VOL. XCIV, NO. 247

★ FINANCIAL TOOLS & SERVICES DIRECTORY ★

PRICE: 5 CENTS

Sunday, October 19, 2025

Head-to-head

Calcbench vs U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) comparison

Compare pricing, supported platforms, categories, and standout capabilities to decide which tool fits your workflow.

Quick takeaways

Calcbench adds Financials, Improved Filings, Flags, Management Compensation, Acquisitions, Ticker Changes, Sheets / Excel Add-ins, Blogs, and Regulatory Filings Monitoring coverage that U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) skips.

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) includes GDP, Inflation Rates, and Calendar categories that Calcbench omits.

Calcbench highlights: As‑reported financials with drill‑through ‘Trace to source’ into the filing; multi‑company time‑series and standardized metrics., Interactive disclosures/footnotes search across 10‑K/10‑Q (and other docs); segment & geographic breakouts., and Earnings press‑release data within minutes of wire: GAAP, non‑GAAP, guidance, KPIs; model‑ready via Excel or API..

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) is known for: Free REST API with JSON or XML responses, plus meta‑data methods (dataset list, parameter list/values); browser use supported via CORS/JSONP., Official datasets: NIPA/GDP, NI underlying detail, personal income & outlays (incl. PCE price indexes), Fixed Assets, International Transactions (ITA), International Investment Position (IIP), GDP by Industry, and Regional accounts., and API key (36‑character UserID) with documented throttling: 100 requests/min OR 100 MB/min OR 30 errors/min; throttled requests return HTTP 429 with Retry‑After (~1‑hour timeout)..

Calcbench logo

Calcbench

calcbench.com

SEC-filings and earnings‑release data platform built for analysts. Coverage includes as‑reported financial statements, footnotes/disclosures text, segments & breakouts, earnings press‑release numerics (incl. non‑GAAP and guidance), proxies, 8‑Ks, and SEC comment letters. ‘Trace’ any number back to the source filing. Point‑in‑time fundamentals with publication timestamps are available for backtests. Excel (Windows) add‑in is full‑featured; Office 365 (Mac/Web) and Google Sheets add‑ins are lighter. API access is separate from standard subscriptions.

Platforms

Web
Desktop
API

Pricing

Free
Subscription

Quick highlights

  • As‑reported financials with drill‑through ‘Trace to source’ into the filing; multi‑company time‑series and standardized metrics.
  • Interactive disclosures/footnotes search across 10‑K/10‑Q (and other docs); segment & geographic breakouts.
  • Earnings press‑release data within minutes of wire: GAAP, non‑GAAP, guidance, KPIs; model‑ready via Excel or API.
  • Point‑in‑time fundamentals: standardized metrics stamped with first‑available timestamps to avoid look‑ahead bias.
  • Auditor & auditor‑fee dataset with flags; M&A purchase‑price‑allocation dataset.

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U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) logo

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)

bea.gov

Official U.S. macroeconomic statistics publisher (U.S. Dept. of Commerce). Offers free interactive tables (iTables) and a REST API with JSON/XML output for GDP, PCE/inflation, personal income/outlays, international transactions (ITA), international investment position (IIP), fixed assets, GDP by industry, and regional accounts. The API requires a 36‑character key and enforces throttling (100 requests/min or 100 MB/min; 429 with Retry‑After). A public release calendar is available (ICS/JSON).

Platforms

Web
API

Pricing

Free

Quick highlights

  • Free REST API with JSON or XML responses, plus meta‑data methods (dataset list, parameter list/values); browser use supported via CORS/JSONP.
  • Official datasets: NIPA/GDP, NI underlying detail, personal income & outlays (incl. PCE price indexes), Fixed Assets, International Transactions (ITA), International Investment Position (IIP), GDP by Industry, and Regional accounts.
  • API key (36‑character UserID) with documented throttling: 100 requests/min OR 100 MB/min OR 30 errors/min; throttled requests return HTTP 429 with Retry‑After (~1‑hour timeout).
  • Interactive Data Tables (iTables) for building custom tables; download as CSV, Excel, or PDF.
  • Release Schedule provides machine‑readable calendar feeds (ICS/JSON) and shows planned 8:30/10:00 a.m. release times.

Community votes (overall)

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Overlap

Shared focus areas

2 overlaps

Mutual strengths include Data APIs, and APIs & SDKs.

Where they differ

Calcbench

Distinct strengths include:

  • As‑reported financials with drill‑through ‘Trace to source’ into the filing; multi‑company time‑series and standardized metrics.
  • Interactive disclosures/footnotes search across 10‑K/10‑Q (and other docs); segment & geographic breakouts.
  • Earnings press‑release data within minutes of wire: GAAP, non‑GAAP, guidance, KPIs; model‑ready via Excel or API.
  • Point‑in‑time fundamentals: standardized metrics stamped with first‑available timestamps to avoid look‑ahead bias.

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)

Distinct strengths include:

  • Free REST API with JSON or XML responses, plus meta‑data methods (dataset list, parameter list/values); browser use supported via CORS/JSONP.
  • Official datasets: NIPA/GDP, NI underlying detail, personal income & outlays (incl. PCE price indexes), Fixed Assets, International Transactions (ITA), International Investment Position (IIP), GDP by Industry, and Regional accounts.
  • API key (36‑character UserID) with documented throttling: 100 requests/min OR 100 MB/min OR 30 errors/min; throttled requests return HTTP 429 with Retry‑After (~1‑hour timeout).
  • Interactive Data Tables (iTables) for building custom tables; download as CSV, Excel, or PDF.

Feature-by-feature breakdown

AttributeCalcbenchU.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)
Categories

Which research workflows each platform targets

Shared: Data APIs, APIs & SDKs

Unique: Financials, Improved Filings, Flags, Management Compensation, Acquisitions, Ticker Changes, Sheets / Excel Add-ins, Blogs, Regulatory Filings Monitoring

Shared: Data APIs, APIs & SDKs

Unique: GDP, Inflation Rates, Calendar

Asset types

Supported asset classes and universes

Stocks

Other

Experience levels

Who each product is built for

Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced

Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced

Platforms

Where you can access the product

Web, Desktop, API

Web, API

Pricing

High-level pricing models

Free, Subscription

Free

Key features

Core capabilities called out by each vendor

Unique

  • As‑reported financials with drill‑through ‘Trace to source’ into the filing; multi‑company time‑series and standardized metrics.
  • Interactive disclosures/footnotes search across 10‑K/10‑Q (and other docs); segment & geographic breakouts.
  • Earnings press‑release data within minutes of wire: GAAP, non‑GAAP, guidance, KPIs; model‑ready via Excel or API.
  • Point‑in‑time fundamentals: standardized metrics stamped with first‑available timestamps to avoid look‑ahead bias.
  • Auditor & auditor‑fee dataset with flags; M&A purchase‑price‑allocation dataset.
  • Excel add‑in (Windows, full), Office 365 add‑in (Mac/Web, limited), and Google Sheets add‑on; Python API client.

Unique

  • Free REST API with JSON or XML responses, plus meta‑data methods (dataset list, parameter list/values); browser use supported via CORS/JSONP.
  • Official datasets: NIPA/GDP, NI underlying detail, personal income & outlays (incl. PCE price indexes), Fixed Assets, International Transactions (ITA), International Investment Position (IIP), GDP by Industry, and Regional accounts.
  • API key (36‑character UserID) with documented throttling: 100 requests/min OR 100 MB/min OR 30 errors/min; throttled requests return HTTP 429 with Retry‑After (~1‑hour timeout).
  • Interactive Data Tables (iTables) for building custom tables; download as CSV, Excel, or PDF.
  • Release Schedule provides machine‑readable calendar feeds (ICS/JSON) and shows planned 8:30/10:00 a.m. release times.
  • Official open‑source SDKs/tools: R package (bea.R) and a Python helper (beaapi) on BEA’s GitHub.
Tested

Verified by hands-on testing inside Find My Moat

Not yet

Not yet

Editor pick

Featured inside curated shortlists

Standard listing

Standard listing

Frequently Asked Questions

Which workflows do Calcbench and U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) both support?

Both platforms cover Data APIs, and APIs & SDKs workflows, so you can research those use cases in either tool before digging into the feature differences below.

Do Calcbench and U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) require subscriptions?

Both Calcbench and U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) keep freemium access with optional paid upgrades, so you can trial each platform before committing.

How can you access Calcbench and U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)?

Both Calcbench and U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) prioritize web or desktop access. Investors wanting a mobile-first workflow may need to rely on responsive web views.

What unique strengths set the two platforms apart?

Calcbench differentiates itself with As‑reported financials with drill‑through ‘Trace to source’ into the filing; multi‑company time‑series and standardized metrics., Interactive disclosures/footnotes search across 10‑K/10‑Q (and other docs); segment & geographic breakouts., and Earnings press‑release data within minutes of wire: GAAP, non‑GAAP, guidance, KPIs; model‑ready via Excel or API., whereas U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) stands out for Free REST API with JSON or XML responses, plus meta‑data methods (dataset list, parameter list/values); browser use supported via CORS/JSONP., Official datasets: NIPA/GDP, NI underlying detail, personal income & outlays (incl. PCE price indexes), Fixed Assets, International Transactions (ITA), International Investment Position (IIP), GDP by Industry, and Regional accounts., and API key (36‑character UserID) with documented throttling: 100 requests/min OR 100 MB/min OR 30 errors/min; throttled requests return HTTP 429 with Retry‑After (~1‑hour timeout)..

Curation & Accuracy

This directory blends AI‑assisted discovery with human curation. Entries are reviewed, edited, and organized with the goal of expanding coverage and sharpening quality over time. Your feedback helps steer improvements (because no single human can capture everything all at once).

Details change. Pricing, features, and availability may be incomplete or out of date. Treat listings as a starting point and verify on the provider’s site before making decisions. If you spot an error or a gap, send a quick note and I’ll adjust.