Get Latest Prices

Status: ✅ Available | 🕒 Source timestamps | 📊 Catalog endpoint

Returns the latest available price for a commodity, with source and freshness context when available. Call with a single by_code, or pass a comma-separated list to get several at once. Called with no by_code, it returns a single default commodity (BRENT_CRUDE_USD) — not every commodity.

Authentication

See Authentication Guide for API key setup.

Parameters

Response

Success (200) — Single commodity

data is a flat price object (not nested by commodity code):

{
  "status": "success",
  "data": {
    "price": 68.58,
    "formatted": "$68.58",
    "currency": "USD",
    "code": "WTI_USD",
    "created_at": "2026-07-03T13:43:01.099Z",
    "updated_at": "2026-07-03T13:43:01.099Z",
    "type": "spot_price",
    "unit": "barrel",
    "source": "market_reporting",
    "data_status": "current",
    "freshness": {
      "status": "current",
      "age_seconds": 275,
      "expected_max_age_seconds": 1800
    },
    "changes": {
      "24h": {
        "amount": 0.72,
        "percent": 1.06,
        "previous_price": 67.86,
        "previous_timestamp": "2026-07-02T13:43:01Z",
        "measured_at": "2026-07-03T13:43:01Z",
        "span_hours": 24.0
      },
      "7d": { "amount": -1.01, "percent": -1.45, "previous_price": 69.59 },
      "30d": { "amount": -26.41, "percent": -27.8, "previous_price": 94.99 },
      "90d": { "amount": -42.96, "percent": -38.52, "previous_price": 111.54 }
    },
    "metadata": {
      "source": "market_reporting",
      "source_description": "Investing.com"
    }
  }
}

Success (200) — Multiple commodities

When you pass several codes, prices come back as an array under data.prices (not keyed by code), alongside a data.metadata block:

{
  "status": "success",
  "data": {
    "prices": [
      {
        "price": 68.58,
        "code": "WTI_USD",
        "formatted": "$68.58",
        "currency": "USD",
        "type": "spot_price",
        "unit": "barrel",
        "data_status": "current"
      },
      {
        "price": 71.98,
        "code": "BRENT_CRUDE_USD",
        "formatted": "$71.98",
        "currency": "USD",
        "type": "spot_price",
        "unit": "barrel",
        "data_status": "current"
      }
    ],
    "metadata": {
      "request_id": "6390b34903a8d3f0",
      "timestamp": "2026-07-03T13:47:37Z",
      "version": "v1"
    }
  }
}

Response Fields

Note: For a single code the price object sits directly in data. For multiple codes the objects are in the data.prices array.

Price changes

Every /v1/prices/latest response carries a changes object. There is no parameter to request it — it is always included, and it costs no additional API call.

Each window is an object:

const pct = response.data.changes["24h"].percent; // 1.06

span_hours — read this before rendering a daily ticker

A 24h change legitimately spans longer than 24 hours when the market was closed. A Monday quote compares against Friday, so span_hours will read around 72.0. This is correct, not an error — we publish the span we actually measured rather than asserting the label, so you can decide whether to render it.

If you display a "today's move" figure, check span_hours before labelling it as such.

A window may be absent — check before reading it

When no honest comparison exists, the window is omitted rather than reported as zero. This happens when no price was published within the permitted lookback (for 24h, a generous multi-day allowance that absorbs weekends and holidays, but not a weekly-published series), and on the rare occasion a stale-price fallback is served — in that case the entire changes object is absent.

Omission is deliberate: a fabricated percentage is worse than no percentage. Sparsely-published commodities may never carry a 24h window at all.

Always guard before reading:

const c = response.data.changes?.["24h"];
if (c) console.log(`${c.percent}% over ${c.span_hours}h`);

Embedded devices should do the same — on Arduino, use an ArduinoJson filter to keep only the fields you need rather than growing the document buffer.

Windows available by plan

Windows above your plan are omitted from the object — the response shape is otherwise unchanged.

Errors

Examples

# Get the default commodity (BRENT_CRUDE_USD)
curl "https://api.oilpriceapi.com/v1/prices/latest" \
  -H "Authorization: Token YOUR_API_KEY"

# Get a specific commodity
curl "https://api.oilpriceapi.com/v1/prices/latest?by_code=WTI_USD" \
  -H "Authorization: Token YOUR_API_KEY"

# Get multiple commodities (returned as a data.prices array)
curl "https://api.oilpriceapi.com/v1/prices/latest?by_code=WTI_USD,BRENT_CRUDE_USD" \
  -H "Authorization: Token YOUR_API_KEY"

# Get the latest official OPEC Reference Basket price
curl "https://api.oilpriceapi.com/v1/prices/latest?by_code=OPEC_BASKET_USD" \
  -H "Authorization: Token YOUR_API_KEY"

OPEC Basket responses include source-date fields:

{
  "status": "success",
  "data": {
    "price": 69.33,
    "formatted": "$69.33",
    "currency": "USD",
    "code": "OPEC_BASKET_USD",
    "created_at": "2026-07-02T12:00:00.000Z",
    "observed_at": "2026-07-02T12:00:00.000Z",
    "source_date": "2026-07-02",
    "type": "spot_price",
    "unit": "barrel",
    "source": "opec.org"
  }
}

// JavaScript
async function getLatestPrice() {
  const response = await fetch(
    "https://api.oilpriceapi.com/v1/prices/latest?by_code=WTI_USD",
    {
      headers: {
        Authorization: "Token YOUR_API_KEY",
      },
    },
  );

  const data = await response.json();

  // For a single code, the price object is directly in data.data
  console.log(`Current price: ${data.data.formatted}`); // "$68.58"
  console.log(`Numeric value: ${data.data.price}`); // 68.58
  console.log(`24h change: ${data.data.changes["24h"].percent}%`);
  console.log(`Source: ${data.data.metadata.source_description}`);

  return data.data.price;
}

# Python
import requests

def get_latest_price(commodity_code='WTI_USD'):
    url = 'https://api.oilpriceapi.com/v1/prices/latest'
    headers = {'Authorization': 'Token YOUR_API_KEY'}
    params = {'by_code': commodity_code}

    response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, params=params)
    data = response.json()

    price = data['data']['price']
    formatted = data['data']['formatted']

    print(f"Current {commodity_code}: {formatted}")
    return price

# Get multiple commodities. With several codes, prices are in data['prices']
def get_multiple_prices(codes=['WTI_USD', 'BRENT_CRUDE_USD', 'NATURAL_GAS_USD']):
    url = 'https://api.oilpriceapi.com/v1/prices/latest'
    headers = {'Authorization': 'Token YOUR_API_KEY'}
    params = {'by_code': ','.join(codes)}

    response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, params=params)
    prices = response.json()['data']['prices']  # a list, not keyed by code
    return {p['code']: p for p in prices}

# Ruby
require 'net/http'
require 'json'
require 'uri'

def get_latest_price(commodity_code = 'WTI_USD')
  uri = URI("https://api.oilpriceapi.com/v1/prices/latest?by_code=#{commodity_code}")

  http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
  http.use_ssl = true

  request = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)
  request['Authorization'] = 'Token YOUR_API_KEY'

  response = http.request(request)
  data = JSON.parse(response.body)

  price = data['data']['price']
  puts "Current #{commodity_code}: $#{price}"

  price
end

Rate Limits

All plans share the same request rate limit of 60 requests per rolling 60-second window per API key. Plans differ by monthly request quota, not by request rate. Bursts within the window are fine. See Rate Limiting for details.

Rate limit headers are included in responses. X-RateLimit-Limit / -Remaining / -Used track your monthly quota:

X-RateLimit-Limit: 10000
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 9876
X-RateLimit-Reset: 1785542399

Best Practices

• Cache responses: Use the response freshness block and source timestamps to decide when to refetch; cadence varies by source, market hours, dataset, and plan
• Request specific commodities: Use by_code when possible, comma-separated for several at once
• Handle rate limits: Check X-RateLimit-* headers and implement backoff

Related Endpoints

• Historical Prices - Past price data
• Commodities List - Available commodity codes
• WebSocket Transport - Availability depends on account entitlement