Fed Funds Rate Today: 3.88%
The federal funds rate is the interest rate at which depository institutions lend reserves to one another overnight. The effective rate — the volume-weighted median of those transactions — is currently 3.88% as of September 29, 2026, unchanged versus the prior reading.
It is the single most powerful price in the financial system. The Federal Open Market Committee sets a target range for it at each meeting, and every other rate in the economy — prime loans, mortgages, credit cards, corporate borrowing — is priced as a spread off that anchor. When the Fed moves, it moves the global cost of money.
The committee raises rates to cool demand and bring inflation down, and cuts them to support employment when growth falters. The market does not wait for the decision, though: fed funds futures and the 2-year Treasury price the expected path months in advance, so by the time a cut or hike arrives it is usually already discounted.
For investors, the level of the policy rate sets the risk-free hurdle, shapes the curve, and drives the relative appeal of cash versus duration versus equities. We track the effective rate alongside the market-implied path from fed funds futures on the RiskCurve dashboard.
It is 0.25pp higher than a month ago (Aug 28, 2026), and 0.21pp lower than a year ago (Sep 29, 2025).
It is above the 3.75% average of the period we track, which has run from 3.62% (May 19, 2026) to 4.12% (Oct 27, 2025) — the highest since Sep 28, 2026.
Effective Fed Funds Rate — recent values
| Date | Value |
|---|---|
| Sep 29, 2026 | 3.88% |
| Sep 28, 2026 | 3.88% |
| Sep 25, 2026 | 3.88% |
| Sep 24, 2026 | 3.88% |
| Sep 23, 2026 | 3.88% |
| Sep 22, 2026 | 3.88% |
| Sep 21, 2026 | 3.88% |
| Sep 18, 2026 | 3.88% |
| Sep 17, 2026 | 3.88% |
| Sep 16, 2026 | 3.63% |
Values as published by the source. Macro series are revised after first release; this table shows the most recent vintage. Saved dataset: JSON.