VerveSheets
Formulas for

CPI Inflation

Finance2 credits/cellSheets · Excel12 categories
=VERVE("cpiinflation", "field", "yearMonth")
What this pulls

The inflation rate between two dates is the CPI at the end divided by the CPI at the start, minus one. The formula is easy — the hard part is getting the CPI numbers into the sheet. This source pulls the official US Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) for any month, plus the year-over-year rate, so the inflation formula works on live figures instead of numbers copied from a government table.

It's one of 250+ live sources you reach with a single =VERVE() function — served from APIVerve's production data engine, billed at 2 credits 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")
A
B
C
D
E
1
Year Month
Year
Month
Category
Index
2
2026-08
2026
8
food
350.418
3
4
click any cell to see its formula2 credits / cell
Ways to use it

Inflation between two dates

Put a start month and an end month in two cells and divide one CPI by the other — the inflation over any period, from official figures, in one row.

Real vs nominal

Deflate a column of historical prices, salaries or revenue into today's money so year-on-year comparisons stop flattering the recent numbers.

A live inflation cell

Keep the current year-over-year rate in a cell your budget, pricing or raise model reads from — it moves to the new figure when the next month is published.

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")
  • IndexPremium
    =VERVE("cpiinflation", "field", "index")
  • Year Over Year ChangePremium
    =VERVE("cpiinflation", "field", "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.

What's the formula for the inflation rate in Excel?
Inflation between two months = CPI at the end ÷ CPI at the start − 1. With VerveSheets in Excel: =VERVE.CALL("cpiinflation", "date", "2026-08", "field", "categories.all.index") / VERVE.CALL("cpiinflation", "date", "2020-01", "field", "categories.all.index") - 1, formatted as a percentage. In Google Sheets it's the same with =VERVE() in place of =VERVE.CALL().
How do I get the current inflation rate in a cell?
=VERVE("cpiinflation", "field", "categories.all.yearOverYearChange") returns the latest year-over-year US inflation rate as a percentage (3.4 means 3.4%). Leave out "date" and you always get the most recent month published.
How do I adjust a price for inflation?
Multiply it by the ratio of the two CPIs: =B2 * VERVE("cpiinflation", "field", "categories.all.index") / VERVE("cpiinflation", "date", "2015-01", "field", "categories.all.index") turns a January 2015 price into today's money. For a ready-made version of this, the Purchasing Power source does the whole calculation in one call.
Can I see inflation for food, housing or gasoline separately?
Yes, on paid plans — the same response carries food, housing, transportation, medical, gasoline, electricity and more, e.g. "categories.food.yearOverYearChange". The all-items figure is on every plan.
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 and month — 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?
index, yearOverYearChange, categories.food.index and categories.food.yearOverYearChange, plus 5 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 2 credits. 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.
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Browse all sources

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

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