exchangerate.devExchangeRate-API is an exchange rate API with a free plan of 1,500 requests a month and rates that update once a day. Pro costs $10 a month for 30,000 requests at hourly updates, and Business costs $30 for 125,000 requests every 5 minutes. A separate open endpoint needs no key but requires a credit link. It suits a store or dashboard that wants a plain daily rate.
Not the same company as exchangerate.dev
ExchangeRate-API (exchangerate-api.com) is a product of AYR Tech (Pty) Ltd and has run since 2010. exchangerate.dev is a separate service. The names are close enough that searches mix them up.
The free plan and the open endpoint
There are two free routes. The Free plan needs an API key and gives 1,500 requests a month with daily updates and no attribution. The docs say it includes the standard and pair-conversion endpoints and lets you switch the base currency. The pricing page also lists historical and enriched data on Free, while the docs overview places both among endpoints for Pro, Business and Volume plans.
The open access endpoint, open.er-api.com/v6/latest/USD, needs no key. Its terms require an attribution link on pages that use the rates, permit caching and commercial use, and forbid redistribution. It is rate limited: a client that sends too many requests gets HTTP 429 for 20 minutes. Rates refresh once every 24 hours, so one request a day is enough.
ExchangeRate-API pricing
| Plan | Price a month | Requests a month | Updates | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open access | $0 | Rate limited | Daily | No key; attribution required |
| Free | $0 | 1,500 | Once a day | Key required; pages disagree on historical and enriched data |
| Pro | $10 ($100 a year) | 30,000 | Every 60 minutes | Two-week free trial; over 30 years of history |
| Business | $30 ($300 a year) | 125,000 | Every 5 minutes | No-card free trial; priority email support |
| Volume | $700 a year | Not listed | Not listed | Price appears only in the FAQ |
Quota enforcement is soft: the dashboard warns at 75% and 100%, and the FAQ says there is a little room past the limit. Paying yearly gives two months free.
What ExchangeRate-API does well
- It is easy to start. The quick start is three steps and a plain GET request, with no client library.
- The free plan can change base currency and convert a pair, which many free tiers lock.
- Honest about what the rates are. The FAQ calls them indicative midpoint rates, says they carry no buy or sell spread, and says they are unsuitable for forex trading or cross-currency settlement.
- A stated sourcing rule. It blends central bank and commercial sources and supports a currency only when it has at least three sources for it.
- Long-term support for paying customers. It promises not to deprecate endpoints that paid accounts use, and it reports uptime above 99.99% for 2024, measured by Pingdom. That is its own claim.
Where ExchangeRate-API falls short
- Daily rates on both free routes. A rate can be a day old by the time you read it.
- Small free quota. 1,500 requests a month is a few dozen a day.
- Two pages disagree on history and enriched data. The pricing page lists both on Free. The docs overview places the historical and enriched endpoints among the advanced endpoints for Pro, Business and Volume. Ask support before you build on either on Free.
- Two currency counts. The home page headline says 165 currencies and a later section says 161.
- No MCP server in the docs we read. The documentation overview does not mention one.
How fresh are the rates?
Daily on Free and the open endpoint, hourly on Pro and every 5 minutes on Business. Each response carries a date stamp and the Unix time of the last update, so code can see how old a rate is. For a price tag on a product page that is enough. For an invoice dated today it is thin.
Who should pick ExchangeRate-API
Pick it for a small store, a spreadsheet or an internal dashboard where a daily midpoint is fine and a $10 hourly plan is the upgrade path. Look elsewhere if you need rates from the last few minutes on a free key, a labelled source on each rate or an MCP server.
ExchangeRate-API next to exchangerate.dev
We publish this review and sell a competing API. The table lists what each side publishes, including the rows where the other API is ahead.
| Rival | exchangerate.dev | |
|---|---|---|
| Free requests a month | 1,500 | 5,000 |
| Free rate speed | Once a day | About every 60 seconds on trading days, 15 minutes late |
| Cheapest paid plan | $10, 30,000 requests, hourly | $19, 100,000 requests, about every 60 seconds on trading days |
| 5-minute updates from | $30 (Business) | Rates about every 60 seconds on trading days from $19 |
| Key-free option | Open endpoint, daily, attribution required | Keyless calls, 100 an hour per IP, 15 minutes late |
| Currencies | 165 or 161, the site says both | 144 |
| Historical data | Over 30 years on Pro | 30 days of daily history on Free, full daily history from 1999 on Plus and Pro |
| MCP server | None mentioned in the docs checked | On every plan |
The full comparison is on exchangerate.dev vs ExchangeRate-API. ExchangeRate-API alternatives lists other options, and moving off ExchangeRate-API maps its calls to ours.
Sources
Checked 2 Nov 2026. Prices and limits change, so confirm them on the rival's page before you buy.