In recent years, with the acceleration of globalization and digitalization, exchange rates, and especially exchange rates have become important for almost every sector and investor. With the increase in international trade, businesses and investors need to accurately follow the rates of change. At this point, exchange rate APIs play an important role. Exchange rate API services provide users with access to real-time exchange rate data, facilitating access to fast and reliable information.
Foreign exchange rate data APIs allow users to track various exchange rates in real-time. This helps businesses gain a stronger position when competing in international markets. These APIs help users make more informed and accurate decisions when making financial decisions, investing, or trading. Additionally, these APIs allow financial services companies to provide a better service to their customers. For example, while an e-commerce platform offers its customers the opportunity to pay in different currencies, it can apply an accurate and fair exchange rate using current exchange rates with the exchange rate API. In this context, exchange rate APIs directly contribute to the development of financial technology (fintech). Although there are many currency API services in this field in the market, in this article we will introduce you to the most reliable exchange rate data API. Then, we will learn closely about the services it offers.
Table of Contents
Understanding the Fixer API: A Comprehensive Guide
Fixer API is a world-renowned global exchange rates API used daily by thousands of developers, SMEs, and large companies, with reliable data sources and 6+ years of experience. Providing real-time exchange rate data, Fixer API updates data for 170 world currencies every 60 seconds. This data is sourced from financial data providers and banks, including the European Central Bank, ensuring reliability and accuracy.
Fixer API is an API that prioritizes security and accuracy above all else. It protects its users’ connections with bank-grade 256-bit SSL encryption. Thus, it offers its users a secure data exchange experience. Additionally, the API’s powerful and reliable JSON structure delivers fast responses and scalable volumes. Thanks to the API’s detailed documentation and clear code examples, developers can integrate the API into their applications in just a few steps.
Discover how to use Fixer.io for accurate forex data in financial analysis!
In addition to live data, the Fixer API also offers separate endpoints for single currency conversions and time series data. It also provides access to historical exchange rate data since January 1, 1999. In this respect, it is also known as historical foreign exchange data API. This API serves global companies such as Microsoft and Samsung with its wide service network.
Among the advantages that Fixer API offers to its users is a strong support team. A world-class support team, available 24 hours a day, 24 hours a day, quickly assists users with any issues they may be experiencing and offers solutions to resolve issues. Fixer API also offers different membership options according to different needs and offers up to a 15% discount with an annual billing option.
As a result, Fixer API constitutes an important resource for developers in terms of reliability, performance, and ease of use and continues to provide a successful service with its wide user base.
Delving into Fixer API’s Endpoint Testing
Fixer API is ahead of its competitors today with its diverse and useful services. In this section, we will test and examine the requests and responses of the base endpoints it offers to its users.
Latest Rates Endpoint
Fixer API comes with the latest rate endpoint that we can use to get real-time exchange rate data for any currency. The endpoint can deliver data for all available currencies, or specify a set of currencies. The endpoint returns exchange rate data updated every 60 minutes, 10 minutes, or 60 seconds, depending on our subscription plan. It also returns a timestamp, which shows the exact time the currencies were collected. The API delivers exchange rates relative to EUR by default.
Deep dive into exchange rates APIs for business: Why are they so important?
Below is an example code to get real-time exchange rate data:
|
1 2 3 4 |
"]<code>https://data.fixer.io/api/latest ? access_key = API_KEY & base = USD & symbols = GBP,JPY,EUR |
The above code will provide the following results:
Historical Rates Endpoint
Fixer exchange rate API can provide historical exchange rates for most currencies all the way back to 1999. We can also specify a set of output currencies and set our preferred base currency. We need to append a date (format YYYY-MM-DD) to the base URL to get historical exchange rates.
Learn how to get real-time and historical exchange rates into Excel.
Below is an example code to get historical data:
|
1 2 3 4 |
"]<code>https://data.fixer.io/api/2013-12-24 ? access_key = API_KEY & base = GBP & symbols = USD,CAD,EUR |
The above code will provide the following results:
Convert Endpoint
The API comes with a currency conversion endpoint that we can convert any amount from one currency to another. To convert currencies, we need to use the “convert” endpoint and set our preferred target and base currencies. We can also convert currencies using historical exchange rate data by using the “date parameter” and setting it to our preferred date (format YYYY-MM-DD).
Below is an example code to convert one currency to another:
|
1 2 3 4 5 |
"]<code>https://data.fixer.io/api/convert ? access_key = API_KEY & from = GBP & to = JPY & amount = 25 |
The code above will return the following results:
Fluctuation Endpoint
Fixer API also has a fluctuation data endpoint that shows us how our specified currencies fluctuate on a day-to-day basis. We need to use the “fluctuation” endpoint and provide start and end dates. We can get fluctuation data for all available currencies, or specify a set of currencies.
Below is an example code to get fluctuation data:
|
1 2 3 4 |
"]<code>https://data.fixer.io/api/fluctuation ? access_key = API_KEY & start_date = 2015-12-01 & end_date = 2015-12-24 |
The above code will provide the following results:
Time-Series Endpoint
With the “time series” endpoint, we can get daily historical exchange rates between two dates. We can specify the dates with a maximum time period of 365 days. We can get the time-series data for all available currencies, or specify a set of currencies.
Below is an example code to get historical exchange rates between two dates using the time-series endpoint:
|
1 2 3 4 |
"]<code>https://data.fixer.io/api/timeseries ? access_key = API_KEY & start_date = 2012-05-01 & end_date = 2012-05-25 |
The above code will provide the following results:
Fetching Exchange Rates with Fixer API Using PHP
Fixer API is an easy to integrate API that is very easy to use. Integrating this API into the PHP programming language is just a few steps. Putting the following codes into the PHP project we created for this purpose is sufficient to integrate the Fixer API into the PHP programming language.
|
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 |
// set API Endpoint and API key $endpoint = 'latest'; $access_key = 'API_KEY'; // Initialize CURL: $ch = curl_init('https://data.fixer.io/api/'.$endpoint.'?access_key='.$access_key.''); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true); // Store the data: $json = curl_exec($ch); curl_close($ch); // Decode JSON response: $exchangeRates = json_decode($json, true); // Access the exchange rate values, e.g. GBP: echo $exchangeRates['rates']['GBP']; |
Conclusion
In conclusion, the increasing importance of exchange rates has become an important issue in the business world and financial technology with globalization and digitalization. At this point, the existence of a reliable and powerful source such as Fixer API allows users to access real-time exchange rate data quickly and reliably. Fixer API helps businesses compete in international markets and take correct and conscious steps when making financial decisions. With the use of this API, it becomes possible for both developers and businesses to manage exchange rate-related processes more efficiently and effectively.
Head over to Fixer and choose a subscription plan that suits your needs.
FAQs
Q: What is the Exchange rate data API and why is it important?
A: Exchange rate data API is a programming interface that provides access to real-time exchange rate data. It is especially important for companies trading internationally, financial institutions, and developers because accurate and up-to-date exchange rate information plays a critical role in their decision-making processes.
Q: What is the API request limit of Fixer’s free plan?
A: In Fixer’s free plan, the API request limit is 100 API requests per month. This limit is ideal for smaller-scale projects or beginner users.
Q: How can I get ahead of my competitors with the Exchange rate API?
A: You can make more informed decisions by using the Exchange rate API. By analyzing the data provided by the API, you can better evaluate opportunities in international trade, reduce costs, and even increase customer satisfaction. Additionally, you can gain a competitive advantage thanks to the fast and reliable data flow offered by the API.
Q: How can I get started using the Fixer API?
A: To start using the Fixer API, you must first obtain an API key. By leveraging the API documentation, you can make requests and retrieve data using your API key. You can also review the documentation to get detailed information about the features offered by the API and usage instructions.
