How do I check whether a fund is accumulating or distributing by ISIN?
Distribution policy (accumulating / distributing) and income yield of any fund or ETF share class from its ISIN as JSON: data.keyFacts.distribution.Updated 12 September 2026 · by FundFacts APIShort answer
Call GET https://fundfactsapi.com/api/v1/funds/{isin} with a bearer API key and read data.keyFacts.distribution in the JSON response (related fields: data.metrics.incomeYield, data.shareClass). The policy is read from the factsheet's key-facts block, cross-checked with the share-class name ("Acc", "Dist", "Inc", "D", "C" conventions differ by fund house). The Free plan gives 15 lookups a month with no card, and the keyless demo endpoint shows the shape for an already-loaded fund.
Where it is in the response
| Path | Type | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
data.keyFacts.distribution | string | "Accumulating" or "Distributing" (with frequency where printed). |
data.metrics.incomeYield | string | Distribution yield where the fund house prints one. |
data.shareClass | string or undefined | Share-class label when it can be inferred, e.g. "USD Acc". |
Sample for iShares Core MSCI World UCITS ETF (IE00B4L5Y983):
json"keyFacts": { "distribution": "Accumulating" },"shareClass": "USD Acc","metrics": { "incomeYield": "" }
Where the figure comes from
The policy is read from the factsheet's key-facts block, cross-checked with the share-class name ("Acc", "Dist", "Inc", "D", "C" conventions differ by fund house). The search endpoint also returns an income field per result so you can pick the right share class before spending a request.
The request
bashcurl -s --max-time 300 https://fundfactsapi.com/api/v1/funds/IE00B4L5Y983 \-H "Authorization: Bearer $FUNDFACTS_API_KEY" | jq '.data.keyFacts.distribution'
pythonimport os, requestsr = requests.get("https://fundfactsapi.com/api/v1/funds/IE00B4L5Y983",headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['FUNDFACTS_API_KEY']}"}, timeout=300)fund = r.json()print(fund["name"], fund['data']['keyFacts']['distribution'])
javascriptconst res = await fetch("https://fundfactsapi.com/api/v1/funds/IE00B4L5Y983", {headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.FUNDFACTS_API_KEY}` },signal: AbortSignal.timeout(300_000),});const fund = await res.json();console.log(fund.name, fund.data.keyFacts.distribution);
Sign up at fundfactsapi.com/signup for a key; the Free plan is 15 lookups a month with no card. Without a key, GET https://fundfactsapi.com/api/v1/demo/funds/IE00B4L5Y983 returns the same payload for funds already in the store (30 calls a minute per IP; it never loads a new fund).
Caveats
- Accumulating and distributing versions of the same fund are different ISINs. If the policy looks wrong, check that you looked up the right share class.
- Distribution frequency (quarterly, semi-annual) is kept in the string when printed.
Several funds at once
POST /funds with { "isins": ["…", "…"], "wait": true } returns the same payload for up to 10 ISINs per call on Starter, 50 on Pro and 200 on Scale. One request is counted per ISIN answered. X-RateLimit-Remaining on every response tells you how many are left this month; a 429 rate_limited response carries Retry-After. Search and /me are free.
A fund nobody has requested in the last 24 hours is loaded on demand from the documents the fund house publishes. That first call takes 15 seconds to about 3 minutes; set your client timeout to 300 seconds and do not fire a second request for the same ISIN while the first is running. Every later call within 24 hours returns from the store in well under a second with cached: true.
Everything else in the payload is listed in the field reference.
Verify it yourself
The demo endpoint returns the live payload for a fund that is already in the store, without a key. Everything on this page can be checked against it.bashcurl -s https://fundfactsapi.com/api/v1/demo/funds/IE00B4L5Y983 | jq '{name, asOf: .data.dataAsOf, ter: .data.headlineMetrics.ter, risk: .data.riskRating, top: .data.topHoldings[:3]}'