Yes, Currency Api has a permanent free tier alongside its paid plans. The free plan includes 500 monthly requests, Updated every 60 minutes, and 10 requests per minute. FreeTier.co estimates the free tier at about $2.00/mo, and no credit card is required to sign up.
About
Currency Api is a currency conversion and exchange rate API for developers. It provides live rates through a REST endpoint, with JSON or XML responses for 166 supported currencies, cryptocurrencies, and metals.
The service includes historical rates up to a year, conversion endpoints, a currencies list endpoint, SDKs for Python, Go, Node.js, and PHP, and a dashboard for API key management, analytics, and billing. The free plan is limited to personal use, 500 monthly requests, hourly updates, a fixed base currency, and one API key.
- 166 supported currencies and assets
- JSON and XML response formats
- 500 monthly requests on free plan
- Hourly rate updates on free plan
- Fixed base currency on free plan
- One API key on free plan
- Historical rates endpoint
- SDKs for Python, Go, Node.js, PHP
Free Tier Value
This free tier is a capped, perpetual plan with no credit card friction, but it is limited to 500 requests a month and only hourly updates. Compared with the $9.99 Essential plan, it offers roughly 2.5% of the request volume and omits commercial use, historical data, support, and other pro features, so it lands at about $2/month in practical value.
What's included in the free tier
Verified
- 500 monthly requests.
- Updated every 60 minutes.
- Includes Live Rates.
- Secured using HTTPS.
- No Historical Rates.
- No Slack Notifications.
- Fixed base currency.
- No team management.
- 10 requests per minute.
- Only 1 API key.
- No IP whitelisting/blacklisting.
- No technical support.
- Personal use only.
See Currency Api pricing for current limits.
Paid plans
Essential
- monthly requests
- 20,000
- API keys
- 1
- rate limit
- No rate limits
- 20,000 monthly requests
- Updated every 60 minutes
- Includes Live Rates
- Includes Convert Rates
- Includes Historical Rates
- Change base currency
- Slack Notifications
- Technical email support
StartUp
- monthly requests
- 125,000
- API keys
- 2
- rate limit
- No rate limits
- 125,000 monthly requests
- Updated every 60 seconds
- Includes Live Rates
- Includes Convert Rates
- Includes Historical Rates
- Includes Timeframe Endpoint
- Team management
- Technical email support
Professional
- monthly requests
- 10,000,000
- API keys
- 5
- rate limit
- No rate limits
- 10,000,000 monthly requests
- Updated every 60 seconds
- Includes Live Rates
- Includes Convert Rates
- Includes Historical Rates
- Includes Timeframe Endpoint
- Includes OHLC Endpoint
- Technical email support
Pricing extracted from Currency Api's pricing page. Always verify current pricing before committing.
Common questions
Is Currency Api free forever?
Yes. Currency Api has a permanent free tier alongside its paid plans, though the allowance typically resets each month.
Does Currency Api require a credit card?
No. You can start on Currency Api's free tier without entering card details.
What happens when you exceed Currency Api's free tier?
You move to a paid plan. Currency Api's cheapest paid plan is Essential at $9.99 / month.
What is Currency Api's free tier worth?
Currency Api's free tier is worth about $2.00 per month. That maps to an FTV score of 48/100. The FTV score is explained at freetier.co/ftv.
