Indian Overseas Bank Exchange Rate API: INR Buy and Sell Rates as JSON

Indian Overseas Bank was founded in 1937 specifically to handle foreign exchange and overseas banking, and it still publishes a detailed daily board. Its page is one of the few that prints a unit column, so the currencies quoted per hundred units are unambiguous. This guide shows how to read that board as JSON: what the rates mean, how they compare with the Reserve Bank of India official rate and with other banks in India, and the calls that return them.

What the IOB board shows

• 15 currencies against the Indian rupee: AED, AUD, CAD, CHF, DKK, EUR, GBP, HKD, JPY, LKR, NOK, NZD, SEK, SGD and USD. Every value is INR per 1 unit of the foreign currency.
• The telegraphic transfer pair. Indian banks publish a daily card rate with separate columns for telegraphic transfers, bills, forex travel cards and currency notes; the pair here is the TT rate, which an inbound remittance is converted at. The Reserve Bank’s reference rate is published once each afternoon and is a reference for accounting, not a price anyone transacts at, so a bank’s buying rate always sits below it.
• USD on 13 November 2026: IOB bought at 93.81 and sold at 94.37 INR, a spread of 0.59%. The Reserve Bank of India official rate was 94.1997, so the bank's mid sat -0.12% from it.
• No timestamp on the bank's page. IOB does not print a last-updated time, so bank_updated_at is null and captured_at (when AllRatesToday read the page) is the only time available.
• Every day's board is kept permanently, from 24 September 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 13 November 2026 board the tightest spreads were USD (0.59%), EUR (1.00%), GBP (1.00%) and the widest LKR (1.49%), AED (1.48%), SEK (1.17%). 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 IOB and other banks in India

USD on the 11 boards AllRatesToday reads in India, all captured on 13 November 2026 (the Reserve Bank of India official rate was 94.1997):

IOB had the narrowest USD spread of the 11. One call to /api/v1/bank-rates/in 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/in/iob" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer art_live_your_key"

What comes back (the 13 November 2026 board, first three rows):

{
  "bank": "iob",
  "name": "Indian Overseas Bank",
  "country": "in",
  "quote_ccy": "INR",
  "bank_updated_at": null,
  "basis": "Telegraphic transfer",
  "captured_at": "2026-11-13T13:34:48.682Z",
  "rates": [
    {"ccy":"AED","buy":25.42,"sell":25.8,"mid":25.61,"spread_pct":1.484,"official":25.6477,"vs_official_pct":-0.147},
    {"ccy":"AUD","buy":63.65,"sell":64.35,"mid":64,"spread_pct":1.094,"official":null,"vs_official_pct":null},
    {"ccy":"CAD","buy":65.61,"sell":66.34,"mid":65.975,"spread_pct":1.106,"official":null,"vs_official_pct":null},
    … 12 more currencies
  ],
  "disclaimer": "…",
  "attribution": { … }
}

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

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

{
  "bank": "iob",
  "name": "Indian Overseas Bank",
  "country": "in",
  "quote_ccy": "INR",
  "bank_updated_at": null,
  "basis": "Telegraphic transfer",
  "captured_at": "2026-11-13T13:34:48.682Z",
  "ccy": "USD",
  "buy": 93.81,
  "sell": 94.37,
  "mid": 94.09,
  "spread_pct": 0.595,
  "official": 94.1997,
  "vs_official_pct": -0.116,
  "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 Indian Overseas Bank on its own website, collected by AllRatesToday",
    "bank_url": "https://www.iob.bank.in/en/forex",
    "url": "https://allratestoday.com/bank-exchange-rate-api/in/iob/",
    "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/in/iob?date=2026-11-06" \
  -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/in/iob/history?ccy=USD&from=2026-09-24&to=2026-11-13" \
  -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' });

// Indian Overseas Bank's USD row
const r = await client.bankRates('in', { bank: 'iob', ccy: 'USD' });
console.log(`IOB buys USD at ${r.buy}, sells at ${r.sell} INR`);

// The board as it stood on a past day
const past = await client.bankRates('in', { bank: 'iob', date: '2026-11-06' });
console.log(past.snapshot_date, past.rates.length);

Python

import requests

r = requests.get(
    "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/bank-rates/in/iob",
    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 Reserve Bank of India rate is the one tax, accounting and customs rules in India name; nobody transacts at it. IOB'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 Reserve Bank of India endpoint when a rule asks for the official rate.

FAQ

Where do the Indian Overseas Bank rates come from?

From the bank's own public rates page (https://www.iob.bank.in/en/forex), read hourly. AllRatesToday does not change the numbers: each row is the buy and sell price IOB shows, with the mid, the spread and the Reserve Bank of India rate added.

Are these the official INR exchange rates?

No. They are IOB's retail prices for customers. The official rate in India is the Reserve Bank of India 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 IOB board updated?

AllRatesToday reads the page every hour. The bank prints no timestamp, so captured_at tells you when the rates were read.

Can I get IOB rates for a past date?

Yes, from 24 September 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.