Frequently Asked Questions

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

Our rates are sourced from leading financial data providers and cross-referenced for accuracy. Mid-market rates are updated frequently throughout the day to reflect live market conditions.

Exchange rates are updated every 60 seconds for paid plans and every 60 minutes for the free plan. Check our pricing page for details on update frequencies per plan.

We support over 160 fiat currencies, including all major pairs like USD, EUR, GBP, and JPY, as well as many exotic currencies. The full list is available in our API documentation.

Sign up for a free account on our registration page. Your API key will be available immediately in your profile dashboard.

We use API key authentication. Include your key as a query parameter (?apikey=YOUR_KEY) or in the Authorization header. Full details are in our docs.

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

Rate limits depend on your plan. The free plan allows up to 100 requests per month. Paid plans offer significantly higher limits. Visit our pricing page for specifics.

Yes. Our API includes endpoints for historical exchange rates going back several years. You can query rates for any specific date. See the API documentation for endpoint details.

All API responses are returned in JSON format. Responses include the base currency, a timestamp, and an object of currency-rate pairs for easy parsing.

Yes. We offer a free plan that is perfect for personal projects and testing. Compare plans.

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 from your profile dashboard 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 through our contact page and we will process your refund promptly.

Yes. You can pull live exchange rates directly into Microsoft Excel using our API. We have a step-by-step guide on our blog: How to Get Exchange Rates in Excel.

We provide code examples in JavaScript, Python, PHP, Ruby, and cURL in our documentation. Community-maintained SDKs are also available on GitHub.

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 — several. Frankfurter is 100% free with no key. ExchangeRate-API offers 1,500 requests/month free. freecurrencyapi.com offers 5,000/month. AllRatesToday's free plan gives hourly updates for production use. Full comparison in our 20 questions guide.

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. More: What is a currency API?

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.

A rate openly accessible through a public API without a private contract. Also the name of a commercial provider (Open Exchange Rates) covering 200+ currencies since 2011.

Yes — 100% free, open-source, no API key. Tracks ~30 currencies from European Central Bank daily reference rates, historical data back to 1999. Best for accounting and display; not for trading.

Free tier of 1,500 requests/month, no credit card required. Paid plans start at $13.99/month for 30,000 requests. Free tier is not intended for production traffic.

Pro: $13.99/mo (30k req), Business: $29/mo (100k req), Volume: $49/mo (1.5M req), Enterprise: custom. See pricing breakdown.

Yes — Xe Currency Data API for 170+ currencies. Enterprise-focused, used by Fortune 500 companies. Read the full breakdown: Does Xe have an API?

No. No public free tier. Pricing starts around $799/month for enterprise customers. For free access, use Frankfurter, AllRatesToday's free plan, or ExchangeRate-API's free tier.

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

Yes, within its bounds. Owned by apilayer, running since 2015, SLA-backed on paid plans. Free tier is heavily restricted (100 req/month, HTTP only, EUR base only). Comparison: AllRatesToday vs Fixer, Xe, ExchangeRate-API.

No. MetaTrader 5 APIs require a licensed server and paid MetaQuotes agreement. If you only need rates (not trade execution), a currency API is far simpler and cheaper.

Under 10 lines with requests and Frankfurter: GET /latest?from=USD&to=EUR, pull rates[dst] from JSON, multiply by amount. Full tutorial: How to get live exchange rates in Python.

rate = target_amount / source_amount. Convert by multiplying: 250 USD × 0.85 = 212.50 EUR. Inverse is 1/rate. Real rates include a spread — the gap between buy and sell is the provider's margin.

=GOOGLEFINANCE("CURRENCY:USDEUR") in Google Sheets returns the live rate. Add a date for historical. Delayed ~20 minutes. For Excel, see How to get exchange rates in Excel.

For embedding in software: Frankfurter (free) or AllRatesToday (free plan, hourly updates). For head-to-head comparison see 10 best currency exchange APIs (2026). You can also try a live interactive demo at live-currency-converter, an open-source companion project that runs in the browser with no signup.

Wise (best mid-market rate + real transfers), XE Currency (offline mode for travel), Revolut (multi-currency account), Currency Converter Plus (simple free converter).

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. More: Mid-market vs retail exchange rates.

See our dedicated guide: 20 Currency & Exchange Rate API Questions Answered (2026). A condensed static version is also hosted at cahthuranag.github.io/live-currency-converter/faq.html alongside an open-source converter demo.