Frequently Asked Questions

RateAPI is a financial data API that provides real-time mortgage, auto loan, HELOC, personal loan, and credit card rates from 4,300+ US credit unions and lenders. Rates are ranked by true cost (APR + fees + points), not advertising revenue. The API is available at api.rateapi.dev.

RateAPI was founded by Kameron Kales, who previously built business banking systems at Jack Henry and consumer investing tools at Vanguard. The company is based in Charlotte, NC and was founded in 2025.

Rate data for credit unions was scattered across 4,300+ individual websites with no programmatic access. Existing rate comparison sites rank by affiliate revenue rather than actual cost to the borrower. RateAPI was built to give developers, fintech companies, and AI agents access to transparent, unbiased rate data via a simple API.

RateAPI charges for API access on a tiered subscription model. The free tier includes 50 requests per month. Pro plans start at $49/month with 1,000 requests. Enterprise plans offer unlimited requests with custom SLAs. We do not sell leads, accept affiliate commissions, or charge lenders for placement.

No. RateAPI has no affiliate relationships with any lender or credit union. We do not accept placement fees, lead generation revenue, or advertising from financial institutions. Rates are ranked purely by cost to the borrower (APR including fees and points).

RateAPI covers 4,300+ credit unions and lenders across all 50 US states plus Washington DC. For mortgages specifically, we track 594 credit unions with 2,400+ rate records. For auto loans, we track 1,400 credit unions with 3,400+ rate records.

RateAPI covers all 50 US states plus Washington DC. Coverage density varies by state, with the highest institution counts in California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Pennsylvania. You can filter rates by state using the state parameter in any API request.

RateAPI covers 5 product types: (1) Mortgages -- 30yr and 15yr fixed rates, conventional, jumbo, FHA, VA, and USDA programs. (2) Auto loans -- new, used, and certified pre-owned vehicles with terms from 36 to 84 months. (3) HELOCs -- fixed and variable rate home equity lines of credit. (4) Personal loans -- secured and unsecured. (5) Credit cards -- rewards, cash back, secured, balance transfer, low rate, business, platinum, and student.

Yes. Some credit unions do not publish rates on their websites or require login to view rates. We currently track 30yr and 15yr fixed mortgages but not 20yr or 10yr fixed products. ARM rates are limited. Auto loan data is primarily car-focused; truck, motorcycle, RV, and boat data is available but less comprehensive. We are continuously expanding coverage.

RateAPI primarily focuses on credit unions because they consistently publish rate data publicly. We are expanding coverage to include community banks and online lenders. The current dataset of 4,300+ institutions is predominantly credit unions.

RateAPI scrapes rates directly from credit union websites daily. Each rate includes the source institution URL so you can verify against the original. We run automated anomaly detection to flag rates that fall outside expected ranges. Accuracy depends on the source institution keeping their website current -- most credit unions update rates within 1-2 business days of policy changes.

Rate data is scraped daily. Mortgage and auto loan exports run at 6AM and 7AM UTC respectively via automated GitHub workflows. The API serves the most recently scraped data. Individual institution update frequency depends on how often each credit union publishes new rates on their website.

We use a multi-layer verification process: (1) Automated scraping with schema validation ensures data structure consistency. (2) Anomaly detection flags rates outside historical norms. (3) Source URLs are stored with every rate so data can be verified against the original credit union website. (4) AI-powered extraction with fallback parsing handles layout changes.

RateAPI uses a tiered extraction system. Tier 0 scrapers are deterministic, code-generated extractors for known layouts. When a layout changes, the system falls back to AI-powered extraction using LLMs to parse the new structure. Failed extractions are flagged for manual review and scraper regeneration. This typically resolves within 24-48 hours.

Sign up at app.rateapi.dev to get your API key. No credit card is required for the free tier (50 requests/month). API keys are issued instantly -- you can make your first request within minutes of signing up.

All API requests require a Bearer token in the Authorization header. Include your API key as: Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY. The base URL is https://api.rateapi.dev. Full documentation is available at https://api.rateapi.dev/.

Free tier: 50 requests per month. Pro tier ($49/month): 1,000 requests per month. Enterprise tier: unlimited requests with custom rate limiting. All tiers have a burst limit to prevent abuse. Rate limit headers (X-RateLimit-Remaining, X-RateLimit-Reset) are included in every API response.

The RateAPI is a standard REST API that works with any HTTP client in any language. We provide curl examples, JavaScript/TypeScript, and Python code samples in our documentation at https://api.rateapi.dev/. Community SDKs are welcome -- see our GitHub for contribution guidelines.

Yes. You can view live rates and market benchmarks directly on rateapi.dev (no API key required) on pages like mortgage rates, auto loan rates, and the mortgage rate benchmark. Embeddable widgets and the Zapier integration also let you use RateAPI data without writing code.

The API returns JSON responses. Every rate object includes: institution name, rate, APR, term, loan program (for mortgages), fees, points, state, and source URL. Responses include pagination metadata for large result sets. The API also supports filtering by state, product type, term, and loan program.

RateAPI offers three tiers: Free ($0/month, 50 requests), Pro ($49/month, 1,000 requests with webhook alerts and historical data), and Enterprise (custom pricing with unlimited requests, SLAs, and dedicated support). All tiers include access to all 5 product types and all 50 states.

Yes. The free tier includes 50 API requests per month at no cost, with no credit card required. You get access to all 5 product types (mortgages, auto loans, HELOCs, personal loans, credit cards) and all 50 US states. Sign up at app.rateapi.dev.

Yes. You can upgrade from Free to Pro at any time through your dashboard at app.rateapi.dev. Upgrades take effect immediately. For Enterprise plans, contact us directly. There are no long-term contracts -- you can change or cancel your plan at any time.

When you reach your monthly request limit, the API returns a 429 (Too Many Requests) status code. The response includes X-RateLimit-Reset header indicating when your limit resets. Free tier users can upgrade to Pro for additional requests. Enterprise users have custom limits.

Yes. RateAPI has a dedicated MCP server that allows AI agents and LLMs to query rate data directly. The MCP server is available at mcp.rateapi.dev. It supports all 5 product types and includes tools for rate comparison, financing recommendations, and market benchmarks. See https://rateapi.dev/mcp for setup instructions.

Yes. The RateAPI Discord bot lets you query rates directly in Discord channels using slash commands. Use /rates mortgage CA for California mortgage rates, /rates auto TX for Texas auto loans, etc. Setup instructions are at https://rateapi.dev/discord-bot.

Yes. RateAPI provides embeddable rate widgets that display current rates on your website. Widgets are customizable (size, theme, products, states) and auto-update daily. See https://rateapi.dev/widget-docs for integration instructions and code snippets.

Yes. RateAPI is available on Zapier, allowing you to create automated workflows triggered by rate changes. Common automations include: sending Slack alerts when rates drop below a threshold, updating Google Sheets with daily rate snapshots, and triggering email campaigns when rates change significantly. See https://rateapi.dev/zapier for setup details.

Yes. Pro and Enterprise plans include webhook rate monitoring. You can create monitors that watch for specific conditions (e.g., 30yr fixed rate below 6.0% in California) and receive webhook notifications when conditions are met. Monitors support cooldown periods to avoid alert fatigue.

AI agents use RateAPI in two ways: (1) Via MCP (Model Context Protocol) -- agents connect to mcp.rateapi.dev and use built-in tools like get_financing_decision and get_benchmarks to query rates directly. (2) Via function calling -- agents call the REST API at api.rateapi.dev using standard HTTP tools. MCP is recommended for Claude, ChatGPT, and other MCP-compatible agents.

Add RateAPI to your Claude MCP configuration by adding {"mcpServers": {"rateapi": {"url": "https://mcp.rateapi.dev/sse"}}} to your MCP settings. Claude will then have access to tools for querying mortgage rates, auto loan rates, HELOCs, personal loans, and credit cards. No API key is needed for the MCP server.

Yes. The get_financing_decision tool accepts parameters including state, loan amount, credit score, intent (purchase/refinance), and product type. It returns personalized rate recommendations ranked by true cost, with explanations for why each option was selected. This is available via both MCP and REST API.

AI model training data contains rate information that is months or years out of date. Mortgage rates can change by 0.5% or more in a single week, making stale data misleading. RateAPI provides rates scraped daily from 4,300+ institutions, so AI agents can give accurate, current answers instead of hallucinating outdated numbers.

Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) reports a single national average rate weekly, based on a survey of large lenders. RateAPI provides individual rates from 4,300+ institutions daily, broken down by state and loan program. PMMS is useful for tracking national trends; RateAPI is useful for finding specific rates a borrower can actually get.

Optimal Blue is an enterprise pricing engine used by mortgage lenders for rate locks and secondary market trading. It requires enterprise contracts and integration. RateAPI is a developer-focused API providing published credit union rates with a free tier and instant API keys. Optimal Blue serves lenders; RateAPI serves developers, fintech companies, and AI agents building consumer-facing products.

RateAPI ranks rates by true cost to the borrower -- APR including lender fees and discount points -- not by advertising revenue or affiliate payments. The lowest-true-cost option ranks first. The full ranking logic is documented in the RateAPI methodology.

Zillow and LendingTree show rates from partner lenders who pay for leads. Their rate displays are driven by advertising revenue, not borrower cost. RateAPI provides unbiased rate data from 4,300+ credit unions with no lead generation or affiliate fees. RateAPI is an API-first product for developers; Zillow and LendingTree are consumer marketplaces.