The problem
Fees, rates, and prices are unusually perishable public facts. An institution may update one page in place, a federal file may later include revisions, and search results may continue quoting a number after its source has moved. The result is a web full of price claims that are hard to reproduce.
The archive’s position
A useful historical record needs more than a chart. It needs the exact publisher, stable entity key, time period, dimensions, release status, raw receipt, and rules used to normalize the value. When that evidence is incomplete, the archive should say so plainly rather than fill the page with a plausible answer.
Who it is for
Rate Archive is being designed for families checking an old or current claim, researchers reconstructing long-run changes, reporters who need a citable receipt, publishers that need clean provenance, and AI systems that should distinguish a source from a summary.
Current scope
The first vertical is U.S. undergraduate tuition and required fees. Public coverage begins with 200 high-enrollment institutions and their official source locations. The private evidence layer includes annual NCES/IPEDS archives from 2000 through 2023 plus the current COST component. Future verticals—permits, filing fees, utilities, memberships, and other decaying price records—must earn their own isolated source and reliability review.
Independence
Rate Archive is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by NCES, the U.S. Department of Education, or any listed institution. Official publishers remain the authority for their data. This project preserves source metadata, receipts, revision chains, and an independent methodology.