Best Exchange Rate API for Saudi Arabia in 2026: 8 Compared for SAR Rates, SAMA Data, VAT and E-Invoicing

The riyal is pegged to the US dollar at 3.75, so a Saudi business that only deals in dollars rarely thinks about exchange rates. The first invoice in euros, pounds or rupees changes that. Saudi VAT rules name the rate, ZATCA's e-invoicing standard requires the VAT total in riyals on every foreign-currency invoice, and the Saudi Central Bank table that both depend on has no public API of its own.

This comparison looks at eight exchange rate APIs from the point of view of a team in Saudi Arabia. Free-tier limits and prices were read from each provider's own pricing page on 10 November 2026; they change often, so confirm before you commit.

What a team in Saudi Arabia needs from an exchange rate API

• Live SAR pairs for pricing, remittance and trade.
• The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) daily table, the rate the VAT Implementing Regulations point to.
• The rate by date, because the VAT rule is the rate on the date the tax becomes due.
• A feed your ERP or e-invoicing solution can load, since every non-riyal invoice must carry its VAT total in SAR.
• Weekend coverage: the Saudi working week runs Sunday to Thursday.

Quick comparison

The Saudi rates and what they are for

• Saudi Central Bank exchange rates. A daily table of riyals per unit for more than 70 currencies, with a date picker for past days on the SAMA website. The site offers no documented public API. SAMA describes 3.75 riyals to the dollar as the official rate.
• VAT Implementing Regulations, currency conversion. Where an amount is expressed in a currency other than the riyal, it must be converted to riyals using the daily rate prescribed by the Saudi Central Bank on the date the relevant tax becomes due.
• Tax invoices. Article 53 of the Implementing Regulations requires a tax invoice to show the amount of tax payable in SAR. The GCC Unified VAT Agreement says the same in general terms: an invoice can be issued in any currency provided the tax is written in the local currency at the official exchange rate on the tax due date.
• ZATCA e-invoicing. The XML implementation standard requires a tax currency code on every invoice (rule BR-KSA-68), requires it to be SAR (BR-KSA-EN16931-02), and requires the invoice total VAT amount in that accounting currency (BR-53). The standard defines no exchange rate field, so the riyal figure is computed by your system and has to be reproducible from a stored rate. The twenty-fifth integration wave covers taxpayers with VAT-able revenue above SAR 187,500, with a deadline of 1 February 2027.

The point for choosing an API: a market mid-rate and an official table are different products. A market rate is right for showing a customer a price. It is not the figure a tax form or an auditor asks for.

The eight providers

1. AllRatesToday

Best for: teams that need both kinds of rate. Mid-market rates for 160+ currencies refresh every 60 seconds on every plan, on any base currency, over HTTPS. The same key serves the official tables of 123 central banks and 6 tax authorities, each with the publisher's own date. For Saudi Arabia that means: SAMA daily table (66 currencies), history from April 2021. Output is JSON, CSV, XML or Excel from the same endpoints, with SDKs for JavaScript, Python, PHP, Go and Rust and an MCP server for AI agents. Paid plans start at €4.99 a month; dated tables and history are on paid plans.

2. Frankfurter

Best for: projects that only need official fixings and want them free. Frankfurter is open source, needs no key and has no monthly cap. It now aggregates 111 central banks and official sources. For Saudi Arabia its source list covers: SAMA. It serves official fixings, not a live market rate, and it is a free service with no paid tier or support contract.

3. ExchangeRate-API

Best for: dashboards and reports that need volume and can live with one update a day. The free plan gives 1,500 requests a month with daily updates; the Pro plan is $10 a month for 30,000 requests with hourly updates. Rates are a blended market figure, not a named institution's table.

4. Open Exchange Rates

Best for: teams that want a long-established vendor and work from a US dollar base. The free plan gives 1,000 requests a month with hourly updates on a USD base; other base currencies start with the $12 a month plan.

5. CurrencyAPI

Best for: small private projects. The free plan gives 300 requests a month with daily updates and is for private use only; paid plans start at $12.99 a month.

6. Fixer

Best for: teams already on the apilayer marketplace. The free plan gives 100 calls a month with hourly updates for non-commercial use, and base-currency switching is listed only on paid plans, which start at $14.99 a month.

7. currencylayer

Best for: the same apilayer stack with a dollar source. The free plan gives 100 calls a month with daily updates for non-commercial use; paid plans start at $14.99 a month.

8. XE Currency Data

Best for: banks and large companies that need a recognised vendor on an annual contract. There is a trial but no free plan; the entry plan is $599 a year for 10,000 requests a month with daily rates.

Try it for SAR

# live mid-market rate
curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/rates?source=EUR&target=SAR" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

# Saudi Central Bank, today's table
curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/open/central-bank/sama"

# the SAMA table for the date the tax became due
curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/central-bank/sama/2026-10-15" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

The first call needs a free API key. The official table responses carry the table's own date, so you can show which publication a figure came from.

Which one should you pick?

FAQ

What is the best exchange rate API for Saudi Arabia in 2026?

For live SAR rates plus the Saudi Central Bank table that the VAT rules name, on one key, AllRatesToday. For the SAMA fixing alone, free and without a key, Frankfurter. For the largest free quota of daily market rates, ExchangeRate-API.

Does SAMA have an exchange rate API?

The Saudi Central Bank publishes its daily table on its website with a date picker, and offers no documented public API. AllRatesToday and Frankfurter both serve the SAMA table as JSON.

Which exchange rate must a Saudi VAT invoice use?

The VAT Implementing Regulations require amounts in another currency to be converted to riyals using the daily rate prescribed by the Saudi Central Bank on the date the tax becomes due, and the tax invoice must show the tax payable in SAR.

Does a ZATCA e-invoice need an exchange rate field?

The XML implementation standard has no exchange rate field. It requires the tax currency code to be SAR and the invoice total VAT amount in SAR, so the conversion is done by your system and should be traceable to the stored SAMA rate.

Is a US dollar invoice affected, given the peg?

The rate does not move: the riyal is pegged at 3.75 to the dollar. The invoice must still show the VAT in riyals.