Central Bank of Uruguay Exchange Rate API: Official UYU Rates as JSON

The Central Bank of Uruguay publishes the official exchange rates that accounting, tax, and customs practice in Uruguay 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 bcu-exchange-rate npm package.

The cotizaciones, machine-readable

The BCU publishes daily official quotations — buying and selling rates for about 30 currencies against the peso, each day’s table set at the previous evening’s close. It is the reference Uruguayan accounting, customs and courts cite. The API serves both sides of every quote; in recent years the published international quotes are mid rates (identical buy and sell), while the historical data carries real spreads.

Why official rates, not market rates

A live mid-market feed answers "what is USD/UYU 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 Central Bank of Uruguay’s published rates, and it never changes after publication.

Get the latest rates (REST)

curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/central-bank/bcu/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 bcu-exchange-rate

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

// One pair at the official rate
const pair = await getRate('USD', 'UYU', { 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 'bcu-exchange-rate';

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

const series = await getHistory(
  { source: 'USD', target: 'UYU', 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 Central Bank of Uruguay does not print a pair directly, the API resolves it from the bank's published rates — an inverse, or a cross via UYU — 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 reaches back to January 2000 — including the July 2002 banking-crisis float, when the peso moved from the teens past 25 to the dollar in weeks.

FAQ

Does the Central Bank of Uruguay 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 bcu-exchange-rate npm package. The latest table is free.

How do I get the official Uruguay 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.

Which USD quote does the API serve as the headline?

The billete (cash) quotation, which currently matches the interbank value the BCU publishes. Both sides of the published spread are stored for every currency and date.