Frequently Asked Questions

Exchange Rate API is a fast, reliable currency exchange rate API that provides real-time and historical data for over 160 currencies. Whether you are building a fintech app, an e-commerce platform, or a financial dashboard, our API delivers accurate mid-market rates with low latency.

Our rates are sourced from Reuters/Refinitiv interbank feeds and represent mid-market rates — the midpoint between buy and sell prices with no markup or spread. Rates are cross-referenced for accuracy and updated frequently throughout the day.

Exchange rates are updated every 60 seconds, providing near real-time mid-market rates for all supported currencies.

We support over 160 fiat currencies, including all major pairs like USD, EUR, GBP, and JPY, as well as many exotic and emerging market currencies such as INR, BRL, MXN, NGN, and more.

Yes. Unlike competitors that restrict free plans to USD or EUR as the base currency, Exchange Rate API allows any of the 160+ supported currencies as the base currency on all plans, including the free tier.

Sign up for a free account on the registration page. Your API key will be available immediately in your dashboard. No credit card required.

We use Bearer token authentication. Include your API key in the Authorization header: Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY

Yes. Our API supports CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) on all endpoints, so you can call it directly from browser-based JavaScript applications.

All API responses are returned in JSON format. Responses include the source currency, target currency, exchange rate, and timestamp for easy parsing.

Yes. We provide official first-party SDKs for JavaScript/Node.js (npm), Python (PyPI), PHP (Packagist), and React. Install and start making API calls in under a minute.

Yes. With full CORS support, you can call our API directly from client-side JavaScript. Just be mindful of exposing your API key in front-end code — consider using a lightweight backend proxy for production apps.

Yes. We offer a free plan with 300 requests per month, real-time rates for 160+ currencies, and HTTPS encryption. No credit card is required to sign up.

Rate limits depend on your plan. The free plan allows 300 requests per month. Paid plans offer significantly higher limits — Small (5,000/month), Medium (10,000/month), and Large (100,000/month).

When you reach your monthly request limit, the API will return a 429 Too Many Requests response. You can upgrade your plan at any time to increase your limit.

Absolutely. You can change your plan at any time from your account dashboard. Upgrades take effect immediately, and downgrades apply at the start of your next billing cycle.

We offer a 14-day money-back guarantee on all paid plans. If you are not satisfied, contact us and we will process your refund promptly.

Yes. Our API includes endpoints for historical exchange rates. You can query rates for specific dates with support for 1D, 7D, 30D, and 1Y periods for trends and analysis.

Yes. You can pull live exchange rates directly into Microsoft Excel using our API with Power Query or VBA macros.

converted_amount = amount × rate. For example, 250 USD × 0.85 = 212.50 EUR. The inverse rate is simply 1/rate. Real-world rates include a spread — the gap between buy and sell is the provider's margin. Our API returns mid-market rates with no spread.

Under 10 lines with our Python SDK: pip install exchangerateapi, import the client, call get_rate(source, target), and multiply by your amount. See our documentation for complete examples.

A REST web service that returns exchange rates as JSON. Used in e-commerce checkout, finance dashboards, travel apps, accounting tools, and anywhere software converts or displays money across currencies.

A currency API built for trading — delivers tick-level bid/ask quotes, historical OHLC data, and sometimes order execution. Differs from general currency APIs which return mid-market reference rates for display and conversion.

Yes — several. Frankfurter is 100% free with no key. ExchangeRate-API offers 1,500 requests/month free. Exchange Rate API's free plan gives 300 requests/month with real-time updates for production use.

Yes, within its bounds. Owned by apilayer, running since 2015, SLA-backed on paid plans. However, the free tier is heavily restricted — 100 requests/month, HTTP only, EUR base only.

Yes — Xe Currency Data API covers 170+ currencies and is enterprise-focused, used by Fortune 500 companies. However, there is no public free tier. Pricing starts around $799/month.

Google has no official public Currency API (retired in 2012). GOOGLEFINANCE in Google Sheets is free but not a REST API. Community wrappers exist but lack SLAs — don't depend on them in production.

For embedding in software: Frankfurter (free, open-source), or Exchange Rate API (free plan with 60-second updates, official SDKs for JS/Python/PHP/React, and any base currency on all plans).

Online-first providers — Wise, Revolut, Currencies Direct, OFX — get closest to the mid-market rate. Banks and airport kiosks mark up 2–5%. Avoid "Dynamic Currency Conversion" at card terminals abroad.