Quickstart

Get your API key

Sign up at xchangr8.com/signup. The free plan includes 10,000 requests/month — no credit card required. Your key will look like this:

Keep your key secret — treat it like a password. Rotate it anytime from your dashboard.

Make your first request

Pass your API key in the X-API-Key header. Here is the simplest possible request:

curl https://api.xchangr8.com/v1/latest \
  -H "X-API-Key: xc8_live_YOUR_KEY"

Parse the response

The API returns a JSON object with the following fields:

{
  "base":        "USD",
  "timestamp":   1749340800,
  "freshness":   "1m ago",
  "source":      "fastforex",
  "rates": {
    "EUR": 0.9201,
    "GBP": 0.7823,
    "JPY": 149.85,
    "AUD": 1.5412
  }
}

Specify a base currency and symbols

Use the base query parameter to change the base currency, and symbols to return only the currencies you need:

curl "https://api.xchangr8.com/v1/latest?base=JPY&symbols=USD,EUR,AUD,GBP" \
  -H "X-API-Key: xc8_live_YOUR_KEY"

This returns only USD, EUR, AUD, and GBP rates denominated in Japanese Yen — reducing payload size and keeping responses fast.

SDK integrations

Use the language that fits your stack. All examples perform the same request.

const res = await fetch(
  'https://api.xchangr8.com/v1/latest?base=USD',
  { headers: { 'X-API-Key': 'xc8_live_YOUR_KEY' } }
)
const { rates } = await res.json()
console.log(`1 USD = ${rates.EUR} EUR`)

import requests

r = requests.get(
    'https://api.xchangr8.com/v1/latest',
    params={'base': 'USD'},
    headers={'X-API-Key': 'xc8_live_YOUR_KEY'}
)
rates = r.json()['rates']
print(f"1 USD = {rates['EUR']} EUR")

import (
    "net/http"
)

req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET",
    "https://api.xchangr8.com/v1/latest?base=USD", nil)
req.Header.Set("X-API-Key", "xc8_live_YOUR_KEY")
resp, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)