AllRatesToday vs ExchangeRate-API.com: Real-Time vs Daily in 2026

ExchangeRate-API.com is the cleanest of the "free FX API" options. Simple endpoint, fast responses, no surprises — if you can live with daily updates. That last bit is the whole conversation.

This comparison covers AllRatesToday vs ExchangeRate-API.com in 2026 across the criteria that matter for production: update frequency, accuracy, historical rate access, latency, free-tier scope, and DX.

TL;DR — Quick Comparison Table

Update Frequency: Real-Time vs Daily

This is the core trade-off. ExchangeRate-API.com refreshes once every 24 hours on the free tier. The data is then aggressively cached at the edge, which is why responses are so fast — but the rate you fetch at 3pm is the same rate everyone else fetched at 9am, and at 4am the day before.

For some use cases that's fine: a static "currency converter" widget, an end-of-day reporting tool, an admin dashboard that shows yesterday's totals. For anything that converts money in real time — checkouts, payment splits, expense tracking, marketplace fees — daily rates are not safe. Major pairs routinely move 0.5–2% intraday, and that delta becomes a tax on your gross margin.

AllRatesToday refreshes every 60 seconds on every plan, sourced from Reuters/Refinitiv and interbank feeds. The ~80ms latency penalty over ExchangeRate-API.com's daily-cached responses is worth a 1,440x improvement in freshness.

Historical Rates: Free vs Pro-Plan

ExchangeRate-API.com gates the historical/timeseries endpoint behind the Pro plan. The free Open tier returns latest rates only.

AllRatesToday includes historical rates on the free tier, going back over a decade:

# AllRatesToday — historical rate, free tier
curl "https://api.allratestoday.com/api/v1/historical?date=2024-01-15&base=USD" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY"

If you're building anything that touches past rates — invoice reconciliation, accounting, P&L conversion, backtesting, charts — this is the single biggest cost difference between the two providers.

Accuracy: Reuters vs Aggregated Central-Bank Feeds

ExchangeRate-API.com aggregates "rates from multiple commercial sources" plus central-bank end-of-day publications. The result is a clean mid-market rate, but it can lag actual interbank by hours during active sessions.

AllRatesToday's data comes directly from Reuters/Refinitiv and interbank feeds. For major pairs (EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY), that's the same source institutional desks consume.

For most consumer-facing display use cases, the accuracy difference is invisible. For anything where 5–20 basis points compounds — payments, marketplace settlement, B2B FX — it shows up in the bottom line.

Latency

ExchangeRate-API.com is genuinely fast: ~134ms average response time from a US edge, because the daily-cached payload sits in CDN memory. AllRatesToday averages ~214ms, which includes the cost of serving fresh data on every request.

If your only criterion is "fastest GET", ExchangeRate-API.com wins. If your criterion is "accurate enough to charge a customer," AllRatesToday's extra ~80ms is the cost of correctness.

Free Tier: What You Actually Get

ExchangeRate-API.com's Open plan is straightforward:

• 1,500 requests / month.
• Daily updates.
• Latest rates only (no historical).
• Any base currency, HTTPS, CORS.

AllRatesToday's free tier:

• Real-time (60s) updates.
• Historical rates included.
• Any base currency, HTTPS, CORS, header auth.

Different shapes of generosity. ExchangeRate-API.com optimises for request volume on shallow data; AllRatesToday optimises for feature depth.

Authentication and DX

ExchangeRate-API.com puts the API key in the URL path:

https://v6.exchangerate-api.com/v6/YOUR-API-KEY/latest/USD

This is functional but means the key appears in browser history, server logs, and CDN access logs. AllRatesToday uses a standard Authorization: Bearer header:

curl https://api.allratestoday.com/api/v1/latest?base=USD \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY"

Migrating from ExchangeRate-API.com

The migration is straightforward:

1. Replace v6.exchangerate-api.com/v6/<KEY>/latest/<BASE> with api.allratestoday.com/api/v1/latest?base=<BASE>.
2. Move the API key from the URL path to Authorization: Bearer.
3. Rename conversion_rates to rates in response parsing.
4. Optionally add ?symbols=EUR,GBP to scope the response (smaller payloads).

When ExchangeRate-API.com Still Wins

• You need maximum free request quota (1,500/month is high) and daily rates are sufficient.
• Latency is your hard constraint and freshness isn't.
• Display-only widgets, daily reporting, static-site converters.

The Bottom Line

For any use case where the rate touches money — checkouts, conversions, settlement, accounting — AllRatesToday is the right call:

• 60-second updates vs daily snapshots.
• Historical rates on the free tier.
• Reuters/Refinitiv data vs aggregated central-bank feeds.
• Same HTTPS / CORS / any-base / header-auth basics.

ExchangeRate-API.com remains a strong choice when freshness genuinely doesn't matter and request volume does.

FAQ

Is ExchangeRate-API.com free?

Yes — the Open plan is 1,500 requests/month with daily updates and no historical data. Paid plans add real-time and historical.

How often does ExchangeRate-API.com update?

Daily on the free tier. Hourly or 60-second updates on paid plans.

Why pick AllRatesToday over ExchangeRate-API.com?

Real-time updates and historical rates are included on the free tier, sourced from Reuters/Refinitiv. ExchangeRate-API.com gates both behind paid plans.

Are the rates accurate?

Both publish mid-market rates. AllRatesToday sources directly from Reuters/Refinitiv and interbank feeds; ExchangeRate-API.com aggregates central-bank end-of-day data.

How do I migrate from ExchangeRate-API.com?

Swap the host, move the key from URL path to Authorization: Bearer, and rename conversion_rates to rates.