Frequently Asked & Answered

How accurate is Open Exchange Rates?

Open Exchange Rates is built for developers and engineers, and focuses on user experience, ease-of-implementation and unbiased consistency above all else.

There are no "pure" exchange rates (apart from a few pegged currencies) so every country, merchant and institution sets their own buy/sell prices. Open Exchange Rates blends buy/sell prices from reliable sources to provide a consistent and unbiased level of accuracy.

The rates shouldn't be used to perform precise forex trades; if you're trading currencies for profit, there are many providers of gold-standard data (but you'll be paying 20-100x as much!)

The exchange rates are accurate enough for 99% of cases (shopping carts, personal finance, estimates, etc.) but we can't make any warranty, nor be liable for any damages caused by any use of the rates. There's more about that in the Terms & Conditions.

How often are rates collected?

All the plans on our service update hourly, except for the Unlimited Plan, which updates every 10 minutes.

Hourly rates are refreshed at about 1-2 minutes past the hour, each hour.

What are the exchange rate sources?

Exchange rate data provided by Open Exchange Rates are collected from various sources with public-facing APIs.

Because there are no "true" rates (apart from several 'pegged' currencies), every individual, company and country sets its own bid/offer (buy/sell) prices. The Open Exchange Rates API algorithmically blends buy/sell prices from reliable sources, in order to provide a consistent accuracy that's as unbiased as possible.

Bitcoin (BTC) data are provided by the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index.

Our other sources are not currently disclosed, but rest assured that providers are monitored closely and routinely checked to ensure they meet a high standard of accuracy.

Which currencies are available from the API?

Please see the currencies.json API endpoint for a full list. It's in machine-readable (JSON) format, but it's human-readable too!

Do you provide bid/offer (buy/sell) spread values?

Open Exchange Rates does not currently provide bid/offer (buy/sell) spread values for currency pairs (e.g. USD/SEK: 6.59296/6.59685).

This service aims to be consistent and unbiased, providing the most representative market rate possible - generally the midpoint between the most common buy/sell prices. This is the most useful for things like shopping-cart estimates, basic accounting & invoicing, financial planning, smartphone apps, internal metrics & reporting, etc.

If you need more accurate buy/sell prices and in-depth forex stats, there are platforms and services which will provide them - but be prepared to pay 10–100x more!

Are Open Exchange Rates data SOX compliant?

Open Exchange Rates is not a United States company - for this reason, we can not be SOX-compliant.

Do you provide rates for precious metals?

We currently provide rates for Gold (XAU), Silver (XAG), Platinum (XPT) and Palladium (XPD), with more precious metals and expanded historical rates planned soon.

Do you provide rates for Bitcoin (BTC)?

Bitcoin (BTC) volume-weighted average rates are available for all users in the standard API response, as of December 2012. Historical BTC end-of-day values are available back to 2012. Bitcoin rates are listed as 'BTC', and are provided by the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index.

Where can I find my App ID?

Your App ID is displayed in your Account Dashboard, which you can access by logging in here.

Add it to your API requests like so: /api/latest.json?app_id=YOUR_APP_ID

What happens if I exceed my usage limit?

Requirements change over time, so the monthly request allowance is a "soft-limit", and you won't be blocked or charged extra for slightly exceeding your limit. If your usage goes really high, we'll send an email and discuss - you can then either lower your usage, or upgrade to a larger account option.

Can I query for a different base currency than USD?

To get all the exchange rates relative to a different base currency, you can specify it via the base parameter in your query. This feature is currently only available for all paid accounts.

Example: /api/latest.json?app_id=YOUR_APP_ID&base=EUR

Can I request a specific/limited set of currencies/rates?

You can request a specific set of currencies by specifying the symbols (alias: currencies) parameter in your request.

Example: /api/latest.json?app_id=YOUR_APP_ID&symbols=GBP,AED,HKD

Timezones - when does a new 'historical' day start?

All timestamp values provided by the API are UTC timestamps. Thus, if your server is in the UTC+2 timezone, the previous day's historical file would become available at 02:00 in your timezone, etc.

Are historical rates opening, EOD (end of day), or average values?

All rates provided in historical API calls (e.g. /api/historical/2009-02-16.json) are EOD (end of day) values.

Can I query for a range of days/months at once?

Requesting a time-range of rates is possible for Enterprise/Unlimited Plan clients. Check out our documentation on Time Series Queries for more information (please note: this feature is still in Beta!)

What is the API uptime, and are there any guarantees?

The Open Exchange Rates API has enjoyed at least 99.9% uptime since monitoring began. Rare service outages have always been resolved within 60 minutes of discovery, and there are multiple failovers and checks that ensure consistent service. Nonetheless, we recommend implementing your own failsafe backup methods.

We don't currently provide guarantees, though if you require an SLA, please get in contact and we'll be happy to help out.

For realtime monitoring and status reports, please see our Status Page.

What is the difference between the Free and Paid accounts?

Paid accounts have access to higher usage allowances and additional API features, and receive a more tailored level of support.

Which account should I choose?

Open Exchange Rates is 'forever free' for personal, small-scale and open source use. You don't need to provide attribution or credit, but we're hugely grateful if you link back to openexchangerates.org!

If you're developing a commercial or ad-supported app, business software, shopping cart, third-party plugin/extension, or you just feel like supporting the organisation, please sign up for a paid account.

Can I sign up without a PayPal account?

We currently use PayPal for recurring monthly billing, which requires you to have a PayPal account. This is a problem for some businesses - so if you really can't use PayPal, you can pay annually via Credit Card (non-recurring). Please email to enquire.

Does openexchangerates.org support OAuth/OpenID login?

GitHub, Google and Twitter login options are not currently available, but are being considered further down the road (for the website/account dashboard only). If this is a hard requirement for you, please contact us. Thanks!

There are currently no plans to support alternative authentication methods on the API, but if this is something you're interested in, please get in touch!

Any other question not answered here?

Have another question not answered here? Need clarification on any of the above?

Help us flesh out this FAQ by sending an email to support@openexchangerates.org with your question, and we'll be happy to help out.