exchangerate.devOpen Exchange Rates gives 1,000 free requests a month at hourly updates, with USD as the only base currency. Paid plans run from $12 to $97 a month, and each step adds one feature: all base currencies, then time-series, then the convert endpoint. Updates faster than 5 minutes are a VIP service quoted on request.
What the free plan includes
Every account, free or paid, reaches live and historical rates for over 200 currencies. The Free plan adds hourly updates, a base currency of USD and up to 1,000 requests a month. A request for any other base needs the Developer plan.
The pricing page prints no price for Free and does not state terms for commercial use. Read the terms before you ship a paid product on it.
Open Exchange Rates pricing
| Plan | Price a month | Requests a month | Updates | What the step adds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1,000 | Hourly | USD base only |
| Developer | $12 | 10,000 | Hourly | All base currencies |
| Enterprise | $47 | 100,000 | 30 minutes | Time-series requests |
| Unlimited | $97 | Unlimited | 5 minutes | Currency conversion requests |
| VIP | On request | Unlimited | Up to every 1 second | Bid-ask and midpoint prices, open-high-low-close-average prices, intraday history, phone support, uptime SLA |
Annual payment gives two months free. The plan names do not carry their usual meaning: the one called Enterprise costs $47.
What Open Exchange Rates does well
- A flat price for volume. The $97 Unlimited plan has no request cap, which suits a busy site where request count would otherwise drive the bill.
- Free rates for 200+ currencies. The free plan is hourly, not daily.
- Docs built for agents. The documentation publishes an llms.txt index and a Markdown version of every page.
- A top tier that exists. VIP covers 1-second updates, an uptime SLA and phone support for teams that need them, though it has no public price.
- Staying power. The footer dates the company from 2011.
Where Open Exchange Rates falls short
- Free means USD only. A shop priced in euros has to convert through USD itself or pay $12.
- Features are priced as steps. Time-series needs the $47 plan and conversion needs the $97 plan, so a chart or a one-call conversion pulls you up the ladder.
- No per-rate source label. The sample response in the docs carries
disclaimer,license,timestamp,baseandrates. It does not say which source produced a rate or whether the market was open. - Five minutes is the fastest self-serve rate. Anything quicker is a VIP quote.
- No MCP server in the docs we read. The introduction page does not mention one.
How fresh are the rates?
The free and Developer plans update hourly, Enterprise every 30 minutes and Unlimited every 5 minutes. The response includes a UNIX timestamp, so you can check a rate's age in code. An hourly rate suits a catalogue estimate. A billing run or a payout needs the 5-minute plan at least.
Who should pick Open Exchange Rates
Open Exchange Rates fits a high-traffic site that wants a flat monthly bill and can accept 5-minute rates. It also fits a USD-based app that stays under 1,000 requests. If your cost driver is request volume, the $97 plan is hard to beat: Pro on exchangerate.dev caps at 1,000,000 requests a month for $89.
Open Exchange Rates 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 | 1,000 | 5,000 |
| Base currency on the free plan | USD only | Any supported base |
| Free rate speed | Hourly | About every 60 seconds on trading days, 15 minutes late |
| Cheapest paid plan | $12, 10,000 requests, hourly | $19, 100,000 requests, about every 60 seconds on trading days |
| Unlimited requests | $97 a month | No unlimited plan; Pro is 1,000,000 a month for $89 |
| Currencies | Over 200 | 144 |
| MCP server | None mentioned on the pages checked | On every plan |
| Source label on each rate | None in the sample response | source and market_session on every response |
The full comparison is on exchangerate.dev vs Open Exchange Rates, and Open Exchange Rates alternatives lists the other options.
Sources
Checked 2 Nov 2026. Prices and limits change, so confirm them on the rival's page before you buy.