Exchange Rate API for Kuwait: Official CBK Rates, Bank Boards and Live KWD Rates

One exchange rate API for Kuwait: the official Central Bank of Kuwait table for about 134 currencies with history from 2008, buy and sell boards from NBK, Gulf Bank and Burgan Bank, and live KWD market rates for 160+ currencies. JSON, CSV, XLSX. Free key.

By Madhushan, Founder & Lead Developer · Updated 13 Nov 2026

In one line: the official Central Bank of Kuwait table for about 134 currencies, buy and sell boards from three Kuwaiti banks and the live KWD market rate, from one REST API in JSON, CSV or Excel. Start with a free key. No card.

Kuwait finance and engineering teams work with three dinar rates: the official Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) rate for duties, tax workings, closing rates and audit evidence, a bank's counter board for what a payment will actually cost, and the live market rate for pricing. Because the dinar follows a currency basket rather than the dollar, even the USD rate changes from day to day. This API returns all three against KWD, with the date each one belongs to.

Which KWD rate applies to what

The official table is read from the Central Bank of Kuwait's own page and never revised afterwards, so a figure fetched for a past date is the figure an auditor will find.

Official Central Bank of Kuwait rates

The Central Bank of Kuwait sets official dinar rates for about 134 currencies on every Kuwaiti business day, Sunday to Thursday. Its site quotes them in fils per unit (308.600 fils for the dollar on 12 November 2026); the API returns dinars per one unit of foreign currency, so the same figure is 0.3086. The table usually reaches the API at about 1:10 pm Kuwait time, and the response gives its date and the time it is available, so a job scheduled for 2 pm Kuwait time always gets the day's rates.

# Official Central Bank of Kuwait table for today
curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/central-bank/cbk/latest" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer art_live_your_key"

{
  "bank": "cbk",
  "rate_date": "2026-11-12",
  "cadence": "daily",
  "available_by_utc": "10:15",
  "publisher_timezone": "Asia/Kuwait",
  "rates": [
    { "base": "USD", "quote": "KWD", "type": "reference", "value": 0.3086 },
    { "base": "EUR", "quote": "KWD", "type": "reference", "value": 0.341805 },
    { "base": "GBP", "quote": "KWD", "type": "reference", "value": 0.409188 },
    { "base": "SAR", "quote": "KWD", "type": "reference", "value": 0.082293 },
    { "base": "INR", "quote": "KWD", "type": "reference", "value": 0.003294 }
  ]
}

In Google Sheets, one formula puts today's US dollar row in a sheet:

=QUERY(IMPORTDATA("https://allratestoday.com/api/open/central-bank/cbk?format=csv"),
       "select * where Col2 = 'USD'", 1)

Dated tables and history from 2008

Closing rates, tax workings and audits need a rate for a past date or an average over a period. A dated request returns the table for that day, with rate_date showing the earlier table when the day was a Friday, a Saturday or a public holiday. A history request returns the daily series for a range, from which a monthly or annual average is a few lines of code. Both are on the Official Rates plan.

# The CBK table for an invoice date or a closing date
curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/central-bank/cbk/2025-12-31" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer art_live_your_key"

# A year of daily USD rates as CSV, for monthly or annual averages
curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/central-bank/cbk/history?symbol=USD&from=2025-01-01&to=2025-12-31&format=csv" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer art_live_your_key"

The main currencies go back to 2 January 2008 and the full board to 2017. Year-by-year USD/KWD figures and recent monthly averages are worked through in the Kuwait USD/KWD rate history.

Kuwait bank boards: NBK, Gulf Bank and Burgan Bank

The CBK rate is a single official rate; a bank buys below it and sells above it. The API reads the counter boards of National Bank of Kuwait, Gulf Bank and Burgan Bank every hour, in dinars per one unit, and reports each buy and sell rate next to the official CBK rate so the spread is visible. Currencies a bank prints with a selling rate only, such as the rupee and Pakistani rupee remittance rows at Gulf Bank, are left out. Board rates are retail prices, not official rates: banks change them through the day and may quote differently in branch or for large amounts. Boards are stored from 13 November 2026, and ?date= returns a stored past board.

# National Bank of Kuwait counter board, one currency
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/bank-rates/kw/nbkkw?ccy=USD"
# all three Kuwait boards side by side with the official CBK rate
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/bank-rates/kw"
# a board as stored on a past day
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/bank-rates/kw/burgan?date=2026-11-13"

National Bank of KuwaitCounter board, 20+ currencies Gulf BankCounter board, buy and sell rows only Burgan BankCounter board, about 25 currencies All Kuwait banksSide by side with the official CBK rate

Live KWD market rates

For pricing and conversion the mid-market rate is refreshed every 60 seconds for KWD against 160+ currencies, in either direction. A free key covers it; add amount to get the converted figure in the same response. The central banks of Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are on the same key for Gulf-wide work.

# Live mid-market USD/KWD, refreshed every 60 seconds (free key)
curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/rates?source=USD&target=KWD&amount=1000" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer art_live_your_key"

The SDKs for JavaScript, Python, PHP, Go and Rust wrap the same call, and the cbk-exchange-rate package wraps the CBK table.

Kuwait rules that name a rate

• Central Bank of Kuwait Law (Law No. 32 of 1968), Article 3: the Central Bank declares the exchange rates for the most important foreign currencies, whenever necessary and for all legal purposes it defines, including the collection of duties. CBK Law, Chapter I.
• Income Tax Decree No. 3 of 1955, Article 6 (as amended by Law No. 2 of 2008): the taxpayer may use the method it regularly follows in its records for converting one currency to another, if that method is generally recognised in commercial accounting. Ministry of Finance English text.
• Exchange rate regime: since 20 May 2007, by Decree No. 147/2007, the dinar is pegged to an undisclosed weighted basket of the currencies of Kuwait's major trade and financial partners. CBK exchange rate policy.

These notes describe the texts as issued; the Ministry of Finance says its English translation is a guideline only and the Arabic text prevails, so confirm the treatment for your facts with a Kuwait tax adviser.

Endpoints used on this page

Every table endpoint accepts &format=json|csv|xml|xlsx. Full reference in the documentation.

Frequently asked questions

Which exchange rate should a Kuwait business use?

It depends on the purpose. The Central Bank of Kuwait Law lets the bank declare exchange rates for the main foreign currencies for the legal purposes it defines, including the collection of duties. For income tax, the Income Tax Decree lets a taxpayer use the conversion method it regularly follows in its records, provided the method is generally recognised in commercial accounting; the official CBK table is a dated source such a method can point to. Pricing and checkout use the live market rate, and a bank board shows what a payment will actually cost.

Why does the official USD/KWD rate change if the dinar is pegged?

Since 20 May 2007 the dinar has been pegged to an undisclosed weighted basket of the currencies of Kuwait's main trade and financial partners, not to the dollar alone. When the dollar moves against the other basket currencies, the dinar moves slightly against the dollar, so a dollar invoice needs the rate for its own date.

When is the official CBK table available?

The Central Bank of Kuwait updates its table on Kuwaiti business days, Sunday to Thursday. The API usually has it by about 1:10 pm Kuwait time (10:08 UTC), and by 10:15 UTC at the latest. Each response carries the table date, so a job can confirm it has today's figures.

Why does the CBK site show 308.600 for the dollar when the API returns 0.3086?

The Central Bank of Kuwait quotes its table in fils per unit of foreign currency; 1 dinar is 1,000 fils. The API returns dinars per one unit, so 308.600 fils is 0.3086 KWD. The figures are the same.

How far back does the CBK history go?

Daily tables are stored from 2 January 2008 for the main currencies and from 2017 for the full board of about 134 currencies. Dated lookups and ranges are on the Official Rates plan.

Is there a free plan?

A free API key covers live rates, conversion and the latest official table, with no card. Dated history needs a paid plan, from €4.99 a month.

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