Currency
Live exchange rates for 30+ currencies
Pick a source currency, a target currency, and an amount, and this converts using the European Central Bank's daily reference rates. Rates update once per business day — they are not a live trading feed, and the ECB itself says its rates are "for information purposes only" and are not built for executing transactions.
This is the one tool on this site that calls an external service rather than computing everything in the browser. The source is Frankfurter, a free API built directly on the ECB's published reference rates, with no API key and no tracking. Rates are cached in your browser for the day so repeat conversions don't refetch.
What a "reference rate" actually is
The European Central Bank publishes one set of euro foreign-exchange reference rates each business day around 16:00 CET, based on a daily concertation procedure among central banks. It is a snapshot, not a continuously updating price. Banks, card networks, and money-transfer services all quote their own rates around this reference, and every one of them adds a margin — the difference between the reference rate and what you're actually charged is where currency conversion fees live.
That gap is usually invisible until you compare. A card that advertises "no foreign transaction fee" can still price the conversion 1–3% off the reference rate; the fee is baked into the rate rather than itemized as a separate line.
How the conversion is calculated
All ECB rates are expressed against the euro. Converting from currency A to currency B that are both non-euro goes through EUR as an intermediate step even though the tool shows one number: amount ÷ (A per EUR) × (B per EUR). Converting to or from EUR directly skips that step. This is exactly how the ECB itself defines cross rates, and it's why a rarely-traded currency pair can look like it has a slightly odd rate compared to what you'd get multiplying two rates naively — rounding at each stage compounds slightly differently than a single computed cross rate would.
Worked example
Converting $500 USD to EUR when the reference rate is 1 EUR = 1.08 USD: €500 ÷ 1.08 = €462.96. Converting that same €462.96 back to USD at the same rate returns to $500 — but only because no time has passed and no fee was applied. In practice your bank's buy rate and sell rate differ, so converting there and back always loses a little money; that gap is the bank's spread, and it's separate from anything this tool shows.
Rate lag, weekends, and outages
ECB reference rates publish once per business day and are not updated on EU holidays or weekends — on those days the tool shows the most recent published rate, which can be a day or two stale for a fast-moving pair. If the exchange-rate service is unreachable, the tool falls back to the last rates it successfully cached in your browser and says so; it does not silently show a wrong number as current.
Rates are also not adjusted for the bid/ask spread real institutions apply, so any number here should be treated as a reference point rather than a quote.
What this is useful for, and what it isn't
Good for: estimating what a foreign price tag, invoice, or salary is worth in your own currency; sanity-checking a rate a bank or app quoted you; converting between three or four currencies for a trip or a budget.
Not a substitute for: the actual rate you'll get when you exchange cash, use a card abroad, or send an international wire. Those all apply their own margin on top of a rate like this one. For any transaction that matters, check the rate your specific bank, card, or transfer service will actually use before relying on this number.
Frequently asked questions
Is this a live, real-time exchange rate?
No. It uses the European Central Bank's daily reference rate, published once per business day. Interbank and market rates move continuously through the day; this snapshot will be close but not identical to that moment's live rate.
Why does my bank give me a worse rate than this tool shows?
Banks, card networks, and money transfer services all add a margin on top of the reference rate — sometimes disclosed as a fee, often just built into a worse exchange rate. The reference rate is the benchmark those services are marking up from.
Where do the rates come from?
The Frankfurter API, which republishes the European Central Bank's published daily reference rates with no API key required. No conversion amounts or personal data are sent anywhere — only the currency codes needed to fetch that day's rates.
Why is the rate the same on a Saturday as it was on Friday?
The ECB does not publish rates on weekends or EU holidays, so the most recent business day's rate carries over until the next one is published.
Sources and further reading
Figures and definitions on this page are drawn from the following primary sources. If you find something out of date, tell us and we will correct it.