# Trading Economics

Macro data for 196 countries with its own forecasts. No free key; the API starts at $199.

*https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/trading-economics · Stock Market Data APIs*

## Facts

### At a glance

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Vendor | Trading Economics |
| Category | Stock Market Data APIs |
| Job | macro |
| Website | https://tradingeconomics.com |
| Pricing model | subscription |
| Free tier | false |
| Open source | false |
| Licence | none |
| Self-hosted | false |
| Tested hands-on | false |
| Last updated | 2026-09-14 |

### Pricing

| Tier | USD | Period |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Basic | 29.99 USD | month |
| Standard | 199 USD | month |
| Professional | 399 USD | month |
| Enterprise | on request | — |

### Coverage

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Asset classes | stocks, indices, forex, crypto, bonds, commodities |
| Markets | global |
| Works outside the US | true |
| Data latency | delayed |
| Platforms | web, ios, android, library |
| AI features | recommendations |

### Interfaces

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| API | true |
| Webhooks | false |
| Scripting | none |
| Python | true |
| Spreadsheet add-in | true |
| MCP server | true |
| Export | csv, json, xlsx |

### Capabilities

Yes: charting, alerts, news

No: screening, scanning, backtesting, automation, live_trading, paper_trading, portfolio_tracking, broker_import, tax_reporting, options_analysis

*Verified: pricing 2026-09-14; capabilities 2026-09-14; coverage 2026-09-14.*

## What it is

Trading Economics is a macro database with a web app, spreadsheet add-ins and a REST API over the
same series. The job it is bought for is country-level economics — GDP growth, inflation,
unemployment, policy rates, government debt, trade balances — across 196 countries, with an
economic calendar of scheduled releases beside it and quotes for currencies, indexes, shares,
commodities and government bonds bolted on the side.

It also prints its own forecast value beside a series — the vendor's stated scope is hundreds of
economic indicators, plus what it calls short-term financial market predictions — and that is not an
incidental extra: forecast viewing is a listed feature of the cheapest plan and forecast export of
the next one up. What those numbers are is in Limitations.

## Pricing

Four plans on one ladder. The web subscription and the API are not separate products: both pricing
pages render from the same data file, and API access is a feature the upper tiers carry.

Basic is $29.99 a month and has no API and no data export whatsoever — it buys chart viewing on the
website, forecast viewing, alerts, the mobile apps and no ads. Standard is $199 a month and is the
cheapest plan with a key: 500 API requests and 500 series exports a month, the Excel add-in and
Google Sheets add-on, and forecast export. Professional is $399 a month for 5,000 requests and
exports, bulk downloads, news over the API and the MCP server, priced per seat. Enterprise is quoted
and is the only plan carrying live streaming, the calendar API, white label and redistribution.

Quarterly billing takes 15% off and yearly 25%, except on Basic, which is $74.99 a quarter or
$269.99 a year. There is no free tier: the entry point is a one-week trial costing $4.99, $49 or
$99 by plan, capped at 100,000 data points and 100 requests, explicitly non-refundable, and
converted to a full subscription automatically if you do not cancel.

## Data & coverage

The headline is 20 million indicators, and the vendor's own breakdown is what to read before
budgeting around it: 20 thousand come directly from national sources, a million series from the US
Federal Reserve, a million from World Bank development indicators, and 20 million from COMTRADE
export and import statistics. The bulk of the count is bilateral trade data — useful, but not what
most people mean by an economic indicator. The documentation quotes 300,000 series instead, and the
terms page a third figure again, 232 countries and 200,000 indicators.

Market quotes are the secondary half and the docs say so plainly: the financial market data is
aggregated from a range of third-party providers, supplied as-is, and some of the market-related
methods are described as under heavy development. The snapshot endpoint returns a frequency field
reading Live, Daily or Delayed by instrument, and the delay is nowhere quantified.

## Integrations

REST with the key as a query parameter or an Authorization header, and JSON, CSV or HTML responses.
Trading Economics publishes its own Python and Node clients, and here the obvious package name is
the vendor's — the PyPI package `tradingeconomics` is theirs, MIT, at 4.5.11 uploaded 8 July 2026.
Beyond that: an Excel desktop add-in that requires Windows, a separate Excel web add-in, a Google
Sheets add-on and a Tableau connector. A hosted MCP server answers an unauthenticated call with 401,
so it is real; it is gated to Professional and above. Live streaming is a WebSocket and
Enterprise-only. There are no webhooks.

## Limitations

- **The forecasts are the vendor's own model output.** Not a consensus of forecasters, not an
  official projection from a central bank, the IMF or the OECD. Their wording is that forecasts are
  built using a proprietary global macro model taking into account their analysts' expectations,
  correlations between countries and a set of logical relationships between indicators. No further
  methodology is published, and the same sentence covers their projected levels for stock indexes,
  currencies, commodities and bonds. Their 0–100 sovereign credit score is a separate model, which
  they describe instead as forward-looking and systematically derived with very limited analyst
  discretion.
- **No free tier and no free key.** The guest account that older tutorials still pass returns HTTP
  410 pointing at the pricing page.
- **500 API requests a month on the $199 plan is a research allowance, not a production one.** The
  hard limits are 2 requests a second, 10,000 rows per historical call, 1,000 rows per calendar
  call and a 260-character URL.
- **The economic calendar API is not in any self-serve plan.** Neither is live streaming. For a
  product whose calendar is one of its best-known assets, both sit behind a quote.
- **Redistribution is Enterprise-only.** The published terms grant a limited, personal,
  nontransferable, revocable licence to analyse the data, and the API page says pricing is adjusted
  to the distribution you make.

## Alternatives

[FRED](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/fred) does the same job for nothing — 851,100 series, a free key, 120 requests a
minute — and is the honest first stop unless you need the calendar, the non-OECD country breadth or
the forecasts. [Nasdaq Data Link](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/nasdaq-data-link) if the pull is toward a catalogue of
purchasable datasets rather than one vendor's own series.

The rest of the field is in [market data APIs](https://stockmarketstack.com/categories/market-data-apis).

## FAQ

### Does Trading Economics have a free API key?

No. The guest key that older tutorials still pass now answers HTTP 410 with a note that the guest account has been discontinued, and there is no free tier behind it. The cheapest plan carrying any API access is Standard at $199 a month; the plan below it has no API and no data export at all. The entry point is a paid one-week trial, from $4.99, capped at 100,000 data points and 100 requests.

### Where do Trading Economics forecast numbers come from?

Their own model. The documentation says forecasts are built using a proprietary global macro model that takes into account their analysts' expectations, correlations between countries and a set of logical relationships between indicators. They are not a consensus of forecasters and not an official projection from a central bank, the IMF or the OECD, and no methodology beyond that one sentence is published.

### Does Trading Economics really cover 20 million indicators?

The count is real but it is mostly trade statistics. The vendor's own breakdown gives 20 thousand indicators directly from national sources, a million series from the Federal Reserve, a million from World Bank development indicators and 20 million from COMTRADE export and import records. The documentation elsewhere quotes 300,000 series, and the terms page a third figure again.

### Can I redistribute Trading Economics data in my own product?

Only on Enterprise. Data distribution and white label are listed as Enterprise features, and the published terms grant a limited, personal, nontransferable and revocable licence to analyse the data. The API page says pricing is adjusted to the distribution you make, so anything customer-facing is a sales conversation rather than a plan you can buy online.

## Also worth comparing

- [DBnomics](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/dbnomics.md) — Macro series from 93 statistics offices and central banks behind one open API.
- [EconDB](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/econdb.md) — 5,170 macro series and container-shipping data behind one API and one subscription.
- [ECB Data Portal API](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/ecb-data-portal.md) — Euro reference rates, yield curves and €STR over keyless SDMX — with vintages.
- [FRED](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/fred.md) — The Fed's macro database — 851,100 series, a free key and 120 requests a minute.
- [IMF Data](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/imf-data.md) — Free, keyless SDMX access to IMF macro statistics — WEO included, forecasts and all.
- [Alpaca Market Data](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/alpaca-market-data.md) — Free IEX data forever, full SIP and OPRA for a flat $99 a month.
