EIA Open Data API
The US Energy Information Administration API provides free access to comprehensive US energy data including electricity prices, generation by source, natural gas, petroleum, renewables, and coal statistics dating back decades.
Score Breakdown
⚙ Agent Friendliness
🔒 Security
HTTPS enforced. API key passed as query parameter is a mild security concern (keys appear in logs/URLs). No scopes. Government-operated with standard federal security posture. Data is public; no sensitive information served.
⚡ Reliability
Best When
An agent needs authoritative US energy statistics — electricity prices by state, generation mix, fossil fuel production — for analysis, cost estimation, or sustainability reporting.
Avoid When
You need real-time grid frequency data, non-US markets, or sub-hourly granularity for live operations.
Use Cases
- • Electricity price monitoring and cost optimization for compute workloads
- • US energy market analysis and forecasting
- • Renewable energy penetration tracking by region
- • Carbon emissions estimation from electricity consumption
- • Energy policy research and regulatory compliance reporting
Not For
- • Real-time grid data (data has reporting lag of hours to months depending on series)
- • Non-US energy markets
- • Individual utility bill data or meter-level data
- • Live grid balancing or demand response
Interface
Authentication
Free API key required; obtained instantly via eia.gov registration with email only. Key passed as query parameter (?api_key=). No scopes or restrictions.
Pricing
US government service, fully free and publicly mandated. EIA data is the authoritative source for US energy statistics.
Agent Metadata
Known Gotchas
- ⚠ EIA v1 API was deprecated; agents must use v2 (api.eia.gov/v2/) — old endpoints return errors
- ⚠ Series IDs changed between v1 and v2; agents trained on old examples will use wrong identifiers
- ⚠ Data freshness varies widely by series — some data is real-time, some has multi-month reporting lag
- ⚠ Large time series requests can be slow; use pagination with length and offset parameters
- ⚠ Facet filtering syntax is complex and poorly documented; agents must experiment to get correct results
- ⚠ Some series have gaps or revisions; treat historical data as subject to change
Alternatives
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Scores are editorial opinions as of 2026-03-07.