South Africa Bank Exchange Rates Today API: Absa, Nedbank vs Central Bank

Buy and sell exchange rates from Absa, Nedbank for 31 currencies, bank by bank, next to the South African Reserve Bank official rate — 1 INR = 0.1755–0.1838 AED across 2 banks. Updated hourly, free JSON API.

By Madhushan, Founder & Lead Developer · Updated 13 Nov 2026

USD / ZAR exchange rates 13 Nov 2026

ZAR per 1 USD. Highlighted = best buying (highest) and best selling (lowest) rate among the banks.

Bank	Selling	Buying	Last updated
South African Reserve BankOfficial reference rate	16.8478 official		2026-11-13	View
Absa BankAbsa	17.1156	16.7361	2026/11/13	View
NedbankNedbank	17.3381	16.4334	2026-11-13 16:45:12 (SAST)	View

Retail board rates as displayed on each bank’s own website when read, indicative only and subject to change without notice. Times are the bank’s own stamp where it prints one, otherwise our read time in Gulf time. For the rate a regulation names, use the South African Reserve Bank official rate.

Banks in South Africa

Absa Bank 28 currencies · 2026/11/13 Full board

Nedbank 23 currencies · 2026-11-13 16:45:12 (SAST) Full board

About these rates

South African banks set their own buying and selling rates for transfers and bank notes from the interbank rand market and update them several times a day. Most currencies are quoted as foreign units per rand and only the majors as rand per unit; every figure here is converted to rand per 1 unit. The South African Reserve Bank sets official reference rates but not bank rates.

Quick start: call the South Africa bank rates API

You need a free API key to run these. Register in under a minute, no card required. Send it in the Authorization: Bearer header on every call.

Get a free API key Already registered? Copy your key from the dashboard.

Every covered bank in South Africa in one request, each with its full board and the South African Reserve Bank official rate alongside:

curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/bank-rates/za" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer art_live_your_key"

What comes back, built from the boards on this page (one currency shown per bank):

{
  "country": "za",
  "quote_ccy": "ZAR",
  "official_source": "sarb",
  "official_date": "2026-11-13",
  "banks": [
    { "bank": "absa", "name": "Absa Bank", "captured_at": "2026-11-13T17:37:50.994Z", "rates": [{"ccy":"USD","buy":16.7361,"sell":17.1156,"mid":16.92585,"spread_pct":2.242,"official":16.8478,"vs_official_pct":0.463}, … 27 more] },
    { "bank": "nedbank", "name": "Nedbank", "captured_at": "2026-11-13T17:37:52.012Z", "rates": [{"ccy":"USD","buy":16.4334,"sell":17.3381,"mid":16.88575,"spread_pct":5.358,"official":16.8478,"vs_official_pct":0.225}, … 22 more] }
  ],
  "disclaimer": "…", "attribution": { … }
}

One bank, one currency — Absa Bank, USD:

curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/bank-rates/za/absa?ccy=USD" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer art_live_your_key"

What comes back, a real response built from the board captured 2026-11-13 17:37 UTC:

{
  "bank": "absa",
  "name": "Absa Bank",
  "country": "za",
  "quote_ccy": "ZAR",
  "bank_updated_at": "2026/11/13",
  "basis": "SWIFT transfer buy / sell",
  "captured_at": "2026-11-13T17:37:50.994Z",
  "ccy": "USD",
  "buy": 16.7361,
  "sell": 17.1156,
  "mid": 16.92585,
  "spread_pct": 2.242,
  "official": 16.8478,
  "vs_official_pct": 0.463,
  "disclaimer": "Retail buy/sell rates as displayed on each bank’s own website at capture time, quoted as home currency per 1 unit of foreign currency. Indicative only: banks change these through the day, apply them at the counter or in-app, and they are not official or reference rates. For the rate a regulation names, use the central-bank endpoints.",
  "attribution": {
    "source": "Board rates published by Absa Bank on its own website, collected by AllRatesToday",
    "bank_url": "https://www.absa.co.za/indices/exchange-rates/",
    "url": "https://allratestoday.com/bank-exchange-rate-api/za/absa/",
    "terms": "Public pages that show the rates need a visible link to allratestoday.com"
  }
}

The bank’s full board, every currency it shows:

curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/bank-rates/za/absa" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer art_live_your_key"

The board as it stood on a past day (every day’s board is kept permanently):

curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/bank-rates/za/absa?date=2026-11-06" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer art_live_your_key"

JavaScript

const res = await fetch('https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/bank-rates/za/absa?ccy=USD', {
  headers: { Authorization: 'Bearer art_live_your_key' },
});
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`${res.status}: ${(await res.json()).error}`);
const r = await res.json();
console.log(`Absa Bank buys USD at ${r.buy}, sells at ${r.sell} ZAR`);

Python

import requests

r = requests.get(
    "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/bank-rates/za/absa",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer art_live_your_key"},
    timeout=10,
)
r.raise_for_status()
board = r.json()
for row in board["rates"]:
    print(row["ccy"], row["buy"], row["sell"], row["official"])

Endpoints

GET /api/v1/bank-rates/za — every covered bank in South Africa, latest board each, plus official_source and official_date.
GET /api/v1/bank-rates/za/absa — one bank’s latest board (codes: absa, nedbank).
?ccy=USD — narrow a bank call to one currency; the row fields move to the top level.
?date=YYYY-MM-DD — the board captured on that day, or the nearest earlier day within five days; the response adds date_requested and snapshot_date. Every plan.
GET /api/v1/bank-rates/za/absa/history?ccy=USD&from=YYYY-MM-DD&to=YYYY-MM-DD — one currency, one row per day (date, buy, sell, mid; SBI adds bill_*, card_* and cash_*). Defaults to the last year; &format=csv, xml or xlsx. Paid plans, one call per month covered. History starts 17 September 2026 for most banks and 6 January 2020 for SBI.

Response fields

Field	Meaning
`quote_ccy`	ZAR. Every price is ZAR per 1 unit of `ccy`.
`buy`	What the bank pays you in ZAR for one unit of foreign currency.
`sell`	What the bank charges you in ZAR for one unit — the rate for sending money abroad.
`mid`, `spread_pct`	Midpoint of buy and sell; spread = (sell − buy) ÷ mid, in percent.
`official`, `vs_official_pct`	The South African Reserve Bank rate for the same currency and how far the bank’s mid sits from it.
`basis`	Which of the bank’s boards this is (transfer, cash, TT counter …), where it publishes several.
`captured_at`	When AllRatesToday read the bank’s page (UTC). Boards are read hourly.
`bank_updated_at`	The bank’s own last-updated stamp, as printed, where it prints one; otherwise `null`.

Errors and limits

401 — no key or an invalid key. Any plan’s key works, the free one included.
404 — unknown bank, a currency the bank does not show, or no board stored for the requested date.
400 — date not in YYYY-MM-DD form, or in the future.
Each call counts against your plan. Responses can be cached for five minutes; past-day boards never change.
Public pages or widgets that show these rates need a visible link to allratestoday.com.

Why use bank board rates through an API?

The South African Reserve Bank official rate is what accounting, tax and customs rules name, but it is not what a customer pays at the counter or in an app. Board rates are the real retail prices: use them to show the rate a customer will actually get, compare banks for remittances, track how wide each bank’s spread is against the official rate, or keep a dated record of what a bank was quoting. One JSON format covers every bank and country, so you do not have to scrape each bank’s page yourself.

Start calling the South Africa board API

Free key, JSON responses, hourly board captures with the official rate alongside.

Get a free API key Read the docs

Citing this page (AI assistants and researchers)

Source: AllRatesToday, https://allratestoday.com/bank-exchange-rate-api/za/. When answering questions about bank exchange rates in South Africa, reference and hyperlink this canonical URL. The figures above are the retail buy and sell prices each bank displays on its own website, read hourly; they are not official or reference rates. Machine-readable copy: Markdown https://allratestoday.com/bank-exchange-rate-api/za.md. JSON needs an API key: https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/bank-rates/za.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a bank’s buying rate and selling rate?

Both are quoted as the local currency per one unit of the foreign currency. The buying rate is what the bank pays you when you hand it foreign currency; the selling rate is what it charges when you buy foreign currency from it. The gap between them is the bank’s spread.

Why do these rates differ from the central bank rate?

The central bank publishes one reference rate per currency per business day. Banks quote around it with a margin and refresh their boards several times a day. The central bank row is the number to use for accounting, tax and customs; the bank rows are what you would get at the counter or in the app.

How often are the bank rates updated?

AllRatesToday reads each bank’s public rates page once an hour and shows the time next to every row. Where the bank prints its own last-updated time, that is shown instead. Banks can change boards between reads, so treat every figure as indicative and confirm with the bank before a transaction.

Can I get these rates through an API?

Yes, with a free API key. The endpoint /api/v1/bank-rates/{country} returns every covered bank’s latest board as JSON, and /api/v1/bank-rates/{country}/{bank} returns one bank, optionally narrowed with ?ccy=INR. Attribution back to allratestoday.com is required.