CPI Inflation in Google Sheets & Excel

What this pulls

Track inflation from a cell. Returns monthly CPI and year-over-year rates by category, auto-refreshing — Sheets or Excel.

It's one of 250+ live sources you reach with a single =VERVE() function — served from APIVerve's production data engine, billed at 1 credit per resolved cell, and refreshed on whatever cadence you set. No API keys to wrangle, no scripts, no exports.

See it in a cell

A real example — the input you type, and the values you can pull from it. Click any cell to see the formula behind it.

cpiinflation.xlsxsample data

A2fx=VERVE("cpiinflation", "field", "yearMonth")

Year Month

Year

Month

2024-01

2024

click any cell to see its formula1 credit / cell

Ways to use it

Live financial model

Drop =VERVE("cpiinflation", "field", "yearMonth") into a cell and your model reads the latest number every refresh — no more pasting figures from a browser tab into a stale sheet.

Track a whole watchlist

Fill a column beside your list of tickers or currencies and every row updates together, so a hundred-row watchlist stays current on its own.

Dashboards that don't rot

Point a chart at the cell =VERVE("cpiinflation", "field", "yearMonth") feeds and the chart re-draws as the data moves — a finance dashboard that's live instead of a Monday-morning snapshot.

Use it in your sheet

The same function works in both apps — install once, sign in with your key, and type it into any cell.

Google SheetsAdd-on

Install from the Workspace Marketplace, then drop the formula into a cell. Autocomplete suggests the source and its fields.

=VERVE("cpiinflation", "field", "yearMonth")

Microsoft ExcelAdd-in

Same source, same arguments, same key — in Excel on desktop, the web, or mobile. Excel namespaces it as VERVE.CALL. Drag to fill a whole column.

=VERVE.CALL("cpiinflation", "field", "yearMonth")

Optional inputs

Tune the result by adding name=value before the field argument — in any order. Leave one out and its default applies.

date
Optional date in YYYY-MM format for historical lookup. Omit for current data.
=VERVE("cpiinflation", "date", "2023-06")
category
Optional category filter: all, food, housing, apparel, transportation, medical, recreation, education, gasoline, electricity
=VERVE("cpiinflation", "category", "food")

Fields you can pull

Add a field name as the last argument to land just that value in the cell.

Year Month
=VERVE("cpiinflation", "field", "yearMonth")
Year
=VERVE("cpiinflation", "field", "year")
Month
=VERVE("cpiinflation", "field", "month")
Categories › All › Index
=VERVE("cpiinflation", "field", "categories.all.index")
Categories › All › Year Over Year Change
=VERVE("cpiinflation", "field", "categories.all.yearOverYearChange")
Categories › Food › IndexPremium
=VERVE("cpiinflation", "field", "categories.food.index")
Categories › Food › Year Over Year ChangePremium
=VERVE("cpiinflation", "field", "categories.food.yearOverYearChange")
Categories › Housing › IndexPremium
=VERVE("cpiinflation", "field", "categories.housing.index")
Categories › Housing › Year Over Year ChangePremium
=VERVE("cpiinflation", "field", "categories.housing.yearOverYearChange")
Categories › Transportation › IndexPremium
=VERVE("cpiinflation", "field", "categories.transportation.index")
Categories › Transportation › Year Over Year ChangePremium
=VERVE("cpiinflation", "field", "categories.transportation.yearOverYearChange")
Categories › Medical › IndexPremium
=VERVE("cpiinflation", "field", "categories.medical.index")

Premium marks data included on paid plans. On the Free plan a marked field is withheld and a marked input is ignored — either way the cell reads #PREMIUM(name) instead of a value, so a gated answer can never be mistaken for a real one. Everything unmarked works on every plan. Compare plans

CPI Inflation, answered

Everything you need to wire it into a sheet.

How do I pull CPI Inflation into Google Sheets?

Install the VerveSheets add-on, sign in once with your key, and type =VERVE("cpiinflation", "field", "yearMonth") into any cell. The "field" argument names the value you want back, so the cell resolves to a single number or string you can chart, sort, or feed into another formula.

What data can I pull from CPI Inflation?

CPI Inflation returns yearMonth, year, month, categories.all.index and categories.all.yearOverYearChange — name any one of them as the "field" argument and that value lands in the cell. Leave the field out and the whole record spills into a two-column table instead.

Can I narrow what CPI Inflation returns?

Yes — CPI Inflation takes "date" and "category" as optional inputs. They go in as "name", value pairs after the required ones, in any order, so =VERVE("cpiinflation", "date", "2023-06") shapes the result without changing anything else.

Which CPI Inflation fields need a paid plan?

categories.food.index, categories.food.yearOverYearChange, categories.housing.index and categories.housing.yearOverYearChange, plus 3 more are included from the Starter plan up. On the Free plan the cell returns #PREMIUM(field) rather than a wrong or empty value, so it's always obvious which one to upgrade for. Every other field works on Free.

Can I fill a whole column of CPI Inflation at once?

Yes. Reference a range instead of a single cell and one call returns a value for every row, or drag =VERVE("cpiinflation") down like any spreadsheet function.

How many credits does each CPI Inflation cell cost?

Each resolved cell costs 1 credit. A cell only re-bills when it actually refreshes, so a sheet you aren't touching doesn't keep charging.

Does CPI Inflation work in Excel as well as Google Sheets?

Yes — same arguments, same key, same fields. Excel namespaces custom functions, so the call is =VERVE.CALL() there and =VERVE() in Google Sheets; nothing else about it changes.

How current is CPI Inflation?

It draws on 12 categories, served live from APIVerve's production data engine, and cells recalculate on the cadence you choose — every open, hourly, or every 30 minutes.

CPI Inflation

Live financial model

Track a whole watchlist

Dashboards that don't rot

CPI Inflation, answered

Put CPI Inflation in your next spreadsheet. Add the extension, paste the formula, and the cell keeps itself current.

Scaling up?