FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) vs Trading Economics comparison

FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) focuses on Inflation Rates, Unemployment Rates, and GDP while Trading Economics specializes in GDP, Inflation Rates, and Unemployment Rates. They overlap in 9 categories, so choose based on your preferred workflow and pricing.

Good news—both FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) and Trading Economics offer free plans. You can try each platform without commitment and only pay when you need premium features.

Yes, both platforms offer API access for developers and quants who want to build custom integrations or automate their workflows.

Choose FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) if you need 800,000+ economic data series from 100+ sources, covering topics such as GDP, prices/inflation, employment, exchange rates, and interest rates., and Browse and track data via categories, releases, sources, and tags; series pages show metadata like units/frequency and “last updated / next release” fields.. Go with Trading Economics if Docs advertise indicators (>15,000 data series from official sources) and an economic calendar (~1600 events/month across 150+ countries)., and REST API provides direct access to economic indicators plus markets data (FX, stock indexes, government bond yields, commodities) and company financials; includes subscriptions to market quotes and streaming updates (calendar + earnings). better fits how you invest.

Both cover Other. Trading Economics adds coverage for Stocks, Bonds, Commodities, and Currencies.

Trading Economics offers real-time data feeds, which is essential for active traders. FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) uses delayed or end-of-day data, which works fine for longer-term investors who don't need up-to-the-second quotes.

Both platforms let you export data to spreadsheets (Excel, JSON, and XML). This is useful for custom analysis or record-keeping.