Housing - Home prices, housing starts, mortgage rates
• Financial Markets - Stock indices, exchange rates, money supply
• State/Regional - State-level unemployment, income, GDP

Setup

1. Get a free API key at: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/api_key.html
2. Add to your MCP config:

{
  "fred": {
    "command": "node",
    "args": ["/path/to/fred/dist/index.js"],
    "env": {
      "FRED_API_KEY": "your-api-key"
    }
  }
}

Tools

get_series

Get time series data for a FRED series ID.

Parameter	Required	Description
seriesId	Yes	FRED series ID (e.g., "GDP", "UNRATE")
startDate	No	Start date YYYY-MM-DD
endDate	No	End date YYYY-MM-DD
limit	No	Max observations (default 100)
sort	No	"asc" or "desc" (default: desc - most recent first)

Example: Get recent GDP data

seriesId: "GDP"
limit: 20

search_series

Search for FRED series by keywords.

Parameter	Required	Description
query	Yes	Search keywords (e.g., "unemployment california")
limit	No	Max results (default 20)

Example: Find retail sales series

query: "retail sales"
limit: 10

get_series_info

Get metadata about a series (title, units, frequency, notes).

Parameter	Required	Description
seriesId	Yes	FRED series ID

list_popular

List commonly used FRED series IDs with descriptions.

Returns: Popular series for GDP, unemployment, interest rates, inflation, etc.

get_category_series

Get all series in a FRED category.

Parameter	Required	Description
categoryId	Yes	Category ID (e.g., 32991 for GDP)
limit	No	Max results (default 50)

get_releases

Get recent data releases (useful for finding fresh data).

Parameter	Required	Description
limit	No	Max results (default 20)

get_state_data

Shortcut for common state-level economic data.

Parameter	Required	Description
stateAbbr	Yes	State abbreviation (e.g., "CA", "TX")
metric	Yes	"unemployment", "income", "population", "gdp"

Example: Get California unemployment

stateAbbr: "CA"
metric: "unemployment"

Popular Series IDs

Series ID	Description
GDP	Gross Domestic Product
GDPC1	Real GDP
UNRATE	Unemployment Rate
CPIAUCSL	Consumer Price Index
FEDFUNDS	Federal Funds Rate
DGS10	10-Year Treasury Rate
MORTGAGE30US	30-Year Mortgage Rate
SP500	S&P 500 Index
DEXUSEU	USD/EUR Exchange Rate
HOUST	Housing Starts
RSXFS	Retail Sales
PAYEMS	Total Nonfarm Payrolls

Rate Limits

• 120 requests per minute

Documentation

• API Documentation: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/fred/
• Series Search: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/