Narwhal provides national merchandise exports, imports and balance for 35 countries through REST and MCP. UN Comtrade adds bilateral and HS product detail, with history since 1962 for 274 reporters and partners. Choose by the trade detail your application needs.
Choose Narwhal for national merchandise totals alongside other country indicators through REST and MCP. Choose UN Comtrade for bilateral flows, HS product detail, re-exports and broader historical coverage.
Narwhal offers national merchandise totals, without partner, product or services breakdowns. Narwhal API is owned and operated by Nusantara Ventures, LLC.
| Requirement | Narwhal API | UN Comtrade |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | ✓ 5,000 requests/month | ✓ Preview; keyed Free: 500 calls/day |
| Cheapest paid plan | Basic: $59/month; $590/year available | Premium: price not published |
| Update speed | Dataset schedule; timestamps retained | Reporting lags vary by country |
| History | Free: 12 months; Basic: 5 years; available records only | Since 1962 |
| Coverage | Economics, FX, holidays and published commodities | 274 reporters and partners; bilateral and HS detail |
| Interfaces | REST and MCP; WebSocket not published | REST; no official MCP found |
| SDKs | ✓ Official Python and TypeScript SDKs | Not stated |
| Commercial use on free tier | ✓ Commercial apps; resale needs Enterprise | Not stated |
Preview fits the totals request: 500 records, one period and product per call, at one call/second.
| Requests per month | Narwhal API | UN Comtrade |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | Free: $0/month | Keyless preview: $0 |
| 10,000 | Basic: $59/month | Keyless preview: $0 |
| 100,000 | Basic: $59/month | Keyless preview: $0 |
Read US merchandise trade totals
# Change: URL
curl --get \
"https://comtradeapi.un.org/public/v1/preview/C/A/HS" \
--data-urlencode "reporterCode=842" \
--data-urlencode "period=2025" \
--data-urlencode "partnerCode=0" \
--data-urlencode "cmdCode=TOTAL" \
--data-urlencode "flowCode=X"# Change: URL and key
curl \
"https://api.narwhalapi.com/v1/economics/USA/trade" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"Narwhal Free includes 5,000 successful requests each month and permits commercial apps. Use that allowance for a dashboard, scheduled data fetches or an agent integration. Move to Basic for 100,000 monthly requests as usage grows, with the same account and authentication.
REST and hosted MCP reach the same data through one account. Your application can fetch JSON while an agent uses the hosted tools, with every successful call counted once against the shared allowance. One quota makes the combined workload straightforward to budget.
Narwhal's economics catalogue spans 36 countries, with a coverage table for each indicator. Country and indicator paths organize requests around the data your application uses. Combine observations with FX, public holidays and release dates to build country dashboards through the same account.
UN Comtrade suits trade research needing partner-country flows, HS products or re-exports rather than national totals alone. Its official merchandise data comes from national statistical agencies, with history since 1962 for 274 reporters and partners. A free individual account allows up to 500 calls a day and 100,000 records per call. Reporting lags and gaps vary by country. Reported exports can differ from partner imports; the UN documents these bilateral asymmetries.
Yes. Narwhal Free includes 5,000 successful requests per month, commercial app use and both REST and hosted MCP access. Free includes the last 12 months of history for national merchandise totals, without partner or product breakdowns.
No. Narwhal returns national merchandise exports, imports and balance for 35 countries, with currency and monthly or annual periods. It has no partner-country or HS product filters and no services trade. Choose UN Comtrade for bilateral flows and product detail, allowing for country reporting gaps and bilateral asymmetries.
Replace the request URL and authentication, then map the JSON response into your application's fields. The examples use standard fetch in JavaScript and requests in Python, so integration fits an ordinary HTTP client. Keep your key on the server and carry the response's units, dates and missing values into your display or calculations.
The shared cap applies to successful REST and MCP requests together. There are no automatic overage charges. Basic includes 100,000 monthly requests; quotas reset each month even when you pay yearly.
The comparison uses Narwhal's current public contract and the following first-party competitor pages.
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