Note: If you had a subscription from the UN Comtrade legacy system, your previous login ID and password will no longer work in UN Comtrade. You will have to re-register using a valid email address.
To set up your account with premium access, please follow the steps below:
Create a UN Comtrade Account #
To access the complete range of features available with your premium subscription to the UN Comtrade database, you must create an account and log in. For premium individual subscribers, you must use the same email address registered on your account subscription. For premium institutional subscribers, you must use the email address with the registered domain on the account subscription.
- Visit https://comtrade.un.org.
- Click on the Login link on the top right corner of the main page. This will bring you to the login screen.
- If you have an existing United Nations account (@un.org), you can immediately sign in using the button for @un.org.
- If you have a Gmail account, you can use your existing Gmail account and password to set up your account in UN Comtrade. Click on the sign-in button for Gmail accounts.
- Otherwise, click on the link to sign up now.
- Once you click Sign-up now, a new window will appear. Provide a valid email address and click the button to Send the verification code. Please do not close this window.
- Check your inbox for the verification code in a separate web browser window. You should receive an email titled “United Nations B2C account email verification code.”
- Return to the previous window, copy and paste the code, and click Verify code.
- Provide your password, display name, given name, and surname. Organization code* is not used now; you may leave this blank. Click Create.
- Upon successfully creating your account, you will be automatically logged in to the user interface at https://comtrade.un.org and redirected to the main landing page. At this point, you will notice a “My Comtrade” link in the top right corner. The specific label you see, “My Comtrade Free” or “My Comtrade Premium,” depends on your subscription level (premium individual or institutional, respectively).
- If you see “My Comtrade Free,” kindly allow us one business day to apply premium access to your account. Once premium access has been applied, you will see “My Comtrade Premium” at the top right corner of the main page.
Important note: Kindly ensure that you use the same login option each time you log in to UN Comtrade.
Obtain a subscription key to UN Comtrade API #
Your premium subscription includes premium access to the API. You will need an API subscription key to use the UN Comtrade API. You must submit a request in the UN Comtrade Developer Portal to obtain this API subscription key. In addition to the API, premium users can extract and download the data through the UN Comtrade user interface.
- Visit the UN Comtrade Developer Portal at https://comtradedeveloper.un.org. Sign on using your UN Comtrade account (registered email address in UN Comtrade). If you do not have a UN Comtrade account, please follow the steps above.
- Browse through the products page: https://comtradedeveloper.un.org/products .
- Select the API Product based on your UN Comtrade subscription tier:
- Premium Individual APIs are available to UN Comtrade users with a paid premium individual subscription.
- Premium Institutional Pro APIs are available to UN Comtrade users with a paid premium institutional subscription.
- Provide a subscription name and click Subscribe. A subscription key will be generated.
- Please allow us some time to approve your UN Comtrade API product subscription key.
- Once your subscription keys are issued, these will be available under your profile: https://comtradedeveloper.un.org/profile
- Use your API key to start placing requests and retrieve the data you need.
- Please refer to the API documentation for information on how to construct your API requests.
- You are invited to explore the UN Comtrade API Python Package or ComtradeR (provided as is by the community.) For API examples at Github ComtradeAPICall.
What is included in my premium subscription? #
| Features | Premium Individual | Premium Institutional |
|---|---|---|
| Number of Users | Single User | Multiple Users |
| Authentication | Registered email address | Email address with registered email Domain |
| User Interface (UI) | ||
| Data Preview |  | |
| Data Download | | |
| Data Delivery | | |
| Aggregation Option | | |
| Save Parameters | | |
| Save Searches | | |
| Download Options | ||
| UI Download – max of 250K records per call | | |
| UI Bulk | | |
| UI Deliver – max of 2.5M records per call | | |
| Bulk API | | |
| Async API – max of 2.5M records per call | | |
| API | ||
| Preview all data, bulk, and async | 5000 calls/day | Unlimited calls per day* |
*While premium users do have access to unlimited API calls per day, it’s important to note that we have a rate-limiting policy in place to ensure the stability and fair use of our service. Specifically, we have a rate limit of 5 API calls per user per second. This limitation is designed to prevent any potential abuse of the system and to ensure that our infrastructure can handle requests efficiently while maintaining the quality of service for all users.
