RBI Reference Rate vs SBI Card Rate vs Market Rate: Which One Does Your Accountant Need?

Ask three people in an Indian finance team for “today's dollar rate” and you can get three different numbers, all of them correct. The treasury desk quotes the market. The accountant quotes the RBI. The tax consultant quotes SBI. The customs broker quotes a CBIC notification from last Thursday. Each is the right rate for one job and the wrong rate for the others. This guide puts the four side by side, with real values from one day, and says which filing wants which.

The four rates

1. FBIL / RBI reference rate

Computed by Financial Benchmarks India Ltd once per Mumbai business day at about 13:30 IST and published by the RBI in its Reference Rate Archive. It is a mid-rate with no buying or selling side, for USD, EUR, GBP and JPY, plus AED and IDR. It does not change after publication and there is none on weekends or Mumbai bank holidays. It is the rate FEMA filings, Ind AS 21 accounting policies and most GST service invoices lean on. Today's table is keyless at https://allratestoday.com/api/open/central-bank/rbi; the RBI exchange rate API page lists the dated and history endpoints.

2. SBI card rates (TT buying and selling)

The State Bank of India publishes a forex card rate sheet every business day, with a time stamp, and can update it during the day. The two columns that matter for compliance are the TT buying rate (what SBI pays for foreign currency arriving by wire) and the TT selling rate (what it charges to send money out). They sit on either side of the mid-rate. Income-tax Rule 115 and Rule 26 name the SBI TT buying rate, which is why your tax consultant quotes it. The board is keyless at https://allratestoday.com/api/open/bank-rates/in/sbi, and the Indian bank exchange rates page shows SBI next to the other banks we track.

3. Mid-market rate

The live middle of the market, refreshed about every 60 seconds, available through the authenticated /api/v1/rates endpoint with a free API key. It is the right rate for pricing, hedging decisions, converting a quote for a customer and reconciling what your payment provider charged. It is not published by anyone a regulation names, so it is rarely the rate a filing asks for. If you want a daily, never-revised version of it, the AllRatesToday Daily Reference Rate fixes one table per business day at 16:00 London and serves it keyless; it is a convenience fix, not a registered benchmark. The exchange rate API page covers the market endpoints.

4. CBIC customs notified rate

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs notifies import and export exchange rates for about 22 currencies twice a month, and the notification in force on the date of the bill of entry or shipping bill applies. Customs valuation under section 14 of the Customs Act uses it, and GST on goods borrows it through CGST Rule 34. It can sit a rupee or more away from today's RBI rate because it was fixed up to two weeks ago. AllRatesToday does not publish it yet; support is being added to the tax authority rates API.

Today's values side by side

All figures are rupees per 1 unit of the foreign currency, read from the two keyless endpoints and the daily reference rate on 19 October 2026. SBI's board carried the stamp 19-10-2026 Time 9:16 AM; the RBI table has rate_date 2026-10-19; the 16:00 London table was published at 15:02 UTC the same day.

Read across the USD row: SBI buys at 94.43 and sells at 95.28, a spread of 0.85 rupees (the endpoint reports it as spread_pct 0.896). The RBI reference rate, 94.7691, sits inside that spread. The 16:00 London mid, 94.8883, is a few paise higher because it was sampled later in the day, after the RBI's 13:30 IST fix. On a quiet day the four numbers are this close; on a volatile day the gap between the morning SBI board and the afternoon fixes widens, which is exactly why the rules name a publisher and a time instead of saying “the market rate”.

The SBI endpoint makes the comparison for you. Each row carries official, the RBI reference rate for that currency, and vs_official_pct, the gap between SBI's mid and it: 0.091% for USD, 0.165% for EUR, 0.101% for GBP on the day above. Currencies the RBI does not publish, such as SGD or CAD, show null there.

Which rate for which job

A common mistake is to use one rate for everything because it is the one the ERP happens to load. Zoho Books, for instance, pulls a market feed by default; TallyPrime loads nothing. Neither is the RBI rate or the SBI rate until someone posts it. If your books, your GST returns and your tax computation all show the same number for the same receipt, check which of the four it is and whether each filing can accept it.

Two posts go deeper on the first rows: SBI TT buying rate for Rule 115 and exchange rates for FEMA reporting and transfer pricing. For GST, see which rate to use on GST invoices.

Get the two official ones in one call each

No key is needed for either daily table. The RBI endpoint also accepts a pair:

curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/open/central-bank/rbi?source=USD&target=INR"
# {"bank":"rbi","rate_date":"2026-10-19","source":"USD","target":"INR",
#  "rate":94.7691,"rate_type":"reference","derived":false,"method":"published", ...}

curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/open/bank-rates/in/sbi?ccy=USD"
# {"bank":"sbi","name":"State Bank of India","quote_ccy":"INR",
#  "bank_updated_at":"19-10-2026 Time 9:16 AM","basis":"Telegraphic transfer",
#  "ccy":"USD","buy":94.43,"sell":95.28,"mid":94.855,"spread_pct":0.896,
#  "official":94.7691,"vs_official_pct":0.091, ...}

Add ?format=csv to the RBI URL for a spreadsheet (columns rate_date, base, quote, rate_type, value). Show a visible link back to allratestoday.com wherever you display the figures. For a past date, such as a 31 March balance or an old invoice, the dated RBI endpoint and history are on paid plans; the SBI board is served as the current sheet only, so store each day's snapshot if you will need it later.

What to record, whichever rate you pick

The number alone is not evidence. Keep the rate as published, the date it belongs to (rate_date for the RBI, bank_updated_at for SBI, the notification number for the CBIC), the source in words, and the rupee figure rounded once at the end. Done that way, an auditor can reproduce every conversion in your books from public sources, and a disagreement about “which rate” becomes a one-line answer.

FAQ

Why is the SBI TT buying rate lower than the RBI reference rate?

Because it is a bank's buying quote, not a mid-rate. SBI buys your dollars a little below the middle of the market and sells them a little above it; the RBI reference rate sits in between. On 19 October 2026 USD was 94.43 (SBI TT buying), 94.7691 (RBI reference) and 95.28 (SBI TT selling).

Is the mid-market rate official?

No. It is the live middle of the market, useful for pricing and treasury, and it changes all day. Regulations in India name a publisher, usually the RBI or FBIL, SBI, or the CBIC, so the market rate is rarely the one a filing wants.

Which of these are free without an API key?

The RBI daily table and the SBI board are keyless, as is the AllRatesToday 16:00 London daily reference rate. Live market rates need a free key with 300 free requests. Dated RBI tables and history are on paid plans.

Does the RBI publish rates on weekends?

No. The reference rate is computed on Mumbai business days only, at about 13:30 IST. For a weekend date the rate in force is the last one published before it.