FXMacroData vs ExchangeRate-API: Conversion Rates vs FX Macro Data

This comparison is for developers, product teams, and FX traders who have found ExchangeRate-API and FXMacroData in the same search and want to know whether they do the same job. Both return currency data as JSON over a simple REST call, but they answer different questions. ExchangeRate-API answers "how much is 100 US dollars in yen right now, for my checkout page or invoice?" FXMacroData answers "what released today that moved USD/JPY, when exactly did it publish, and what is scheduled next?"

The short finding: if you need conversion rates for 160+ currencies in an app, a store, or an accounting system, ExchangeRate-API is cheaper, simpler, and has a generous free option, and FXMacroData is not trying to replace it. If you trade, research, or automate around the macro drivers of FX (policy rates, inflation, payrolls, release timing, positioning) FXMacroData is the better fit, and its daily FX spot rates for supported pairs sit alongside that macro data in one API.

Decision snapshot

Choose ExchangeRate-API when

You need to convert prices or amounts across 160+ currencies, refreshed daily, hourly, or every five minutes, at $0 to $30 a month.

Choose FXMacroData when

You need the macro drivers of FX: official-source releases with second-level timestamps, release calendars, central-bank context, COT, yields, and FX spot rates for supported pairs.

Use both when

Your product converts prices for customers and also gives traders or analysts macro context. The overlap between the two APIs is small.

Takeaway: decide first whether you need conversion rates, macro drivers, or both. That choice settles most of the comparison.

Pricing And Plans

ExchangeRate-API publishes a short, transparent price ladder. The Free plan is $0 with 1,500 API requests per month and rates that update once per day; it does not include historical data, enriched data, the long-term-support commitment, or email support. Pro is $10/month ($100/year) for 30,000 requests per month, hourly updates, and historical data. Business is $30/month ($300/year) for 125,000 requests per month, updates every five minutes, and priority email support. Its billing FAQ also mentions a Volume plan at $700/year on annual billing, which is not shown in the main pricing table. Paid plans start with a free trial, and annual billing gives two months free.

Separately, ExchangeRate-API runs a keyless open access endpoint. It refreshes once a day, requires visible attribution on pages that show the rates, allows caching and personal or commercial conversion use, does not allow redistribution of the data, and temporarily rate-limits clients that call too often.

FXMacroData has a free tier for USD macro data (no key, 100 requests/day, USD announcements delayed 15 minutes). FX spot rates and non-USD currencies need a key. The Individual plan is $50/month or $500/year with a 14-day trial and 1,000,000 requests/month. Business is $250/month or $2,500/year for companies and teams of up to 10 people, with the same request allowance and priority support. Enterprise is by custom agreement, and a self-serve Commercial Redistribution add-on costs $10/month per block of up to 100 measured users.

ExchangeRate-API Pro

$10/month*

30,000 requests/month, hourly updates, historical data. Free plan: 1,500 requests/month, daily updates.

ExchangeRate-API Business

$30/month*

125,000 requests/month, 5-minute updates, priority email support.

FXMacroData Individual

$50/month

22 currencies, 700+ macro series, FX spot rates, calendar, COT, yields, MCP. 1,000,000 requests/month, 14-day trial.

Takeaway: for conversion rates alone, ExchangeRate-API costs less. FXMacroData's price buys a different product: macro releases, release timing, and FX context, with a far larger request allowance.

Monthly list price, USD

FXMacroData in mint; ExchangeRate-API paid plans in cyan. Hover a bar for the exact price. The $0 Free plan is not drawn.

Takeaway: ExchangeRate-API is the cheaper conversion feed. FXMacroData's $50 buys 1,000,000 requests a month and the macro drivers of FX rather than 160-currency conversion.

Side-By-Side Comparison

* Competitor pricing retrieved from their public pricing page in October 2026.

Conversion Rates Versus Macro Drivers

ExchangeRate-API has been serving conversion rates since 2010 and is built for one job: give an application a reliable number to multiply by. Its homepage use cases are e-commerce stores showing localised prices, internal dashboards that roll up international sales, and accounting tools. It blends multiple sources into a stable rate, keeps a long-term-support promise that paid-plan endpoints are never deprecated while customers still use them, and reports Pingdom-measured uptime above 99.99% for its paid infrastructure in 2024. For that job those are the right priorities.

FXMacroData is built around the reasons a rate moves. Every release row carries the official value, the prior, the source, and a second-level announcement_datetime. The release calendar shows what is scheduled, and pair dashboards such as USD/JPY join policy rates, inflation, yields and positioning to the price. FX spot rates are part of the product, but they serve the macro analysis rather than the other way round.

Two different questions, two different pipelines

ExchangeRate-API pipeline

Fetch latest rates for a base currency, cache until the next refresh, multiply the cart or invoice amount, display the local price.

FXMacroData pipeline

Read the calendar, capture the official release with its timestamp, compare to prior and forecast, join to the pair, then alert, model, or ask an agent.

Decision point

If the output is a converted amount, use a conversion feed. If the output is a trading or research decision, use macro data.

FX Rate Coverage And Update Frequency

On breadth of conversion currencies, ExchangeRate-API is clearly ahead. Its supported-codes page lists 160 currencies and the homepage says 161 currencies used in 200 countries. Update frequency rises with the plan: once per day on Free and on the open access endpoint, every 60 minutes on Pro, and every 5 minutes on Business. Responses include the last and next update times, which makes caching straightforward.

FXMacroData's /v1/forex/{base}/{quote} endpoint returns daily FX spot rates built from official central-bank and BIS reference rates for pairs where both currencies are among the 22 it covers, such as EUR/USD, GBP/USD or AUD/USD. Crosses that a publisher does not quote directly are derived from USD legs and labelled as derived, and each row carries source metadata. These are research-grade official fixings, not a conversion feed refreshed every few minutes, and FXMacroData does not try to cover 160 currencies.

History is the other difference. ExchangeRate-API's historical endpoint is limited to paid plans and returns daily rates from 2021 for every supported currency and from 1990 for a set of 35 currencies. Its own documentation says the data suits reporting, dashboards and academic work, but should not be used for cross-currency settlement or for backtesting day-trading models. FXMacroData's history is organised around releases: each CPI or Non-Farm Payrolls print is stored with its official publication time, so an event study can line up the release with what the pair did next.

Release Timing And Delivery

ExchangeRate-API does not cover economic releases, so the timing question for it is simply how often rates refresh. For FX traders the timing that matters is different: when did the Bureau of Labor Statistics publish payrolls, when did the Federal Reserve statement land, and how soon after that did the number reach your system?

FXMacroData targets one second from official publication and measures it publicly on the release-speed page, which shows the share of releases available within one second by source and lists every release that took longer. Releases are typically available within seconds, and subscribers can receive release events over SSE rather than polling.

What "fresh" means for each product

ExchangeRate-API Free / open access

One rate refresh per day. Fine for displaying prices; not built for intraday decisions.

ExchangeRate-API Pro / Business

Refresh every 60 minutes or every 5 minutes. Fresher conversion, still no release events.

FXMacroData release rows

Official release, second-level timestamp, typically available within seconds of publication, with a public measured record.

Takeaway: ExchangeRate-API measures freshness by refresh interval; FXMacroData measures it from the official publication of each release.

API And AI Access

ExchangeRate-API's request style is deliberately minimal: a GET request with the API key in the URL path returns every rate for a base currency, and a pair endpoint converts one amount. That simplicity is a genuine selling point for web developers. FXMacroData uses header authentication, so keys stay out of URLs and logs:

curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" "https://api.fxmacrodata.com/v1/announcements/usd/non_farm_payrolls"

Fields that matter

• announcement_datetime anchors the release to the second.
• val and prior support surprise and revision analysis.
• Source metadata shows which official publisher the row came from.
• Pair it with /v1/forex/eur/usd to join the release to the daily rate series.

Why this differs from a conversion response

A conversion response tells you today's rate. A timestamped release row tells you why the rate may move and lets you test that across years of releases.

Takeaway: one call returns a release a model can use directly, with no scraping or hand-copied calendar values.

For AI workflows, FXMacroData runs an official MCP server, so Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other clients can query releases, calendars, FX rates, and COT directly during a conversation. That is the basis for the AI trading workflows FXMacroData documents. ExchangeRate-API does not list an MCP server; an agent would call its REST endpoints through custom tooling.

Where ExchangeRate-API Is Genuinely Stronger

ExchangeRate-API is a well-run product with a clear focus, and for its job it is the better choice. It is stronger on:

• Price for conversion: $10/month for hourly rates and $30/month for 5-minute rates are hard to beat for a store or SaaS billing page.
• Currency breadth: 160+ currencies against FXMacroData's 22, including many emerging and frontier currencies that a checkout page may need.
• Zero-friction start: a keyless open access endpoint and a Free plan with no card required.
• Stability promises: a published long-term-support policy for endpoints and price-locking for existing customers.
• Simplicity: a single GET returns every rate for a base currency, which suits front-end and no-code tools.

If your product only needs to show prices in local currency, ExchangeRate-API does that job well and at lower cost than FXMacroData.

Where FXMacroData Is Stronger

FXMacroData is stronger once the question shifts from converting amounts to understanding and trading currency moves.

FXMacroData pros

• 700+ official macro series across 22 currencies with source metadata.
• Second-level timestamps and a public release-speed record.
• Release calendar, COT, yields, press releases, and FX rates in one key.
• 1,000,000 requests/month, MCP, SSE, GraphQL, SDKs.

FXMacroData tradeoffs

• 22 currencies, not 160+.
• FX rates are official central-bank fixings, not 5-minute conversion rates.
• Higher entry price than a pure conversion feed.

ExchangeRate-API pros

• Low prices and a free keyless endpoint.
• 160+ currencies with daily to 5-minute refresh.
• Long-term endpoint support and locked-in pricing.

ExchangeRate-API tradeoffs

• No macro indicators, calendar, COT, or central-bank context.
• History is paid-only and documented as unsuitable for day-trading backtests.
• No MCP server listed; key travels in the URL path.

Review takeaway: ExchangeRate-API is a strong, inexpensive conversion feed. FXMacroData is the stronger choice when the data has to explain, time, or trade currency moves.

A practical example: before a US CPI release, a trader using FXMacroData can check the scheduled time on the calendar, the Fed policy rate and unemployment context, the latest COT positioning, and bond yields, then receive the official print with its timestamp the moment it is available. The same workflow extends to the eurozone policy rate and ECB statements, or to the Bank of Japan and Bank of England. None of that is in scope for a conversion API.

Decision Matrix

Recommendation

Choose ExchangeRate-API if your output is a converted amount: a localised price, an invoice total, or a reporting roll-up. Start with its free plan or open access endpoint, and move to Pro or Business when you need fresher rates or history.

Choose FXMacroData if you trade, research, or automate around currency moves. Start with the Individual plan and its 14-day trial, read the API reference, and check the measured release-speed record for the sources you care about. You get FX spot rates for supported pairs alongside the macro releases that drive them, so one key covers both the price series and its explanation. Plan the week with the FX sessions view and track metals and energy on the commodities dashboard.

Bottom line: ExchangeRate-API is the simpler, cheaper choice for currency conversion across 160+ currencies. FXMacroData is the better choice for FX traders, quants, and AI builders who need the macro drivers of currency moves, timestamped to the second, with FX spot rates included for supported pairs.

Compare plans on the pricing page or connect the MCP server to try the data inside your AI assistant.

Sources Checked

Competitor figures in this comparison come from ExchangeRate-API's public pricing table, documentation, and terms, retrieved in October 2026. Plans and features can change, so check the linked pages before buying.

ExchangeRate-API pricing

Plans, request quotas, update frequency, features per plan, annual billing, uptime.

exchangerate-api.com pricing

Open access endpoint

Daily updates, attribution, caching, redistribution, rate limiting.

Open access docs

Historical data

Paid-plan access, coverage from 1990 and 2021, intended uses.

Historical data docs

Currencies and terms

Supported currency codes and commercial-use terms.

Supported currencies · Terms

FXMacroData

Plans, API reference including the forex endpoint, and measured release speed.

Pricing · API reference · Release speed

Takeaway: every competitor figure above links back to a public ExchangeRate-API page you can check yourself.

Related Reading

• FXMacroData vs Open Exchange Rates: the closest comparison, another conversion-rate API with a different price ladder.
• FXMacroData vs Fixer and Currencylayer: two more conversion feeds compared with an FX macro API.
• FXMacroData vs OANDA Exchange Rates API: a rates-feed comparison with a treasury and ERP angle.