Currency Converter (ECB Reference Rates)

Features

• 30 currencies, converted at European Central Bank reference rates
• The rate, its inverse, and the date that rate belongs to
• A 30-day chart with the period low, high and change — see at a glance whether today sits high or low
• Accepts `1,234.56`, `1 234`, `¥1200` and `1.234,56`; commas and dots are resolved as separators or decimal points automatically
• One click swaps the two currencies
• The rate date, the ECB publishing schedule and “a reference rate is not a price you can get” are all in the output, not left for you to look up
• If the history fails you lose the chart and nothing else — the conversion still comes back
• Same currency on both sides returns instantly, without spending a request

How to use

1. Enter an amount and pick two currencies (USD to CNY by default)
2. Hit Convert
3. Use the copy button on any row to take that single value
4. Click ⇄ to swap the currencies, or press Enter in the amount field to convert

FAQ

Are these rates live?

No. These are the European Central Bank’s reference rates, published once per working day at around 16:00 CET. Weekends and holidays bring no new rate, so the previous working day’s figure carries over. The “rate date” row tells you which day the number belongs to — at a weekend it is usually Friday. That makes this the right tool for conversion, reconciliation, budgeting and viewing trends, and the wrong tool for trading or rate-watching, which needs live quotes.

Why does my bank give me a different rate?

Two reasons. First, a reference rate is a mid-market rate — the midpoint between buy and sell — while your bank only gives you the side that suits it, plus a margin. That spread is commonly 1–3%, and wider for exotic currencies. Second, banks quote different rates for notes and for transfers, and cash is the more expensive of the two. So estimating “what will I actually get” from this number is optimistic; the real figure is always lower. Subtracting 1–3% from the reference rate gets you closer.

Where does the data come from, and why not the ECB directly?

The data is the ECB reference rates, fetched through the `frankfurter.dev` API. The detour exists because the ECB’s own XML sends no CORS headers, so a browser cannot fetch it directly — and this is a purely static site with no server to proxy it. Frankfurter republishes the ECB data unmodified. ⚠️ The cost is that the amount and the currency pair are sent to that third party; the note under the page title says so, and nothing is logged.

Why is there no cryptocurrency?

Because this table is central-bank reference rates: the ECB publishes fiat currencies only, and these are the 30. Crypto has no central bank, so there is no such thing as a reference rate for it — exchange quotes differ wildly from one another, and presenting any single venue’s price as “the official rate” would mislead.