US Inflation API — the official CPI, since 1913

What is US inflation right now? The official CPI-U from the Bureau of Labor Statistics as clean, versioned JSON — plus the famous average-price basket the press loves. Every number traces to a named BLS series.

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CPI-U since 1913
11 categories · 22 series
7 famous prices · gasoline since 1976
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Updated on every CPI release

What you get

The full CPI report

11 categories: headline all-items, core, energy, food, housing, apparel, transportation, medical, recreation, education-communication, other
Both NSA (the YoY convention the press quotes) and seasonally adjusted (the MoM convention)
YoY / MoM rates computed from the index exactly like the BLS (1 decimal)
Monthly headline history back to 1913, official annual averages included

Famous average prices

Eggs (per dozen), gasoline (per gallon), milk, bread, ground beef, coffee, electricity
US city average, in dollars, gasoline back to 1976
Explicit unit on every data point
Auto-refreshed on each monthly CPI release (8:30 AM ET)

Endpoints

All paths relative to your gateway base URL. Auth: X-Api-Key header. Every 200 ships ETag, Cache-Control and RateLimit-* headers.

Method	Path	Summary
GET	`/inflation/latest` Free+	Latest CPI of all 11 categories (the report table). `?adjusted=true` for SA.
GET	`/inflation/{category}` Free+	Latest CPI of a single category.
GET	`/inflation/{category}/history` Free+	Monthly CPI history of a category (headline since 1913). Keyset pagination via `meta.next_end`.
GET	`/inflation/{category}/annual` Free+	Official annual average CPI (headline since 1913; `limit=150` = whole series in one call).
GET	`/prices` Free+	The famous basket — latest US average price of each item.
GET	`/prices/{item}/history` Free+	Monthly price history of one item (gasoline since 1976).

Free+ = included from the free plan up. Every endpoint and the full history are on every plan — paid tiers raise your monthly volume (500 → 50,000 → 500,000 → 5,000,000 req/mo). Compare plans.

Get a free API key 500 req/mo · No credit card required

Endpoint reference

Parameters, response fields, and real sample responses — including the error shapes, so you can code the unhappy path without guessing. Straight from the OpenAPI spec.

GET /inflation/latest — latest CPI of all 11 categories

Query parameters

Param	Type	Required	Description
`adjusted`	enum `true\|false`	no	`false` (default) = NSA, the YoY convention; `true` = seasonally adjusted, the MoM convention.

Response fields (`data[]`)

Field	Type	Description
`category`	string	One of the 11 category ids (`all-items`, `core`, `energy`, `food`, `housing`, `apparel`, `transportation`, `medical`, `recreation`, `education-communication`, `other`).
`adjusted`	boolean	`true` = seasonally adjusted (SA), `false` = NSA.
`period`	string	Month, `YYYY-MM`.
`index`	number	CPI-U index level (1982-84=100 base for most series).
`yoy_pct`	number · null	Year-over-year change, 1 decimal — `null` when the mirror month is missing (series starts; Oct 2025).
`mom_pct`	number · null	Month-over-month change, 1 decimal, or `null`.
`source`	"BLS"	Per-point attribution.

Sample response — 200

{
  "data": [
    { "category": "all-items", "adjusted": false, "period": "2026-06",
      "index": 333.952, "yoy_pct": 3.5, "mom_pct": -0.3, "source": "BLS" },
    { "category": "core", "adjusted": false, "period": "2026-06",
      "index": 336.882, "yoy_pct": 2.7, "mom_pct": 0, "source": "BLS" }
  ],
  "meta": { "source": "U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics", "area": "us" }
}

Sample response — 400 `VALIDATION_ERROR`

{
  "error": {
    "code": "VALIDATION_ERROR",
    "message": "Invalid query parameters",
    "details": [{ "param": "adjusted", "message": "Invalid option: expected one of \"true\"|\"false\"" }]
  }
}

GET /inflation/{category} — latest CPI of one category

Parameters

Param	In	Type	Description
`category`	path	enum	Case-insensitive category id (see the 11 ids above).
`adjusted`	query	enum `true\|false`	Default `false` (NSA).

Response

Same CpiPoint fields as above — data is a single object, not an array.

Sample response — 404 `CATEGORY_NOT_FOUND`

{
  "error": {
    "code": "CATEGORY_NOT_FOUND",
    "message": "Unknown category. Available categories: all-items, core, energy, food, housing, apparel, transportation, medical, recreation, education-communication, other"
  }
}

GET /inflation/{category}/history — monthly history, headline since 1913

Parameters

Param	In	Type	Description
`category`	path	enum	Category id.
`start`	query	`YYYY-MM`	Inclusive start month.
`end`	query	`YYYY-MM`	Inclusive end month — pass `meta.next_end` here to get the next page.
`limit`	query	int 1–100	Points per page (default 30).
`adjusted`	query	enum	Default `false`.

Pagination

Keyset: points come most recent first; meta.count is the page size and meta.next_end is the end value for the next page — null on the last one. October 2025 is absent: the BLS never published it (federal shutdown).

Sample response — 200 (paginated)

{
  "data": [
    { "category": "all-items", "adjusted": false, "period": "2026-06",
      "index": 333.952, "yoy_pct": 3.5, "mom_pct": -0.3, "source": "BLS" }
  ],
  "meta": { "source": "U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics", "area": "us",
            "count": 1, "next_end": "2026-05" }
}

GET /inflation/{category}/annual — official annual averages (M13)

Parameters

Param	In	Type	Description
`category`	path	enum	Category id. Annual averages are published NSA only.
`start`	query	`YYYY`	Inclusive start year.
`end`	query	`YYYY`	Inclusive end year (keyset pagination via `meta.next_end`).
`limit`	query	int 1–150	Default 50. `limit=150` = the whole headline series (1913+) in one call.

Sample response — 200

{
  "data": [
    { "category": "all-items", "period": "2025", "index": 321.348, "source": "BLS" },
    { "category": "all-items", "period": "2024", "index": 313.689, "source": "BLS" }
  ],
  "meta": { "source": "U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics", "area": "us",
            "count": 2, "next_end": "2023" }
}

GET /prices — the famous basket, latest price of each item

Response fields (`data[]`)

Field	Type	Description
`item`	string	`eggs`, `gasoline`, `milk`, `bread`, `ground-beef`, `coffee`, `electricity`.
`period`	string	Month, `YYYY-MM`.
`price`	number	US average price in dollars (3 decimals in the source).
`unit`	string	Explicit market unit: `USD per dozen`, `USD per gallon`, `USD per lb`, `USD per kWh`.
`source`	"BLS"	Per-point attribution.

Sample response — 200

{
  "data": [
    { "item": "eggs", "period": "2026-06", "price": 2.141,
      "unit": "USD per dozen", "source": "BLS" },
    { "item": "gasoline", "period": "2026-06", "price": 3.111,
      "unit": "USD per gallon", "source": "BLS" }
  ],
  "meta": { "source": "U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics", "area": "us" }
}

GET /prices/{item}/history — monthly price history of one item

Parameters

Param	In	Type	Description
`item`	path	enum	Case-insensitive item id (the 7 above).
`start` / `end`	query	`YYYY-MM`	Inclusive range; keyset pagination via `meta.next_end`.
`limit`	query	int 1–100	Default 30.

Series depth

Gasoline 1976+ · electricity 1978-11+ · eggs / bread / coffee 1980+ · ground-beef 1984+ · milk 1995-07+. Some months are absent in the official source (collection gaps; October 2025 for all items except gasoline).

Sample response — 404 `ITEM_NOT_FOUND`

{
  "error": {
    "code": "ITEM_NOT_FOUND",
    "message": "Unknown item. Available items: eggs, gasoline, milk, bread, ground-beef, coffee, electricity"
  }
}

Errors, auth & limits

One uniform error contract everywhere: { "error": { "code", "message", "details?" } } with stable, machine-readable codes.

Status	Code	When
401	`UNAUTHORIZED`	Missing `X-Api-Key` header, or invalid/revoked key.
400	`VALIDATION_ERROR`	Bad query/path parameters — `details[]` lists each offending param.
404	`CATEGORY_NOT_FOUND` · `ITEM_NOT_FOUND` · `NOT_FOUND`	Unknown category/item, or unknown route.
429	`RATE_LIMITED`	Per-minute limit of your plan exceeded — check `Retry-After`.
429	`QUOTA_EXCEEDED`	Monthly cap reached. Nothing is billed on top — resets on the 1st (UTC).
502	`UPSTREAM_ERROR`	The origin API was unreachable — retry shortly.
500	`INTERNAL_ERROR`	Unexpected error on our side.

Sample — 401

{
  "error": {
    "code": "UNAUTHORIZED",
    "message": "Missing X-Api-Key header. Get a free key at https://synergicapis.com/signup.html"
  }
}

Sample — 429 `QUOTA_EXCEEDED`

{
  "error": {
    "code": "QUOTA_EXCEEDED",
    "message": "Monthly quota exhausted (500 requests on the free plan). Resets on the 1st (UTC) — or upgrade at https://synergicapis.com/#pricing"
  }
}

Every 200 (and monthly 429) carries RateLimit-Limit / RateLimit-Remaining / RateLimit-Reset describing your monthly quota; a per-minute 429 describes the minute window and adds Retry-After. Successful responses also ship ETag — send If-None-Match and a 304 costs you nothing new.

Bulk data (CSV)

Want the whole series as a file? Download it — free, attribution appreciated. For live, always-fresh data use the API.

Download CPI CSV (1913+) Egg prices CSV (1980+) Also on Kaggle

License: underlying data is U.S. government public domain (BLS); these CSV compilations are free to use with attribution to their official source. Files are regenerated on CPI releases — the API is always the freshest.

Data provenance

Every number traces to a named official series — never scraped, never estimated.

CPI categories come from the BLS Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), U.S. city average index family: headline CUUR0000SA0 (NSA) and CUSR0000SA0 (seasonally adjusted), core CUUR0000SA0L1E, plus the energy, food, housing, apparel, transportation, medical, recreation, education & communication and other series — 22 series in total, each response labeled with its category and adjustment.

Famous prices are the BLS Average Price series: eggs APU0000708111, gasoline APU000074714, plus milk, bread, ground beef, coffee and electricity — with the exact unit stated on every data point.

U.S. government data is public domain; every API response cites its source in meta. Months the BLS never published are served as null — never estimated. This product is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Example

# Latest headline + core + 9 more categories, one call
curl -H "X-Api-Key: sk_live_YOUR_KEY" \
  https://api.synergicapis.com/inflation/latest

import requests

r = requests.get(
    "https://api.synergicapis.com/inflation/latest",
    headers={"X-Api-Key": "sk_live_YOUR_KEY"},
)
r.raise_for_status()
for point in r.json()["data"]:
    print(point["category"], point["period"], point["yoy_pct"])

const res = await fetch("https://api.synergicapis.com/inflation/latest", {
  headers: { "X-Api-Key": "sk_live_YOUR_KEY" },
});
const { data } = await res.json();
console.log(data.find((p) => p.category === "all-items").yoy_pct);

// claude_desktop_config.json / ~/.cursor/mcp.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "synergic-apis": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@synergic-apis/mcp"],
      "env": { "SYNERGIC_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

Then just ask your agent “What is US inflation right now?” — setup guide on the MCP page.

{
  "data": [
    {
      "category": "all-items",
      "adjusted": false,
      "period": "2026-06",
      "index": 333.952,
      "yoy_pct": 3.5,
      "mom_pct": -0.3,
      "source": "BLS"
    },
    {
      "category": "core",
      "adjusted": false,
      "period": "2026-06",
      "index": 336.882,
      "yoy_pct": 2.7,
      "mom_pct": 0,
      "source": "BLS"
    }
  ],
  "meta": { "source": "U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics", "area": "us" }
}

Live demo

Real request against the production API — no key needed here (demo endpoint, 5 requests/minute).

Press the button to fetch the latest official CPI figures.

Get started

Get a free API key See pricing 500 req/mo · No credit card required

US Inflation API — the official CPI, since 1913

What you get

The full CPI report

Famous average prices

Endpoints

Endpoint reference

Query parameters

Response fields (data[])

Sample response — 200

Sample response — 400 VALIDATION_ERROR

Parameters

Response

Sample response — 404 CATEGORY_NOT_FOUND

Parameters

Pagination

Sample response — 200 (paginated)

Parameters

Sample response — 200

Response fields (data[])

Sample response — 200

Parameters

Series depth

Sample response — 404 ITEM_NOT_FOUND

Errors, auth & limits

Sample — 401

Sample — 429 QUOTA_EXCEEDED

Bulk data (CSV)

Data provenance

Example

Live demo

Get started

Related

Response fields (`data[]`)

Sample response — 400 `VALIDATION_ERROR`

Sample response — 404 `CATEGORY_NOT_FOUND`

Response fields (`data[]`)

Sample response — 404 `ITEM_NOT_FOUND`

Sample — 429 `QUOTA_EXCEEDED`