Absa Bank Exchange Rate API: ZAR Buy and Sell Rates as JSON

Absa Bank is one of South Africa’s four largest retail banks and part of Johannesburg-listed Absa Group. Its exchange-rates page lists, for about 30 currencies, rates for receiving and sending SWIFT transfers, buying cheques and buying or selling bank notes; the SWIFT pair is shown here. This guide shows how to read that board as JSON: what the rates mean, how they compare with the South African Reserve Bank official rate and with other banks in South Africa, and the calls that return them.

What the Absa board shows

• 28 currencies against the South African rand: AED, AUD, BWP, CAD, CHF, CNY, DKK, EUR, GBP, GHS, HKD, ILS, INR, JPY, KES, MUR, NAD, NOK, NZD, PLN, QAR, SAR, SEK, SGD, SZL, UGX, USD and ZMW. Every value is ZAR per 1 unit of the foreign currency.
• The SWIFT transfer buy / sell pair. 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.
• USD on 15 November 2026: Absa bought at 16.7167 and sold at 17.1406 ZAR, a spread of 2.50%. The South African Reserve Bank official rate was 16.8478, so the bank's mid sat +0.48% from it.
• The bank's own timestamp. The page prints a last-updated stamp (2026/11/13 on the board above), returned as bank_updated_at next to our captured_at.
• Every day's board is kept permanently, from 13 November 2026. Read one past day with ?date=, or a range for one currency with the /history endpoint (paid plans).

Spreads across the board

On the 15 November 2026 board the tightest spreads were NAD (0.00%), SZL (0.00%), USD (2.50%) and the widest SGD (17.43%), DKK (16.30%), CHF (14.48%). Spread is (sell − buy) ÷ mid: what a round trip through the bank costs, before any fees. The API returns it on every row as spread_pct, so you can rank currencies or alert when a bank widens its board.

USD at Absa and other banks in South Africa

USD on the 3 boards AllRatesToday reads in South Africa, all captured on 15 November 2026 (the South African Reserve Bank official rate was 16.8478):

Absa had the 2nd narrowest USD spread of the 3. One call to /api/v1/bank-rates/za returns every board in the table at once.

Get the board (REST)

You need an API key; the free key works. The full board:

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

What comes back (the 15 November 2026 board, first three rows):

{
  "bank": "absa",
  "name": "Absa Bank",
  "country": "za",
  "quote_ccy": "ZAR",
  "bank_updated_at": "2026/11/13",
  "basis": "SWIFT transfer buy / sell",
  "captured_at": "2026-11-15T11:22:23.021Z",
  "rates": [
    {"ccy":"AED","buy":4.4002464,"sell":4.840974,"mid":4.6206102,"spread_pct":9.538,"official":null,"vs_official_pct":null},
    {"ccy":"AUD","buy":10.951481,"sell":12.04285,"mid":11.497165,"spread_pct":9.493,"official":11.441647597254004,"vs_official_pct":0.485},
    {"ccy":"BWP","buy":1.1066015,"sell":1.2254761,"mid":1.1660388,"spread_pct":10.195,"official":1.2113870381586918,"vs_official_pct":-3.743},
    … 25 more currencies
  ],
  "disclaimer": "…",
  "attribution": { … }
}

One currency, with the row fields at the top level:

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

{
  "bank": "absa",
  "name": "Absa Bank",
  "country": "za",
  "quote_ccy": "ZAR",
  "bank_updated_at": "2026/11/13",
  "basis": "SWIFT transfer buy / sell",
  "captured_at": "2026-11-15T11:22:23.021Z",
  "ccy": "USD",
  "buy": 16.71672,
  "sell": 17.14058,
  "mid": 16.92865,
  "spread_pct": 2.504,
  "official": 16.8478,
  "vs_official_pct": 0.48,
  "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 board as it stood on a past day:

curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/bank-rates/za/absa?date=2026-11-13" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer art_live_your_key"

One currency over a date range, one row per day (paid plans; add &format=csv, xml or xlsx for a file):

curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/bank-rates/za/absa/history?ccy=USD&from=2026-11-13&to=2026-11-15" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer art_live_your_key"

JavaScript

npm install @allratestoday/sdk

import { AllRatesToday } from '@allratestoday/sdk';

const client = new AllRatesToday({ apiKey: 'art_live_your_key' });

// Absa Bank's USD row
const r = await client.bankRates('za', { bank: 'absa', ccy: 'USD' });
console.log(`Absa buys USD at ${r.buy}, sells at ${r.sell} ZAR`);

// The board as it stood on a past day
const past = await client.bankRates('za', { bank: 'absa', date: '2026-11-13' });
console.log(past.snapshot_date, past.rates.length);

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()
for row in r.json()["rates"]:
    print(row["ccy"], row["buy"], row["sell"], row["spread_pct"])

Board rate or official rate?

The South African Reserve Bank rate is the one tax, accounting and customs rules in South Africa name; nobody transacts at it. Absa's board is the price a customer actually gets. The API puts both on every row: official is the central bank's rate for the same currency and vs_official_pct is how far the bank's mid sits from it. Use the board to show customers a real price, compare banks for a remittance, or keep a dated record of what the bank quoted; use the South African Reserve Bank endpoint when a rule asks for the official rate.

FAQ

Where do the Absa Bank rates come from?

From the bank's own public rates page (https://www.absa.co.za/indices/exchange-rates/), read hourly. AllRatesToday does not change the numbers: each row is the buy and sell price Absa shows, with the mid, the spread and the South African Reserve Bank rate added.

Are these the official ZAR exchange rates?

No. They are Absa's retail prices for customers. The official rate in South Africa is the South African Reserve Bank rate, which the API returns as official on each row where the central bank has one, and in full from the central-bank endpoint.

How often is the Absa board updated?

AllRatesToday reads the page every hour. The bank's own last-updated stamp is returned as bank_updated_at, so you can tell a fresh read of an unchanged board from a new board.

Can I get Absa rates for a past date?

Yes, from 13 November 2026 onward; every day's board is kept permanently. Add ?date=YYYY-MM-DD for one day: the response is the board captured that day, or the nearest earlier day within five days, with date_requested and snapshot_date added. For a range, /history?ccy=USD&from=…&to=… returns one row per day as JSON, CSV, XML or XLSX on paid plans.

Do I need an API key?

Yes. Commercial bank boards need an API key; any plan works, the free key included, and each call counts against the plan. Public pages or widgets that show the rates need a visible link to allratestoday.com.