freqtrade/freqtrade · error · OperationalException

Timeframe must be set in either config or via --timeframe.

Error message

Timeframe must be set in either config or via --timeframe.

What it means

plot_profit (freqtrade/plot/plotting.py:687) needs the candle timeframe to align trades with OHLCV data when building the cumulative profit plot. Unlike some other commands it does not infer a default, so 'timeframe' must exist in the config (or be provided via --timeframe) before any data is loaded; otherwise it raises OperationalException immediately.

Source

Thrown at freqtrade/plot/plotting.py:687

        store_plot_file(
            fig,
            filename=generate_plot_filename(pair, config["timeframe"]),
            directory=config["user_data_dir"] / "plot",
        )

    logger.info("End of plotting process. %s plots generated", pair_counter)


def plot_profit(config: Config) -> None:
    """
    Plots the total profit for all pairs.
    Note, the profit calculation isn't realistic.
    But should be somewhat proportional, and therefore useful
    in helping out to find a good algorithm.
    """
    if "timeframe" not in config:
        raise OperationalException("Timeframe must be set in either config or via --timeframe.")

    exchange = ExchangeResolver.load_exchange(config)
    plot_elements = init_plotscript(config, list(exchange.markets))
    trades = plot_elements["trades"]
    # Filter trades to relevant pairs
    # Remove open pairs - we don't know the profit yet so can't calculate profit for these.
    # Also, If only one open pair is left, then the profit-generation would fail.
    trades = trades[
        (trades["pair"].isin(plot_elements["pairs"])) & (~trades["close_date"].isnull())
    ]
    if len(trades) == 0:
        raise OperationalException(
            "No trades found, cannot generate Profit-plot without "
            "trades from either Backtest result or database."
        )

    # Create an average close price of all the pairs that were involved.
    # this could be useful to gauge the overall market trend

View on GitHub (pinned to 1c8edfe4d1)

Solutions

1. Add --timeframe 5m (matching your data) to the plot-profit command.
2. Or set "timeframe": "5m" in the config file used for plotting.
3. Ensure the timeframe matches the resolution of the downloaded OHLCV data.

Example fix

# before
freqtrade plot-profit -c config.json

# after
freqtrade plot-profit -c config.json --timeframe 5m
# or config.json: "timeframe": "5m"

if "timeframe" not in config:
    config["timeframe"] = "5m"  # or fail fast with a clear message
plot_profit(config)

When it happens

Trigger: Running `freqtrade plot-profit` with a config that lacks a "timeframe" key and without the --timeframe CLI argument.

Common situations: Minimal config files reused for plotting; configs where timeframe is supplied by the strategy but not written into config.json; forgetting the CLI flag in scripts/cron jobs.

Related errors

• Invalid timeframe '{timeframe}'. This exchange supports: {se
• Timeframes < 1m are currently not supported by Freqtrade.
• Timeframe needs to be set in either configuration or as cli
• Detail timeframe must be smaller than strategy timeframe.
• No data found. Please make sure that data is available for t

AI-assisted analysis of freqtrade/freqtrade@1c8edfe4d1 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/92fae0567bfe4728. Report an issue: GitHub.