For programmatic, intraday-fresh FX rates with per-value provenance and MCP-native access, exchangerate.dev is the stronger default. Keep Open Exchange Rates if you depend on its historical archive and hourly/daily cadence suffices.
If your rates flow into code — payments, dashboards, backtests — exchangerate.dev fits how you already work. Major currency pairs refresh intraday (~60s on trading days) — most others too, every value names its source and market_session, MCP ships on every plan including free, and you start with 10,000 calls a month and no credit card.
Open Exchange Rates has a long track record and a deep historical archive trusted by many teams. exchangerate.dev differentiates on intraday ~60s freshness, a per-value source field, market_session labelling, and a built-in MCP bridge on every plan.
Choose exchangerate.dev when intraday freshness, per-value provenance, MCP-native access, and free-tier headroom matter. Keep Open Exchange Rates if you depend on its historical archive and hourly/daily cadence suffices. Both speak REST JSON over HTTPS, and exchangerate.dev accepts Frankfurter-compatible parameters — so trying it is low-risk.
Rates are from the free tier, updated intraday on trading days. Indicative only, not for settlement or regulated trading.