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fred_browse

Browse and navigate through FRED’s hierarchical catalog structure to discover available economic data series.

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Overview

The fred_browse tool provides systematic navigation through FRED’s extensive catalog of over 800,000 economic time series. Use it to:
  • Explore economic categories and subcategories
  • Browse data releases from various sources
  • List all series within a specific category or release
  • Discover data sources and their available series

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Parameters

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browse_type
string
required
Type of browsing operation to perform.Options:
  • categories: Browse category tree
  • releases: List data releases
  • sources: List data sources
  • category_series: Get all series in a category
  • release_series: Get all series in a release
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category_id
number
Category ID for browsing subcategories or series.Required when:
  • browse_type is category_series
Optional when:
  • browse_type is categories (omit to get root categories)
Common IDs:
  • 32991: Money, Banking & Finance
  • 10: Population, Employment & Labor Markets
  • 1: Production & Business Activity
  • 32992: Prices
  • 3008: U.S. Regional Data
  • 32264: International Data
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release_id
number
Release ID for browsing series within a release.Required when:
  • browse_type is release_series
Popular Release IDs:
  • 53: GDP
  • 50: Employment Situation
  • 10: Consumer Price Index
  • 15: Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization
  • 18: Federal Reserve Economic Data
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limit
number
default:"50"
Maximum number of results to return (1-1000).
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offset
number
default:"0"
Number of results to skip for pagination.
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order_by
string
Field to order results by.Options vary by browse_type:
  • Categories: name, series_count
  • Series: series_id, title, popularity, last_updated
  • Releases: name, release_id, press_release
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sort_order
string
default:"asc"
Sort order for results.Options:
  • asc: Ascending order
  • desc: Descending order

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Examples

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Browse Root Categories

{
  "tool": "fred_browse",
  "params": {
    "browse_type": "categories"
  }
}

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Browse Subcategories

{
  "tool": "fred_browse",
  "params": {
    "browse_type": "categories",
    "category_id": 32991
  }
}

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Get Series in a Category

{
  "tool": "fred_browse",
  "params": {
    "browse_type": "category_series",
    "category_id": 22,
    "limit": 5,
    "order_by": "popularity",
    "sort_order": "desc"
  }
}

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Browse Data Releases

{
  "tool": "fred_browse",
  "params": {
    "browse_type": "releases",
    "limit": 10,
    "order_by": "name"
  }
}

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Browse Data Sources

{
  "tool": "fred_browse",
  "params": {
    "browse_type": "sources",
    "limit": 5
  }
}

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Hierarchical Exploration

1

Start with Root Categories

{
  "browse_type": "categories"
}
2

Drill Down to Subcategories

{
  "browse_type": "categories",
  "category_id": 32991
}
3

List Series in Category

{
  "browse_type": "category_series",
  "category_id": 22,
  "order_by": "popularity"
}
4

Retrieve Specific Series

Use fred_get_series with the discovered series ID

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Release-Based Discovery

1

List All Releases

{
  "browse_type": "releases",
  "order_by": "name"
}
2

Get Series in Release

{
  "browse_type": "release_series",
  "release_id": 10
}
3

Filter and Retrieve

Use series IDs with fred_get_series

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Common Use Cases

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Finding Interest Rate Data

// Step 1: Navigate to Money & Banking
{
  "browse_type": "categories",
  "category_id": 32991
}

// Step 2: Find Interest Rates category (ID: 22)
{
  "browse_type": "category_series",
  "category_id": 22,
  "order_by": "popularity",
  "limit": 20
}

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Exploring Regional Data

// Step 1: Go to U.S. Regional Data
{
  "browse_type": "categories",
  "category_id": 3008
}

// Step 2: Browse states
{
  "browse_type": "categories",
  "category_id": 27281  // States category
}

// Step 3: Get California data
{
  "browse_type": "category_series",
  "category_id": 27286  // California
}

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Finding Latest Economic Releases

// Get recent releases
{
  "browse_type": "releases",
  "order_by": "release_id",
  "sort_order": "desc",
  "limit": 10
}

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Category Reference

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Top-Level Categories

IDNameDescriptionSeries Count
32991Money, Banking & FinanceFinancial markets, interest rates, exchange rates~48,000
10Population, Employment & Labor MarketsJobs, unemployment, demographics~84,000
1Production & Business ActivityGDP, industrial production, business indicators~52,000
32992PricesInflation, CPI, PPI, commodity prices~32,000
3008U.S. Regional DataState and metro area statistics~350,000
32264International DataGlobal economic indicators~150,000
32263Academic DataResearch datasets from universities~15,000
ParentIDNameKey Series
3299122Interest RatesDFF, DGS10, DGS2, TB3MS
3299124Exchange RatesDEXUSEU, DEXJPUS, DEXCHUS
1012Unemployment RateUNRATE, U6RATE, CIVPART
118GDPGDP, GDPC1, GDPPOT
329929Consumer Price IndexesCPIAUCSL, CPILFESL

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Error Handling

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Common Errors

ErrorCauseSolution
Invalid browse_typeUnknown browse_type valueUse one of: categories, releases, sources, category_series, release_series
category_id requiredMissing required parameterProvide category_id when browse_type is category_series
release_id requiredMissing required parameterProvide release_id when browse_type is release_series
Invalid category_idCategory doesn’t existVerify category_id or browse to find correct ID

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Best Practices

Tips for Efficient Browsing:
  • Start broad and narrow down systematically
  • Use popularity ordering to find commonly-used series
  • Plan navigation path to minimize API calls
  • Combine with fred_search for targeted discovery

fred_search

Search for specific series by keywords

fred_get_series

Retrieve data for discovered series