Errors

If an error occurs, the web service will return an HTTP response with the error status code and a JSON or XML body containing the error. For example:

JSON

Request

https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/v2/release/observations?release_id=abc

Response

HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
...

{
  "code": 400,
  "message": "release_id is not a positive integer"
}

The message attribute of the error tag contains a description of the error. All errors use standard HTTP status codes. Our API has rate limiting which returns a status code if exceeded. If you have a reason that you need to exceed our limit, please contact us. The following HTTP status code may be returned:

• 400 Bad Request
• 401 Missing or invalid credentials
• 404 Not Found
• 406 Invalid format
• 429 Too Many Requests (Up to 2 requests per second is allowed before being served with 429 error code. Not complying with the throttling can result in a temporary block.)
• 500 Internal Server Error

XML

Request

https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/v2/release/observations?release_id=abc&format=xml

Response

HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
Content-Type: application/xml; charset=utf-8
...

<error>
    <code>400</code>
    <message>release_id is not a positive integer</message>
</error>