Weekly Rate Watch Reviewed 20 September 2026 By , the team behind Fengvi Tools

How to Read a Live Exchange Rate Before You Convert

Most of us convert money a handful of times a year: a trip, a transfer to family, an invoice in another currency. The number that decides what you actually pay is rarely the one on the screen — it is the gap between the mid-market rate shown here and the rate the bank, kiosk or card terminal finally applies.

That gap follows a pattern. It usually shows up in three places: the exchange-rate markup (often 1–4% on cards, 5–10% at airport kiosks), a flat fee on every ATM withdrawal, and the “pay in your home currency” prompt at card terminals, which hands the conversion to the merchant's bank at its own rate. Comparing the live mid-market rate below with the rate you are offered is the quickest way to see which of the three you are paying.

Use the converter for the arithmetic, the rate alerts when one specific level matters to you, and the guides in Editor’s Picks when you need a decision instead: which provider, which card, and which day to move the money.

Right now, our own live feed shows 1 USD = — EUR, 1 USD = — CNY and 1 USD = — JPY — mid-market data, refreshed every 5 minutes. Compare those with the rate your bank, kiosk or card actually offers.

Read the full guide: how to get the best exchange rate → Skip to the converter ↓

Exchange rates cost money in ways that rarely appear as a line item. A supplier invoice of 40,000 dollars settled 0.6% away from the mid-market rate is 240 dollars of margin, and it shows up as a reconciliation line at the end of the month rather than on the invoice. Consumers meet the same arithmetic in smaller sizes: a transfer that lands short, a card terminal that bills you at its own rate. We built this site so that the comparison is possible before you agree to a price rather than after the money has moved, and so that the awkward cases are written down as plainly as the flattering ones. No account, no email, no signup.

Where Your Rate Comes From — and Where the Cost Hides

If you are sending or spending dollars, three costs decide the bill: a card’s foreign-transaction fee (commonly 0–3% on cards from Chase, Wells Fargo or Citi), a flat fee on every overseas ATM withdrawal — plus whatever the machine’s operator adds — and dynamic currency conversion, the terminal’s offer to charge you in dollars at its own rate instead of in the local currency.

A wire adds its own layers: the sending bank’s fee (Chase, Wells Fargo and Citi each publish their own outgoing-wire charge), an intermediary bank’s fee, and the margin built into the rate. Transfers advertised as fee-free usually recover that cost inside the margin, which is why the rate — not the fee — is the line worth comparing.

The three pairs below are the ones readers from the United States ask about most often. Everything on this page is mid-market, so the gap between these numbers and the rate you are quoted is a close estimate of your total cost.

USD/EUR1 USD = — EUR
USD/CNY1 USD = — CNY
USD/JPY1 USD = — JPY

Mid-market data, refreshed every 5 minutes. Banks and exchange desks usually add their own margin on top.

Free Currency Converter – Real-Time Exchange Rates for 160+ Currencies

Live exchange rates for USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, CNY and 160+ other currencies

Live rates: 1 USD = — EUR, 1 USD = — CNY and 1 USD = — JPY Updated every 5 minutes from mid-market data. View all rates →

Exchange rates are provided for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial advice. Fengvi is a rate reference service only — not a financial services firm, and not a substitute for the rate your bank, card issuer or transfer provider actually applies at the moment of your transaction. Actual rates offered by banks and money transfer providers may include a markup.

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Everyday Calculators That Pair With the Converter

Most people who land on this page are planning a trip, sending money or checking a loan. These three tools cover the rest of the maths:

Travel Budget Calculator

Enter a destination and a daily spend; it converts the trip total into your home currency at the live rate, so you see the real cost before you book.

Money Transfer Calculator

Compare what a $1,000 transfer actually costs across banks and transfer services, including the exchange-rate margin that never shows up as a "fee".

Loan / Mortgage EMI Calculator

See the monthly payment and the total interest on any loan, with a full amortisation schedule you can check month by month.

Written and reviewed by

Exchange rates, transfer costs and consumer finance maths

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Editor’s Picks: Money Abroad

Six guides that answer what the converter cannot: where to get a fair rate, what a transfer or a card payment really costs, what moves a rate in the first place, and how much cash a trip actually needs.

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Live Exchange Rates

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Data Source: ExchangeRate-API, Frankfurter (ECB reference rates for EUR, GBP, JPY, CAD, AUD, CHF, CNY, HKD, SGD), open.er-api.com and exchangerate.host - Real-time rates for major currencies, refreshed every 5 minutes

Popular Currency Pairs

Quick convert the most popular pairs below, or browse all currency pairs for in-depth guides.

Each card shows both directions — tap any card to convert instantly at the live mid-market rate.

Currency Conversion FAQ

How often are exchange rates updated?

Our exchange rates are updated every 5 minutes from multiple reliable financial data sources, including the European Central Bank and professional exchange rate APIs.

Why do bank rates differ from the rates on this site?

Banks and exchange offices add a margin to the interbank rate to cover their costs and make a profit. The rates shown here are mid-market rates, which are typically more favorable.

Are the rates real-time interbank rates?

We provide live mid-market rates sourced from multiple reliable APIs. They are very close to interbank rates but should be used for informational purposes only. Learn more about mid-market rates on our exchange rate guides.

Why is the rate I get for cash worse than the rate shown here?

Because cash is a physical product. Notes have to be stored, insured, shipped and counted, so banks quote a separate cash rate alongside the rate they use for transfers and card payments — and the cash one is always worse. If you do not need notes immediately, converting electronically and withdrawing later is normally cheaper than buying a bundle of cash up front.

My bank's app shows a different number from this page. Which one is right?

Both can be right, because they are different things. We publish a mid-market rate — the midpoint between the buy and sell prices large institutions trade at — captured every five minutes. A bank publishes the rate it will actually deal with you at, which is that mid-market rate plus its margin. The gap between the two is what the exchange costs you; it is a price, not an error.

Is it cheaper to withdraw cash abroad or to pay by card?

It depends on how each option is priced, and in small amounts the fixed parts matter most. A card payment usually carries a percentage fee and no flat charge, while an ATM withdrawal often adds a flat fee per withdrawal on top of a percentage. Withdrawing a larger amount less often, or paying by card wherever cards are accepted, usually beats taking out small amounts frequently.

A terminal abroad offered to charge me in my own currency. Should I accept?

Usually not. That offer is dynamic currency conversion: the merchant's bank performs the conversion at a rate it sets and typically adds a service charge, so the amount you approve is almost always higher than the same payment made in the local currency. Choosing the local currency leaves the conversion to your card network, which is normally the cheaper of the two.

Why has the rate changed between checking it and converting?

Because exchange rates are prices set continuously by trading, and they move whenever new information arrives — central bank decisions, inflation and employment releases, or large flows of money between currencies. Our page refreshes every five minutes, so a small difference from a minute ago is expected rather than an error. What you can control is the margin you accept, not the direction the market moves.

Fengvi Currency Converter: How to Read the Mid-Market Rate and Work Out What Your Bank Adds

A mid-market rate is the midpoint between the prices banks quote each other — a reference point, not a price anyone sells to the public. That is what this converter shows, for 160+ currencies, and it is why the page quotes every pair in both directions: reading 1 USD in EUR and 1 EUR in USD side by side is the quickest way to see that the buy and sell prices around the mid-market are not the same number. The rest of this section answers the only question the converter cannot: how far the rate you are being offered sits from the mid-market, and whether that distance is normal for the channel you are using.

A worked example: a Tokyo ATM offered ¥8.02 per dollar while the mid-market rate that day was ¥8.19 — a 2% gap, which is what the channel costs rather than what the currency is worth. The same pattern appears on hotel card terminals that quote a 4% markup in the customer's home currency. Both come down to one check: compare the rate on the screen with the live mid-market rate before confirming.

Where these rates come from, and how often they change

Every number on this page comes from four public sources: ExchangeRate-API (professional endpoint), Frankfurter, which republishes the European Central Bank's daily reference rates, open.er-api.com, and exchangerate.host. The page asks for fresh data every five minutes and keeps the last result locally for up to 30 minutes — so a repeat visit shows that snapshot immediately and refreshes in the background — and prints the timestamp of the last successful fetch next to the converter. We would rather show you when the figures were taken than claim they are live to the second.

The sources rarely disagree, but when they do we prefer the ECB reference series for the nine currencies it publishes (EUR, GBP, JPY, CAD, AUD, CHF, CNY, HKD, SGD) and fall back to the mean of the sources for everything else. That is how the converter can quote a currency the ECB does not publish without inventing a figure for it.

It also explains small gaps you may spot elsewhere. Google Finance and your bank each publish a mid-market rate captured at a slightly different moment, and a bank's quote is not a mid-market rate at all — it is mid-market plus a margin. Comparing our figure with a bank's is therefore not a test of accuracy: the distance between them is the price you are being quoted.

Rates are informational only and are not financial advice. Fengvi is a rate reference service only — not a financial services firm, and not a substitute for the rate your bank, card issuer or transfer provider actually applies at the moment of your transaction. If a figure ever looks wrong, the contact page reaches us directly.

How to use the numbers on this page

Treat this page as a baseline, not as the price you will get. Enter the amount, pick the two currencies, and note the mid-market rate. Then look at the rate your bank, card or transfer service is quoting for the same pair on the same day: the gap between the two, expressed as a percentage, is what that channel actually costs you. A 1% gap on a 2,000-dollar transfer is 20 dollars — that is the number worth comparing, not the advertised fee.

Two details decide most of the difference: whether a quote is for cash or for a transfer (cash rates are usually worse), and whether a terminal or platform offers to convert the amount into your own currency before charging you. Both cases are covered with worked examples in the guides linked from this page.

One caveat worth knowing: the public reference series behind these figures are published once per business day, not tick by tick. That is why the reference date can be a day or two old on a weekend or a public holiday even though the page fetched its data moments ago — and why we print the fetch timestamp instead of the word "live". A conversion made on a Saturday is quoting the reference published on Friday.

Rates here are a reference, not an offer, and no provider transfers money at the mid-market rate. When a rate actually matters — a payment, a deposit, a tuition bill — comparing two providers on the same afternoon usually moves the price more than waiting a few days for a better rate does. Use this page to establish the fair benchmark, then read the gap between it and the quote from your provider as the price you are being asked to pay.

Popular Currency Rate Guides

Get the latest exchange rate information for the world's most popular currency pairs: