Overview
Trade Balance sources data from FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) using the Census Bureau FT-900 Balance of Payments series, providing seasonally adjusted monthly exports, imports, and the trade balance in millions of US dollars, with history back to 1992. With changes=true every reading includes the previous month's balance, and paid plans add the percent change in exports and imports from the month before and the year before, the change in the balance, rolling 12-month exports, imports and balance, and the 12 monthly readings with history=true. Track the US balance of trade, the trade deficit or surplus, and imports and exports month by month.
Live Test US Trade Balance Source →
Formula
One function covers the whole catalog: the first argument names the source, the rest are its inputs, and the "field" pair says which single value lands in the cell. Formulas covers the grammar that applies to all of them.
=VERVE("tradebalance", "field", "yearMonth")=VERVE.CALL("tradebalance", "field", "yearMonth")Inputs
Required inputs are positional, in the order below. Everything else is passed as a "name", value pair after them — the same shape as SUMIFS. Premium inputs are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them.
| Input | Type | Where it goes | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
dateOptional | string | "date", value | Optional date in YYYY-MM format for historical lookup. Omit for current data. date |
historyOptionalPremium | boolean | "history", value | Include the 12 monthly readings ending at the returned month |
changesOptional | boolean | "changes", value | Include the previous month's balance, month-on-month and year-on-year changes and rolling 12-month totals |
Passing an option
=VERVE("tradebalance", "date", "2023-06")=VERVE.CALL("tradebalance", "date", "2023-06")What lands in your sheet
The "field" pair is what makes the formula resolve to one cell. Its value is a dot-path from the table below, so swapping it is how you pull a different value — one formula per column.
Seeing everything at once
Drop the "field" pair and the formula returns the whole response instead: two columns, field name on the left and value on the right, spilling from the cell you typed in.
=VERVE("tradebalance")=VERVE.CALL("tradebalance")The second row's table would land on top of the first's, and every cell after the first reads #REF! (#SPILL! in Excel). Keep one per sheet, or name a field, and leave the cells below and to the right empty.
Response fields
Paths are relative to data. Each one is exactly what the "field" pair accepts, so swapping it is how you pull a different value into a cell. On a plan without a Premium field the cell reads #PREMIUM(field) rather than a value, so a locked field never looks like a real answer.
| Use as "field" | Type | Example cell value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
yearMonth | string | 2026-08 | Year and month in YYYY-MM format for the trade data |
year | number | 2026 | The calendar year for the trade balance data |
month | number | 8 | The month number (1-12) for trade balance data |
exports | number | 315182 | US exports of goods and services for the month, in millions of USD (BOP basis, seasonally adjusted) |
imports | number | 420754 | US imports of goods and services for the month, in millions of USD (BOP basis, seasonally adjusted) |
balance | number | -105572 | Trade balance (exports minus imports) for the month, in millions of USD. Negative means a trade deficit |
unit | string | millions_usd | Unit for the exports, imports, and balance figures (millions_usd) |
exportsFormattedPremium | string | $315.18 billion | Human-readable exports figure (e.g., $265.20 billion) |
importsFormattedPremium | string | $420.75 billion | Human-readable imports figure (e.g., $340.40 billion) |
balanceFormattedPremium | string | -$105.57 billion | Human-readable trade balance figure (e.g., -$75.20 billion) |
tradeStatus | string | deficit | Whether the month was a trade deficit or surplus |
updatedAt | string | 2026-10-28T03:39:54.665Z | ISO 8601 timestamp when the trade data was last updated |
previousYearMonth | string | 2026-07 | Month of the previous reading (YYYY-MM) (with changes=true) |
previousBalance | number | -92826 | Previous month's trade balance in millions of USD (with changes=true) |
exportsChange1mPremium | number | 1.435 | Percent change in exports from the previous month (with changes=true) |
importsChange1mPremium | number | 4.2632 | Percent change in imports from the previous month (with changes=true) |
balanceChange1mPremium | number | -12746 | Change in the balance from the previous month, in millions of USD (negative means a wider deficit or smaller surplus) (with changes=true) |
exportsChange12mPremium | number | 10.6908 | Percent change in exports from the same month a year earlier (with changes=true) |
importsChange12mPremium | number | 22.1762 | Percent change in imports from the same month a year earlier (with changes=true) |
balanceChange12mPremium | number | -45930 | Change in the balance from the same month a year earlier, in millions of USD (with changes=true) |
exports12mPremium | number | 3697470 | Total exports over the 12 months ending at the returned month, in millions of USD (with changes=true) |
imports12mPremium | number | 4491225 | Total imports over the 12 months ending at the returned month, in millions of USD (with changes=true) |
balance12mPremium | number | -793756 | Total balance over the 12 months ending at the returned month, in millions of USD (with changes=true) |
historyPremium | array[12] | The 12 monthly readings ending at the returned month, oldest first (when history=true) | |
history.0.yearMonthPremium | string | 2025-09 | Month of the reading (YYYY-MM) |
history.0.exportsPremium | number | 292352 | Exports in millions of USD |
history.0.importsPremium | number | 351743 | Imports in millions of USD |
history.0.balancePremium | number | -59392 | Trade balance in millions of USD |
When a cell doesn't fill
A failed lookup returns readable text starting with #ERR rather than a spreadsheet error, because Excel cannot show a custom message on a real error — you would get a bare #VALUE! with no reason. The trade-off is that IFERROR() will not catch it; test with LEFT(cell, 4) = "#ERR" instead. Error handling covers the rest.
| Cell reads | What happened |
|---|---|
#ERR Not connected | No API key saved. Open the side panel and connect your account. |
#ERR Replace <name> with a cell or value | A preview formula was copied as-is. Swap the placeholder for a cell reference. |
#ERR No "x" in tradebalance | An option name this source does not take. The message lists the ones it does. |
#ERR No data point "…" | The "field" path is not in the response. Check it against the table above. |
#PREMIUM(field) | The field exists but your plan does not include it. |
#ERR Out of credits | The cycle's credits are spent. Usage resets on your billing date. |
Before the formula works
The add-in reads the API key you saved once in the side panel — the key never goes in the formula, so a shared sheet does not leak it and a collaborator without access simply sees the last calculated values.
- Install the add-in for Google Sheets or Excel.
- Open the side panel and sign in, or paste a key from your dashboard.
- Type the formula above into any cell.
Use cases
- Economic Analysis
- Track US trade patterns for economic research
- Policy Research
- Analyze trade data for policy research and analysis
- Business Intelligence
- Factor trade trends into business planning
Other ways to use US Trade Balance
Set up US Trade Balance on VerveSheets, or reach the same source a different way. Your VerveSheets account and credits work on all of them — one key, one balance.
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