Best MCP Servers for Exchange Rates & Currency Data in Cursor and Claude Code (2026)

Ten MCP servers that give Cursor, Claude Code, Claude Desktop and ChatGPT live exchange rates, official central-bank tables, forex and market data — compared on coverage, API key, transport and install, with copy-paste config for each client.

A coding agent that has to convert a price, reconcile an invoice or fill a spreadsheet will invent an exchange rate from its training data unless it has a tool that fetches a real one. The Model Context Protocol is how you give it that tool. This roundup covers the ten MCP servers worth knowing for currency and exchange-rate work in Cursor, Claude Code, Claude Desktop, ChatGPT and VS Code: what data each serves, whether it needs a key, how it connects, and the config block to paste.

Disclosure: AllRatesToday publishes this guide and runs the first server listed. Facts for the others come from each project's README or its awesome-mcp-servers listing, last checked 2026-09-15.

Quick comparison

1. AllRatesToday

Best for: teams that need both kinds of rate in one place. Nine tools cover live mid-market rates for 160+ currencies, time series, multi-target lookups, and the official published tables of 121 central banks and the HMRC, US Treasury and Swiss customs authorities, each with the publisher's own date and a published-or-derived flag. It is the only server on this list that runs hosted and local from the same tool set, and the only one that answers useful questions before you create an account.

// Cursor / Windsurf / Claude Desktop  (~/.cursor/mcp.json)
{ "mcpServers": { "allratestoday": { "url": "https://allratestoday.com/api/mcp" } } }

# Claude Code
claude mcp add --transport http allratestoday https://allratestoday.com/api/mcp

# Claude.ai / ChatGPT: Settings → Connectors → add https://allratestoday.com/api/mcp

# Claude Code (local, npm)
claude mcp add allratestoday -- npx -y @allratestoday/mcp-server
claude mcp add central-bank-rates -- npx -y @allratestoday/central-bank-mcp

# Claude Code plugin (both servers + skills + slash commands)
/plugin marketplace add AllRates-Today/claude-code-plugin
/plugin install allratestoday@allratestoday

2. Polygon.io MCP

Best for: teams already paying for Polygon market data who want forex next to equities and options.

{ "mcpServers": { "polygon": {
  "command": "uvx", "args": ["--from", "git+https://github.com/polygon-io/mcp_polygon@master", "mcp_polygon"],
  "env": { "POLYGON_API_KEY": "your_key" } } } }

3. SiftingIO MCP

Best for: one server across asset classes when the agent also needs fundamentals and filings.

{ "mcpServers": { "siftingio": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "siftingio-mcp"], "env": { "SIFTINGIO_API_KEY": "your_key" } } } }

4. market-pulse-mcp

Best for: prototypes that want a forex or crypto quote with zero setup.

{ "mcpServers": { "market-pulse": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "market-pulse-mcp"] } } }

5. Alpha Vantage MCP

Best for: hobby projects on the well-known Alpha Vantage free key.

6. @czagents/cnb

Best for: anyone who needs the Czech National Bank's official CZK rate, hosted or local.

{ "mcpServers": { "cnb": { "url": "https://cnb.cz-agents.dev/mcp" } } }
# or local:  npx @czagents/cnb

7. mcp-cbr-rates

Best for: Russian-market work that needs the Bank of Russia's official rate plus the key rate and inflation.

8. bcb-br-mcp

Best for: Brazilian accounting and analysis: PTAX exchange rates alongside Selic, IPCA and GDP.

9. dolar-mcp

Best for: Argentina, where the official rate is only part of the story.

10. statcite

Best for: research and reporting that must cite the World Bank, IMF, BIS or ECB.

How to pick

• Building an app or an agent that converts money: AllRatesToday hosted. Add a free key when you need real-time rates or history.
• Invoices, VAT, customs, audit: a server that returns the named institution's published rate with its date: AllRatesToday for 116 institutions, or the single-bank servers for the Czech Republic, Russia and Brazil.
• Trading or research across asset classes: Polygon.io or SiftingIO, on their paid keys.
• A quick number in a prototype: market-pulse-mcp, or the keyless AllRatesToday endpoint.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best MCP server for exchange rates in Cursor or Claude Code?

For general currency work, the AllRatesToday hosted server: paste https://allratestoday.com/api/mcp into any client and you get live mid-market rates for 160+ currencies and the official tables of 121 central banks, with no key needed to start. If you already pay Polygon.io, its official MCP server adds tick-level forex next to equities. For a single country's official rate, the dedicated servers for the Czech, Russian, Brazilian and Argentine banks are lighter.

Do these MCP servers need an API key?

Six of the ten work with no key at all for their core lookups: AllRatesToday (official rates and ECB-based conversions keyless; real-time and history on a free key), market-pulse-mcp, @czagents/cnb, mcp-cbr-rates, bcb-br-mcp and dolar-mcp. Polygon.io, SiftingIO and Alpha Vantage need an account key; statcite depends on the upstream statistics APIs.

Hosted (remote) or local MCP server: which should I use?

Hosted servers over Streamable HTTP work in Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code and Claude Code with one URL and nothing to install; they are the right default. Local stdio servers run via npx or pip and suit air-gapped or heavily customised setups. AllRatesToday and @czagents/cnb offer both; most of the others are local only.

Can an MCP server give me the rate a tax return or invoice requires?

Only if it serves the official rate a named institution published, with that institution's own date. AllRatesToday, @czagents/cnb, mcp-cbr-rates and bcb-br-mcp do. Market-data servers such as Polygon.io or market-pulse return trading rates, which are the wrong figure for VAT, customs or audit work.

How do I add an MCP server to Cursor?

Open ~/.cursor/mcp.json (or .cursor/mcp.json in the project) and add an entry under mcpServers with either a "url" for a hosted server or a "command" and "args" for a local one, then restart Cursor. Each entry below shows the exact block.

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