Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Exchange Rate API: Official ZWG (ZiG) Rates as JSON

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe publishes the official exchange rates that accounting, tax, and customs rules in Zimbabwe 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 reserve-bank-of-zimbabwe-exchange-rate npm package.

What the RBZ publishes

• The daily interbank sheet — buy, sell and middle rates in ZiG per unit for 34 currencies; the US dollar middle rate was 26.7253 on 8 September 2026.
• The currencies Zimbabwe actually settles in — USD and ZAR first, then GBP, EUR, BWP, ZMW, MZN, MWK, CNY, INR and the rest of the majors, plus gold (XAU) and the SDR.
• All three legs, as the bank prints them — the API stores bid, ask and mid separately with rate types buy, sell and middle, so a customs entry can cite exactly the leg the rule names.
• Every sheet since 8 April 2024 in our API — the first day of the ZiG — queryable by exact date or as a series, with the bank's own date on every response.

The Zimbabwe Gold replaced the Zimbabwe dollar on 8 April 2024, and the RBZ interbank rate is its only official reference: the figure Zimbabwean banks and ZIMRA use for statutory conversion, and the one an invoice or a payroll in ZiG has to cite. The API serves the bank's own sheet, leg by leg, with its date.

Why official rates, not market rates

A live mid-market feed answers "what is USD/ZWG 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 Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's published rates, and it never changes after publication.

Get the latest rates (REST)

curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/central-bank/rbz/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 reserve-bank-of-zimbabwe-exchange-rate

import { getRate, getLatestRates } from 'reserve-bank-of-zimbabwe-exchange-rate';

// One pair at the official RBZ rate
const pair = await getRate('USD', 'ZWG', { 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 'reserve-bank-of-zimbabwe-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: 'ZWG', 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 RBZ does not print a pair directly, the API resolves it from the bank's published rates — an inverse, or a cross rate via ZWG — 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 whole life of the ZiG

Our archive starts on 8 April 2024, the day the currency launched at 13.56 per dollar, and holds every interbank sheet since — the 13.4356 middle rate of June 2024, the September 2024 devaluation to the mid-20s and the 26.7253 of September 2026. Because the series is short and every step in it is consequential, having each day's official sheet on record matters more here than almost anywhere else.

FAQ

Does the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe have an official exchange rate API?

The RBZ publishes its official rates on its own site, and AllRatesToday serves the same published rates as clean JSON via REST or the reserve-bank-of-zimbabwe-exchange-rate npm package. The latest rates are free (300 requests/month); historical dates need a paid plan.

How often do Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe rates update?

Once per business day, in the morning, as buy, sell and middle rates for 34 currencies in ZiG per unit. The Canadian dollar row is omitted because the bank's own sheet misprints it; every API response carries the bank's own rate date.

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

Yes. The /central-bank/rbz/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 via published_on_requested_date.