Open Exchange Rates

Open Exchange Rates provides access to foreign exchange rate information through a programmable API that delivers real‑time and historical data for a wide range of global fiat currencies. The service is designed for developers and businesses that need reliable currency conversion capabilities in applications such as fintech platforms, e‑commerce sites, and SaaS products. Users can retrieve the latest rates, perform conversions, query time‑series trends, or analyse fluctuations via simple HTTP requests that return JSON responses. The company offers a free tier with limited request volume as well as paid plans that provide higher throughput, service level agreements, and additional features like SSL encryption and priority support. Its headquarters is located in the United States of America, which serves as the base for its engineering, support, and business operations.

A distinguishing characteristic of Open Exchange Rates is its focus on delivering consistently sourced exchange rates by aggregating data from multiple financial institutions and updating feeds at frequent intervals. The platform emphasizes ease of integration, offering client libraries for popular programming languages and detailed documentation to reduce development time. In February 2020 the organisation experienced a security incident where an unauthorized actor exploited a network misconfiguration, gaining prolonged access to systems and potentially extracting customer data such as names, email addresses, salted‑hashed passwords, IP login histories, API keys, and optional profile details. As a result, Open Exchange Rates disabled legacy account passwords and advised affected users to regenerate their API keys while implementing additional security measures to prevent recurrence. This event highlighted the importance of robust infrastructure protection for services that handle sensitive credentials and personal information.