Exchange Rate API for the UAE: Official CBUAE Rates, Bank Boards and Live AED Rates

One exchange rate API for the UAE: the official Central Bank of the UAE table for 75 currencies, buy and sell boards from FAB, Emirates NBD, DIB, ADIB and Bank of Sharjah, and live AED market rates for 160+ currencies. JSON, CSV, XLSX. Free key.

By Madhushan, Founder & Lead Developer · Updated 11 Nov 2026

اقرأ هذه الصفحة بالعربية

In one line: the official Central Bank of the UAE table, buy and sell boards from five UAE banks and the live AED market rate, from one REST API in JSON, CSV or Excel. Start with a free key. No card.

Exchange Rate API for the UAE

UAE finance and engineering teams work with three dirham rates, and the law decides which one applies: the official Central Bank of the UAE rate for VAT invoices, corporate tax and e-invoicing, a bank's board rate for what a payment will actually cost, and the live market rate for pricing. This API returns all of them against AED, with the date each one belongs to.

Which AED rate applies to what

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

Official Central Bank of the UAE rates

The Central Bank of the UAE sets official dirham rates for 75 currencies, Monday to Friday, as mid rates based on the market at 6 pm UAE time. The dollar stays at the 3.6725 peg; every other currency moves daily. The endpoint returns the latest table with its date and the time it becomes available, so a job scheduled for 8 pm UAE time always gets today's rates.

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

{
  "bank": "cbuae",
  "rate_date": "2026-11-11",
  "cadence": "daily",
  "available_by_utc": "15:25",
  "publisher_timezone": "Asia/Dubai",
  "rates": [
    { "base": "USD", "quote": "AED", "type": "reference", "value": 3.6725 },
    { "base": "EUR", "quote": "AED", "type": "reference", "value": 4.075574 },
    { "base": "GBP", "quote": "AED", "type": "reference", "value": 4.875429 },
    { "base": "INR", "quote": "AED", "type": "reference", "value": 0.039196 }
  ]
}

Tax rules ask for the rate on a specific date, or an average over a period. Dated lookups and ranges back to 2019 are on the Official Rates plan:

# The official table on the date of supply (VAT Article 69)
curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/central-bank/cbuae/2026-10-15" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer art_live_your_key"
# One currency across a tax period (corporate tax monthly or annual average)
curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/central-bank/cbuae/history?symbol=EUR&from=2026-01-01&to=2026-12-31" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer art_live_your_key"

The Python example pulls a month as CSV for an ERP rate import. The CBUAE history download guide covers the yearly CSV files and Excel, and the 31 December 2025 closing rates are listed for year-end work.

import requests

# Official CBUAE rates for a month, as CSV (Official Rates plan)
r = requests.get(
    "https://allratestoday.com/api/v1/central-bank/cbuae/history",
    params={"from": "2026-10-01", "to": "2026-10-31", "format": "csv"},
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer art_live_your_key"},
)
open("cbuae-october.csv", "wb").write(r.content)

In Google Sheets, one formula puts today's official EUR/AED rate in a cell:

=QUERY(IMPORTDATA("https://allratestoday.com/api/open/central-bank/cbuae?format=csv"),
       "select * where Col1 = 'EUR'", 1)

UAE bank boards: FAB, Emirates NBD, DIB and more

The official rate is a mid rate; a bank buys below it and sells above it. The API captures the board each of five UAE banks displays, several times a day, and reports every rate next to the official Central Bank rate so the spread is visible. Board rates are indicative: banks change them through the day and may quote differently in branch or for large amounts.

# First Abu Dhabi Bank board, one currency
curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/open/bank-rates/ae/fab?ccy=USD"
# all five UAE boards side by side with the official rate
curl "https://allratestoday.com/api/open/bank-rates/ae"

{
  "bank": "fab",
  "name": "First Abu Dhabi Bank",
  "basis": "Counter board",
  "bank_updated_at": "11 November, 2026 05:59:51 pm",
  "ccy": "USD",
  "buy": 3.653,
  "sell": 3.693,
  "mid": 3.673,
  "spread_pct": 1.089,
  "official": 3.6725,
  "vs_official_pct": 0.014
}

First Abu Dhabi BankCounter board, 26 currencies Emirates NBDCounter board, 35 currencies Dubai Islamic BankCounter board, 27 currencies Abu Dhabi Islamic BankCounter board, 13 currencies Bank of SharjahCounter board, 15 currencies All UAE banksSide by side with the official rate

How far the five boards sit from each other on one day is worked through in UAE bank exchange rates compared.

Live AED market rates

For pricing and conversion the mid-market rate is refreshed every 60 seconds for AED against 160+ currencies, in either direction. A free key covers it; add amount to get the converted figure in the same response.

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

The SDKs for JavaScript, Python, PHP, Go and Rust wrap the same call, and cbuae-exchange-rate on npm returns the official table in one line.

UAE rules that name a rate

• VAT Decree-Law Article 69: a tax invoice in another currency is converted at the Central Bank rate on the date of supply, and Executive Regulation Article 59(1)(k) puts the rate of exchange on the invoice. Guide.
• Corporate Tax Law Article 43 and FTA Decision No. 13 of 2023: Central Bank spot rate first, then the monthly average, then the annual average, used consistently through the tax period. Guide.
• E-invoicing (PINT AE): the exchange rate is a validated field, BTAE-04, with the VAT and line amounts in AED on every foreign-currency invoice. Guide.
• Year-end and book closing: the official table for the closing date. 31 December 2025 rates.

These guides describe the rules as published; the Arabic text of UAE tax legislation prevails, so confirm the treatment for your facts with a UAE tax adviser.

Endpoints used on this page

Every table endpoint accepts &format=json|csv|xml|xlsx. The /api/open/ endpoints are CORS-open and can be called from a browser or a spreadsheet; the keyed ones are for servers. Full reference in the documentation.

Frequently asked questions

Which exchange rate should a UAE business use?

It depends on the rule. A VAT tax invoice in a foreign currency is converted at the Central Bank of the UAE rate on the date of supply (Article 69 of the VAT Decree-Law). Corporate tax amounts are converted at the Central Bank rate, as a spot rate first and a monthly or annual average only where spot is not practical (Article 43 and FTA Decision No. 13 of 2023). Pricing, checkout and remittance quotes use the live market rate. The API serves each of them.

Is the Central Bank of the UAE rate the same every day because of the dollar peg?

Only for the US dollar, which the official table carries at 3.6725 dirhams every day. The other 74 currencies in the table move daily, so a euro, sterling or rupee invoice needs the table for its own date.

When is the official CBUAE table available?

The Central Bank of the UAE updates its table Monday to Friday, based on rates at 6 pm UAE time. The API has it by about 7:25 pm UAE time (15:25 UTC), and each response carries the table date so a job can confirm it has today's figures.

Which UAE banks are covered?

First Abu Dhabi Bank, Emirates NBD, Dubai Islamic Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Bank of Sharjah. Each board is captured several times a day with its buy, sell and mid rates and the gap to the official Central Bank rate.

How far back does the CBUAE history go?

The official table is stored for every date from 2019. Dated lookups and ranges are on the Official Rates plan, and each year is also available as a CSV file.

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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