SARB Exchange Rate API: Official ZAR Rates as JSON

South African Reserve Bank publishes official exchange rates — 23 currencies including major African crosses — and these are the published official rates used for tax filings, audits, and compliant invoicing in South Africa, not moving market prices. This guide shows how to pull them as JSON: via a REST endpoint or the zero-dependency sarb-exchange-rate npm package, with history back to 2000.

What the SARB publishes

• 23 currencies including major African crosses.
• History back to 2000 — 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 — requests for non-publication days resolve to the most recent published rates and are flagged explicitly.

Rates are the weighted average of the banks' actual foreign exchange transactions at around 10:30 SAST — a published, citable benchmark rather than a snapshot quote.

Why official rates, not market rates

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

Get the latest rates (REST)

curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/central-bank/sarb/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 sarb-exchange-rate

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

// One pair at the official South African Reserve Bank rate
const pair = await getRate('USD', 'ZAR', { 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 'sarb-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: 'ZAR', 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 SARB does not print a pair directly, the API resolves it from the bank's published rates — an inverse, or a cross rate via ZAR — 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.

FAQ

Does South African Reserve Bank have an official exchange rate API?

South African Reserve Bank publishes its official rates on its website, but not always in a developer-friendly form. AllRatesToday serves the bank's published rates as clean JSON — 23 currencies including major African crosses, with history back to 2000 — via REST or the sarb-exchange-rate npm package. The latest table is free.

How often do South African Reserve Bank rates update?

Once per business day. These are published reference rates, not moving market prices — the table changes when the bank publishes a new one, and every API response carries the bank's own publication date so you can cite it.

Can I get the South African Reserve Bank rate for a past date, like an invoice date?

Yes. The /central-bank/sarb/rates-for-date endpoint returns the official rates for any date back to 2000. 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.