Currency converter

• Rates are the euro reference rates the European Central Bank publishes, read through the Frankfurter API.
• A rate between two currencies that are neither of them the euro is worked out by dividing one euro rate by the other, which is how the API derives it too.
• Every rate here is mid market. It carries no margin, no card network charge, and no transfer fee.
• Reference rates are set once each working day at about 16:00 Central European Time. Weekends and days the euro payment system is closed have no rate of their own.
• The page opens with the rate stored when the site was built, then replaces it with a live rate once the request returns. If that request fails, the stored rate stays on screen and the page names the date it belongs to.

The number this page gives you is a mid market rate: the midpoint between the price buyers are bidding and the price sellers are asking, at one moment on one day. It is the rate quoted in news reports and the one a currency chart plots. It is not a rate anyone will sell you currency at.

The European Central Bank sets its reference rates once each working day, at about 16:00 Central European Time, and publishes one figure per currency against the euro. A conversion between two currencies that are neither of them the euro is worked out by dividing one euro figure by the other. So the page can quote any of the eight currencies against any of the other seven while holding only eight numbers.

Because the rate is set once a day, it does not move while you watch it. A figure dated Friday is the newest one that exists until the following Monday, and days when the euro payment system is closed have no figure at all. If you are converting to settle an invoice or record a transaction, the date matters as much as the rate, which is why it is printed next to the result.

What a bank or transfer service charges you sits on top of this. Most of the cost arrives as a worse rate rather than as a listed fee, which makes it hard to compare two providers by their fee schedules alone. The exchange fee calculator takes an amount, a markup, and any charges, and reports what the combination costs against the rate on this page.

Your inputs are held in the address bar, so a converted amount can be bookmarked or sent to someone and it will open showing the same currencies and the same amount.