Our Exchange Rate Data

Data Sources

Accuracy is non-negotiable when money is involved. Our exchange rates are sourced from the most trusted names in financial data, giving you the same quality of information used by banks, hedge funds, and central banks worldwide.

Reuters / Refinitiv interbank feeds — Our primary data source. Refinitiv (formerly Thomson Reuters Financial & Risk) aggregates real-time quotes from the global interbank foreign exchange market, where the world's largest institutions trade currencies 24 hours a day.
Central bank reference rates — We cross-reference our data with official rates published by central banks including the European Central Bank (ECB), Federal Reserve, Bank of England, and Bank of Japan, particularly for currencies where interbank liquidity is thinner.
Interbank market makers — Additional rate feeds from top-tier market-making banks ensure coverage across all 160+ supported currencies, including exotic and frontier-market pairs.

We deliver mid-market rates — the true midpoint between the buy (bid) and sell (ask) prices. No markup, no spread, no hidden fees. You receive the real interbank rate.

Data Pipeline

Raw data is only as good as the pipeline that processes it. Every rate you receive from our API has been through a multi-stage validation and blending process designed to eliminate errors and ensure consistency.

1

Collection

Rates are ingested in real time from multiple independent sources. We maintain persistent connections to Reuters/Refinitiv feeds as well as secondary providers to ensure continuous coverage even if one source experiences downtime.

2

Validation

Every incoming rate is checked against historical norms, cross-source comparisons, and statistical models. Rates that deviate beyond expected thresholds are flagged and quarantined until verified. This catches data errors, stale quotes, and feed anomalies before they reach your application.

3

Blending

When multiple sources provide rates for the same pair, we apply a weighted blending algorithm that prioritizes the most liquid and recently updated quotes. This produces a single, high-confidence mid-market rate for each currency pair.

4

Distribution

Validated rates are pushed to our Cloudflare Workers edge network, where they are cached at 300+ global points of presence. This ensures sub-50ms delivery anywhere in the world.

Update Frequencies

60s

Update Interval

160+

Currencies

24/5

Market Coverage

All Plans

Same Frequency

Unlike many competitors who reserve faster update intervals for higher-priced tiers, every Exchange Rate API plan — including the free tier — receives rates updated every 60 seconds. We believe update frequency should not be a pricing lever.

During active forex trading hours (Sunday 5:00 PM ET through Friday 5:00 PM ET), rates are refreshed continuously. Weekend rates reflect the last available interbank quotes from Friday's close and are updated as soon as markets reopen.

Data Quality

Data quality is the foundation of everything we do. Our validation pipeline catches issues that other providers let slip through.

Cross-source verification — Every rate is compared across multiple independent feeds. If sources disagree beyond a calculated threshold, the outlier is discarded and the consensus rate is used.
Historical deviation checks — Rates are compared against rolling averages and recent history. A sudden jump that does not appear across multiple sources triggers automatic review.
Triangulation validation — Currency pairs are checked for consistency. For example, if USD/EUR and EUR/GBP are known, the implied USD/GBP must fall within acceptable bounds of the quoted USD/GBP rate.
Stale rate detection — If a rate has not been updated within expected intervals, it is flagged. For less liquid currencies, we clearly indicate the last update timestamp in our API response.
Anomaly alerting — Automated alerts notify our engineering team of any data quality events within seconds, enabling rapid investigation and resolution.

Important Disclaimer

Mid-Market Indicative Rates

The exchange rates provided by Exchange Rate API are mid-market indicative rates. They represent the midpoint between bid and ask prices on the interbank market and are intended for informational, analytical, and computational purposes. These rates are not executable trading prices and should not be used as the sole basis for financial transactions, investment decisions, or regulatory compliance.

Actual transaction rates at banks and currency exchange services will differ from mid-market rates due to spreads, fees, and other costs. Always consult your financial institution for the actual rate applicable to your transaction.