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BLS API: Get inflation rate

Gets the latest U.S. Consumer Price Index inflation for a spending category, with up to 24 recent months of history. Monthly changes are seasonally adjusted; 12-month changes are not.

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Inputs

Values from the run on Oct 23, 2026, shown under Output.

Months optionalmonths

Number of recent months to list, for example 6; at most 24.

4

Whole number from 1 to 24. Default 1.

Category optionalcategory

Spending area, such as food at home or gasoline.

gasoline

One of all items, food, food at home, energy, gasoline, shelter, rent, electricity, new vehicles, used cars, medical care, apparel. Default all items.

Output

From a run on Oct 23, 2026, shortened for this page.
{  "link": "https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.htm",  "history": [    {      "month": "2026-09",      "one_month_percent": 9.1,      "twelve_month_percent": 34.2    },    {      "month": "2026-08",      "one_month_percent": 3.9,      "twelve_month_percent": 27.4    },    {      "month": "2026-07",      "one_month_percent": -2.9,      "twelve_month_percent": 24.6    }  ],  "category": "gasoline",  "latest_month": "2026-09",  "release_date": "2026-10-14",  "cpi_index_level": 383.182,  "next_release_date": "2026-11-10",  "one_month_percent": 9.1,  "twelve_month_percent": 34.2,  "unadjusted_series_id": "CUUR0000SETB01",  "core_twelve_month_percent": 2.6,  "core_unadjusted_series_id": "CUUR0000SA0L1E",  "seasonally_adjusted_series_id": "CUSR0000SETB01"}
Price
1 credit per completed run (1¢ with pay as you go); failed runs are free.
Method
bls.gov/get_inflation_rate
Returns
latest month, 12-month and 1-month percent changes, core inflation, release dates, history

Use it from your agent

Give your agent this line. It reads SKILL.md, gets a Fous API key and connects the Fous MCP server. Its run then takes the method bls.gov/get_inflation_rate with the inputs above.

Ask your agent

  • What is the latest 12-month change in gasoline prices from the CPI, with the last 6 months of history?
  • Show me the most recent monthly CPI change for food at home, seasonally adjusted.
  • I need the current inflation rate for shelter over the past 24 months from bls.gov.
  • What were rent and electricity CPI changes last month, and when was that data released?
  • Give me the all items consumer price index inflation for the latest month plus core inflation figures.
  • Converts a US dollar amount from one month or annual average to another using the US city average CPI-U for all items, not seasonally adjusted. Defaults to the latest published month.

    bls.gov/calculate_inflation
  • Gets the latest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate and labor-force counts for the United States or a state, with up to 24 months of history.

    bls.gov/get_unemployment_rate
  • Finds the latest published BLS pay and employment for an occupation in the US, a state, or a metro area, and compares it with the national median.

    bls.gov/get_occupation_wages
  • Finds the best-matching Occupational Outlook Handbook profile for a job title and returns its pay, entry requirements, jobs and 10-year outlook.

    bls.gov/get_occupation_outlook
  • Gets a state's latest monthly electricity price for a customer type from EIA. It also returns the year-over-year change, the year-to-date average and the matching US average.

    eia.gov/get_electricity_prices
  • Gets the latest weekly EIA retail gasoline and on-highway diesel prices for a U.S. area, with changes from the prior week and from 52 weeks earlier.

    eia.gov/get_fuel_prices
  • Returns seven key economic indicators for a country from its public Trading Economics overview: GDP growth rate, inflation rate, interest rate, unemployment rate, government debt to GDP, currency and stock market. Indicators absent from the overview are null; the US dollar index is not reported as a USD exchange rate.

    tradingeconomics.com/get_country_overview
  • Gets decades of yearly commodity or stock-index price history from Macrotrends: yearly average, open, high, low, close, annual change and inflation-adjusted value for gold, silver, crude oil, natural gas, copper, Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq. The current year may be incomplete.

    macrotrends.net/get_long_term_price_history