CL=F: WTI crude oil futures symbol and API code

Latest WTI_USD value

WTI_USD is an indicative last price for the front-month contract, captured from published market sources several times an hour on trading days. It is not an official exchange settlement price, it is not the exchange's own data feed, and it is not the CL=F quote itself. Expect small differences from both, and read the source timestamp before comparing.

OilPriceAPI grants no rights in source data. Check the terms for each source before public display or redistribution. Data use.

What CL=F means

CL=F is the symbol Yahoo Finance uses for its crude oil futures quote. CL is the product code the exchange gives its Light Sweet Crude Oil futures, the contract most people mean by WTI.

Yahoo Finance labels the quote as delayed. It shows one contract month at a time; when we checked, that was the nearest month, the same one the exchange listed first.

The contract behind CL=F

Source: the exchange's Crude Oil futures contract specs. The exchange can change these terms; its page is the record.

Month codes for a single contract

CL=F follows the nearest month. One specific contract is written as the product code, a month letter and the year. CLZ6 is the December 2026 contract: CL for the product, Z for December, 6 for the year.

• F January
• G February
• H March
• J April
• K May
• M June
• N July
• Q August
• U September
• V October
• X November
• Z December

Source: the exchange group's contract month codes.

Get WTI_USD from the API

There is no CL=F code in the API. Request WTI_USD from the latest-prices endpoint:

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

The same request in Python, standard library only:

import json
import urllib.request

request = urllib.request.Request(
    "https://api.oilpriceapi.com/v1/prices/latest?by_code=WTI_USD",
    headers={"Authorization": "Token YOUR_API_KEY"},
)
with urllib.request.urlopen(request, timeout=10) as response:
    quote = json.load(response)["data"]

print(quote["price"], quote["as_of"], quote["contract_month"])

• as_of is when the value was observed. Compare it with the time on the quote you are checking against.
• contract_month names the delivery month the value refers to. Read it rather than assuming, especially in the days before a contract stops trading.
• For the physical spot price rather than futures, the API names WTI_SPOT_CUSHING_USD as the counterpart series.

Latest prices are available on the free plan. Price history and futures curves by contract month need a paid plan; see pricing. Response fields are documented in the latest-prices API reference.