Find the next CPI release date

Do it with the API

Use GET /v1/economics/calendar to request a release schedule for a country and date range. There is no topic filter in the request, so the Python code selects consumer price releases from the calendar response. With the country parameter omitted, the consumer prices selection can include releases from several countries, so keep countries=USA when you want the US schedule.

1. Get a key Get a free API key and keep it in an environment variable called NARWHAL_API_KEY. Requests go to https://api.narwhalapi.com with the key in the Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY header; the script reads that key from the environment.
2. Choose the country and date range Set countries to USA for the US calendar, with start_date and end_date defining the requested range; the script uses the date it runs and an end date 120 days later. For several countries, repeat the parameter as countries=USA&countries=GBR, or omit countries to return releases for all countries.
3. Select scheduled consumer price releases Request the calendar, then keep releases whose topic is consumer_prices, whose status is scheduled and which have an at value. The script chooses the earliest at among those matches and prints its reference period, UTC release time and publisher's time zone.
   Python, next US consumer price release

   import os
   from datetime import date, timedelta
   import requests
   
   r = requests.get(
       "https://api.narwhalapi.com/v1/economics/calendar",
       params={"countries": "USA", "start_date": date.today().isoformat(),
               "end_date": (date.today() + timedelta(days=120)).isoformat(), "limit": 100},
       headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['NARWHAL_API_KEY']}"}, timeout=10)
   r.raise_for_status()
   cpi = [x for x in r.json()["releases"]
          if x.get("topic") == "consumer_prices" and x["status"] == "scheduled" and "at" in x]
   nxt = min(cpi, key=lambda x: x["at"])
   print(nxt["period"], nxt["at"], nxt["timezone"])

4. Read the release fields Each release has a release_id, country, name and topic, with period identifying the month the figures cover and status describing the scheduled release. For US consumer prices, series_id is usa-consumer-prices; when present, at gives the UTC moment and timezone gives the publisher's IANA zone, America/New_York.
5. Follow the remaining pages The page size is at most 100 releases, and the script reads the releases in its response page. If a response includes next_cursor, follow it to read the remaining pages before choosing the earliest matching release across the calendar results; see the economic release API documentation for the calendar endpoint.

The request has a timeout of 10 seconds. raise_for_status() comes before the script reads the JSON releases array, so an HTTP error stops that path before the consumer prices selection; the selection reads the release fields from the array in the response.

Find the date without code

Open the economic data pages and use the country's inflation page for a glance at its upcoming consumer price release. Each country's inflation page has the next release date, while the economic calendar pages list upcoming releases by country.

A country page is useful when you want to read a date without putting a calendar request into a model or dashboard. Use the country to narrow the schedule, then read the release date alongside the reference month so the month the figures cover stays separate from the day they are scheduled to appear.

For an alert on your phone, use a calendar subscription. The feed puts releases into Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar; follow the economic release alert how-to for that route.

Which option to use when

Is the CPI release date confirmed?

The release has status: scheduled until it is published, and its at time can move. Re-read the calendar before relying on the date for a model, dashboard or alert that uses the scheduled release time.

Basic and Pro webhooks have a release.rescheduled event for a change to the schedule. The calendar's at field remains the UTC release time to read when you need the scheduled moment, while timezone identifies the publisher's IANA zone.

Why is the reference month before the release month?

The period is the month the figures cover, so the release scheduled for 10 November 2026 covers October 2026. Its period is 2026-10, even though its release date falls in November.

Use period when identifying the month of CPI figures and at when identifying their scheduled publication time. Reading those fields separately keeps the reference month attached to the figures when you carry the release date into a model or dashboard.

What if a release has no time?

When a release has only date, treat it as a day rather than a moment. Some calendar releases have a date without a time or have a range, so an exact UTC release time is not present for every calendar entry.

The Python selection requires at and leaves those entries out of its matches. If you need releases with only a date or a range, read those calendar entries separately from the entries with an exact time; a date alone does not give a moment to convert into another time zone.

Worked example: October 2026 US CPI

For the October 2026 US CPI release, start with period: 2026-10. The scheduled at value is 2026-11-10T13:30:00Z, and the publisher's zone is America/New_York.

Read the UTC value as 13:30 on Tuesday 10 November 2026. New York uses EST, UTC-5, in November, so subtract five hours from 13:30 to get 08:30 on the same date.

For the October 2026 reference period, the printed values put the period first, followed by the scheduled UTC timestamp and the publisher's zone:

2026-10 2026-11-10T13:30:00Z America/New_York

The November 2026 reference period is scheduled for 10 December 2026 at 13:30 UTC. The December 2026 reference period is scheduled for 13 January 2027 at 13:30 UTC.