Banco Central de Costa Rica Exchange Rate API: Official CRC Rates as JSON

The Banco Central de Costa Rica publishes the official exchange rates that accounting, tax, and customs practice in Costa Rica reference — published official rates, not moving market prices. This guide shows how to pull them as JSON: via a REST endpoint or the zero-dependency bccr-exchange-rate npm package.

The reference rate, via an official channel

The BCCR announces the reference tipo de cambio — official buying and selling colón rates for the dollar — each business day, and Costa Rican accounting and tax practice convert at it. This feed ingests those numbers from the Finance Ministry’s open API, which republishes BCCR’s reference rates; the provenance is disclosed openly because BCCR’s own web service requires registered credentials and has had extended outages.

Why official rates, not market rates

A live mid-market feed answers "what is USD/CRC trading at right now?" — the right tool for checkouts and dashboards. But accountants, auditors, and tax authorities ask a different question: "which rate were you required to use for this date?" That answer comes from the Banco Central de Costa Rica’s published rates, and it never changes after publication.

Get the latest rates (REST)

curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/central-bank/bccr/latest" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

The response is the bank's most recent published table — every rate and the publication date. The latest rates are available on every plan, including the free tier (300 requests/month, no credit card).

The npm SDK

npm install bccr-exchange-rate

import { getRate, getLatestRates } from 'bccr-exchange-rate';

// One pair at the official rate
const pair = await getRate('USD', 'CRC', { apiKey: 'art_live_...' });
console.log(pair.rate, pair.rate_date);

// The bank's full published table
const table = await getLatestRates({ apiKey: 'art_live_...' });
console.log(table.rate_date, table.rates.length);

Zero dependencies, TypeScript types included, and it runs anywhere fetch exists — Node 18+, Bun, Deno, and edge runtimes.

Historical rates for an invoice date

import { getRatesForDate, getHistory } from 'bccr-exchange-rate';

const day = await getRatesForDate('2026-08-18', { apiKey: 'art_live_...' });

const series = await getHistory(
  { source: 'USD', target: 'CRC', from: '2026-01-01' },
  { apiKey: 'art_live_...' }
);

Historical dates and time series need a paid plan; the latest rates stay free.

Published vs derived pairs

If the Banco Central de Costa Rica does not print a pair directly, the API resolves it from the bank's published rates — an inverse, or a cross via CRC — and flags it derived: true with the method used. Official and computed values are never silently mixed, which is exactly the distinction an auditor will ask about.

The archive

The archive builds forward from August 2026; BCCR’s own reference series reaches back to 1983 and will be backfilled when the bank’s registered web service is reachable.

FAQ

Does the Banco Central de Costa Rica have an official exchange rate API?

The bank publishes its official rates on its own site, and AllRatesToday serves the same published rates as clean JSON via REST or the bccr-exchange-rate npm package. The latest table is free.

How do I get the official Costa Rica exchange rate for a past date?

The rates-for-date endpoint returns the official table for any archived date; non-publication days resolve to the most recent published date and are flagged, so audit trails stay honest. Historical dates require a paid plan; latest rates are free.

Is this BCCR data or Finance Ministry data?

The numbers are BCCR's reference rates; the transport is the Finance Ministry's open API, which republishes them. The response metadata says so explicitly — no silent substitution.