Central Bank of the UAE Exchange Rate API: Official AED Rates as JSON

The Central Bank of the UAE publishes the official exchange rates that accounting, tax, and customs rules in the United Arab Emirates 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 cbuae-exchange-rate npm package.

What the CBUAE publishes

• ~75 currencies against the dirham — the official daily table, spanning every currency UAE trade touches.
• History back to 2019 — queryable by exact date or as a time series.
• The bank's own publication date on every response, so a rate is always citable.
• No gaps to trip over — weekends and UAE holidays resolve to the most recent published rates and are flagged explicitly.

The USD/AED rate is fixed by policy — the dirham has been pegged at 3.6725 per dollar since 1997 — so the table's real work is everything else: the ~74 cross rates that UAE customs, VAT, and the new corporate tax regime reference for dirham conversion.

Why official rates, not market rates

A live mid-market feed answers "what is USD/AED 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 the UAE's published rates, and it never changes after publication.

Get the latest rates (REST)

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

The response is the bank's most recent published data — 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 cbuae-exchange-rate

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

// One pair at the official CBUAE rate
const pair = await getRate('USD', 'AED', { 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 'cbuae-exchange-rate';

// The official rates for an invoice date — non-publication days return
// the most recent published date, flagged via published_on_requested_date.
const day = await getRatesForDate('2026-06-30', { apiKey: 'art_live_...' });

// Time series for one pair
const series = await getHistory(
  { source: 'USD', target: 'AED', 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 CBUAE does not print a pair directly, the API resolves it from the bank's published rates — an inverse, or a cross rate via AED — 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 reference table for a tax system being born

The series runs from 2019 — which happens to bracket the UAE's fiscal transformation: VAT bedding in, then corporate tax arriving in 2023. Both regimes need an official dirham conversion rate for every foreign-currency invoice, and the CBUAE table is that reference. The peg keeps USD/AED flat; the audit trail lives in the crosses.

FAQ

Does the Central Bank of the UAE have an official exchange rate API?

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

How often do Central Bank of the UAE rates update?

Once per business day, Abu Dhabi time. These are published official rates, not moving market prices — every API response carries the publication date so you can cite it.

Can I get the CBUAE rate for a past date, like an invoice date?

Yes. The /central-bank/cbuae/rates-for-date endpoint returns the official rates for any archived date. Non-publication days resolve to the most recent published date and are flagged, so your audit trail stays honest. Historical dates require a paid plan; latest rates are free.