Economic news API
One call returns the market news Helious publishes, newest first, and every post arrives scored: a score for how much it matters, a direction for bonds, and a plain line on why. Economic releases, Treasury auctions, central bank documents, the daily brief and board updates. The first call is free and needs no key.
This is a feed a program can act on, not a pile of headlines to classify yourself. A release post carries the actual, the forecast and the surprise. An auction post carries the tail and the verdict. Filter by word with q, or by lane with categories, and keep the same shape over the WebSocket stream when you need it pushed.
Your first call
No account and no key. Paste the line below and run it.
curl "https://api.helious.io/v1/feed?categories=release,auction&limit=5"
import requests
r = requests.get("https://api.helious.io/v1/feed",
params={"categories": "release,auction", "limit": 20}, timeout=15)
for p in r.json()["data"]["items"]:
print(p["created_at"], p["category"], p["score"], p["direction"], p["title"])What comes back
Every answer opens with summary, a finished sentence a person or an AI can quote as it is, then source, data and meta.
{
"summary": "34 posts published by Helious since 2026-10-22. This feed is an hour behind on your plan.",
"data": {
"items": [
{
"id": "rel-ev-757900252b92d4b6",
"title": "UoM 5-year Consumer Inflation Expectation: 3.5",
"text": "UoM 5-year Consumer Inflation Expectation: Actual 3.5, forecast 3.5, prev 3.5.",
"category": "release",
"created_at": "2026-10-23T14:00:02+00:00",
"score": 0.0,
"direction": "NEUTRAL"
},
{
"id": "auc-912797WG8-2026-10-22",
"title": "8-Week (2-month) Bill auction: IN LINE",
"text": "$105B on offer, B/C 2.57 (avg 2.71), high 4.015%, indirect 57.8% (avg 60.2), direct 5.5% (avg 6.0), dealer 36.7% (avg 33.8). IN LINE demand, no directional read for bonds.",
"category": "auction",
"created_at": "2026-10-22T15:33:57+00:00",
"score": -1.12,
"direction": "NEUTRAL",
"url": "https://helious.io/news/auc-912797WG8-2026-10-22/8-week-2-month-bill-auction-in-line"
}
]
},
"meta": {
"tier": "keyless",
"history_days": 1,
"delay_sec": 3600
}
}What each field means
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
title, text | The post as Helious wrote it. |
category | The lane: release, auction, brief, desk, minutes, squawk and others. Filter with categories. |
score | How much the post matters for markets, signed. Zero is noise. |
direction | The market read as a phrase: BULLISH BONDS or BEARISH BONDS on most lanes, BULLISH EQUITIES or BEARISH EQUITIES on equity posts, otherwise NEUTRAL. Match the whole string. |
helious_read | When present, one plain-English line on why the post matters. |
digest | On FOMC minutes and Fed speeches: the summary, what is new and verified quotes. |
url | The post's permanent page, for posts that have one. |
How it compares
General news APIs such as Finnhub, Marketaux and Massive resell headlines from many outlets and leave the classifying to you. Helious publishes fewer items and scores every one, built around what moves US rates and index futures: the economic calendar, Treasury auctions and the Fed.
What it costs
Every plan sees the same endpoints and the same response shapes, so code written on the free tier keeps working when you upgrade. A data call is 1 credit.
| Plan | Price | History | Freshness | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No key | $0 | 1 day | 1 hour behind | 50 credits a month, shared by your network address |
| Free key | $0 | 7 days | 1 hour behind; one call live for 5 credits with fresh=1 | 100 credits a month |
| Starter | $14.99 a month | 12 months | News, prints and auctions live; market prices an hour behind | 1,500 credits a month |
| Pro | $39.99 a month | 24 months | Live, plus the live WebSocket stream | 3,000 credits a month |
| Ultimate | $99 a month | 10 years | Live, commercial use and redistribution | No cap |
In an AI assistant, the same data is the get_feed tool on the MCP server.
Questions
What is the best economic news API for a trading bot?
One that scores the news, so the bot does not have to. Helious returns every post with a signed score, a direction for bonds and a plain reading, and every economic release with the actual, the forecast and the surprise in standard deviations. Starter ($14.99 a month) and above serve it live; Pro adds the live WebSocket stream.
Is there a free economic news API?
Yes. GET https://api.helious.io/v1/feed works with no key, an hour behind with 1 day of history. A free account key gets 7 days and 100 credits a month.
Can I stream the news instead of polling?
Yes. wss://api.helious.io/v1/stream pushes feed items in the same shape as /v1/feed. It runs on every plan: delayed below Pro, live on Pro and Ultimate.
Can I filter the news?
Yes. q filters by word and categories narrows to lanes, for example categories=release,auction.