How to Integrate a Free Currency Converter API into Your Website or App

by | Jun 2, 2023 | API

Currency converter APIs are crucial tools for companies that conduct international commerce since they offer precise and current conversion rates for different currencies. This makes it simple for most companies to conduct financial transactions, make investments, and run operations across borders. This article will go through the significance of currency converter APIs, the advantages of using a free currency converter API, and how to incorporate a currency converter API into your website or app.

What Are Currency Converter APIs?

What is a currency converter API

A currency converter API is a tool that offers real-time currency exchange rate data for several currencies. It enables real-time currency conversion for enterprises, which is essential for multinational companies that frequently deal with different currencies. Currency converter APIs work by accessing real-time currency data from various sources, including banks like the European Central Bank, financial institutions, and forex markets. Following this data processing, the API offers the live exchange rate for the chosen currencies.

There are many different kinds of currency converter APIs on the market, both for commercial use and free use. Free currency converter APIs provide basic functionality like real-time foreign exchange rate data for a limited number of currencies, but paid APIs typically offer more sophisticated features like historical foreign exchange rates and multiple currency conversion. Additionally, some of the available currency conversion APIs provide tools like calculators, news, and analysis.

What Are the Benefits of a Currency Converter API?

What are the benefits of a currency converter API

Businesses that need currency conversion services can profit from free currency converter APIs in a number of ways. First off, they are affordable because they don’t cost anything to use, which is very helpful for small enterprises or startups with tight finances. Second, since they provide real-time data and have frequent updates to guarantee the accuracy, free currency converter APIs are trustworthy. The high uptime of many free currency converter APIs ensures that businesses can access the API anytime they need to.

Thirdly, since they can be quickly integrated into several websites and applications, free currency converter APIs give organizations more control over their conversion procedures. Free currency converter APIs additionally frequently provide a number of capabilities, such as multiple currencies, historical data, and conversion calculators, making them an appropriate option for enterprises with various demands.

Free currency converter APIs can provide comparable functionality and services to paid currency converter APIs, giving them a more affordable option. Paid currency converter APIs, on the other hand, could provide more sophisticated capabilities and customization options, making them appropriate for bigger enterprises with more demanding requirements. Therefore, you should know how to choose the best currency API based on various parameters. This includes currency coverage, data accuracy, and more. Read more about how to choose the best free currency API for your project.

Free currency converter APIs are used by many well-known websites and applications to offer currency conversion services to their users. For instance, the e-commerce platform Shopify offers currency conversion services to owners of online stores by using the Open Exchange Rates API. Check out on why using a Free foreign exchange rates API is essential for an e-commerce.

How to Integrate Fixer.io into Your Website or App

Integrating a free currency converter API into your website or app is a simple process. The following demonstration uses Fixer.io’s API. To use the API, adhere to the following steps:

  1. On the Fixer.io website, register to receive a free API key.
  2. Create the API endpoint that your code will utilize. Use the ‘latest’ endpoint, for instance, to retrieve the most recent exchange rates.
  3. Set the API endpoints and access keys in the API requests after initializing CURL in PHP.
  4. Close the CURL connection after saving the response information in a variable.
  5. Utilize PHP’s ‘json_decode’ function to decode the JSON response.
  6. Use the response to access the pertinent information, such as the historical exchange rates.

Here is an example of how to use the Fixer.io API in PHP to retrieve the most recent currency rates.

$endpoint = 'latest';
$access_key = 'YOUR_API_KEY';

$ch = curl_init('https://data.fixer.io/api/'.$endpoint.'?access_key='.$access_key.'');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);

$json = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

$exchangeRates = json_decode($json, true);

echo $exchangeRates['rates']['GBP'];

Use the Fixer.io API for converting currencies by doing the following steps.

  1. Configure the request URL with the conversion endpoint and necessary parameters. Use the ‘convert’ endpoint and specify the ‘from’, ‘to’, and ‘amount’ parameters, for instance, to convert 10 USD to EUR.
  2. Set the API endpoint and access key in the request URL after initializing CURL in PHP.
  3. Close the CURL connection after saving the response information in a variable.
  4. Utilize PHP’s ‘json_decode’ function to decode the JSON response.
  5. Access the pertinent information from the response, such as the outcome of the conversion.

The PHP Fixer.io API can be used to convert currencies in the following ways.

$endpoint = 'convert';
$access_key = 'YOUR_API_KEY';
$from = 'USD';
$to = 'EUR';
$amount = 10;

$ch = curl_init('https://data.fixer.io/api/'.$endpoint.'?access_key='.$access_key.'&from='.$from.'&to='.$to.'&amount='.$amount.'');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);

$json = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

$conversionResult = json_decode($json, true);

echo $conversionResult['result'];

Why Should You Choose Fixer.io for?

Fixer.io is a free currency converter API that offers historical and real-time international exchange values for over 170 different currencies. It provides functions including currency conversion, HTTPS encryption, and assistance with a variety of programming languages. Fixer.io is a well-liked option for companies of all sizes due to its ease of use, dependability, and accuracy. It also offers a free service with a monthly cap of 1,250 API queries, making it an affordable option for startups and small businesses. Fixer.io is used by websites and applications including Revolut, TransferWise, and Shopify for currency conversion needs. Moreover, Fixer.io integration is simple, and the API documentation includes step-by-step instructions and sample code in a number of different computer languages. Fixer.io is a great option for companies searching for a dependable, affordable currency converter API.

Sign up with Fixer.io for a free API key to get started.

FAQs

What Is a Currency Converter API?

An API for currency converters enables programs to automatically convert between different currencies.

How Does a Currency Converter API Work?

It works by sending a request to a server and waiting for it to respond with the latest exchange rate data. This information is used by the API to compute single currency conversion.

Is It Expensive to Use a Currency Converter API?

Depends on the API. While some APIs for currency converters are free, others have a cost. However, a lot of free currency converter APIs are financial data providers of precise and dependable conversion rate information.

Can I Integrate a Currency Converter API Into My Website or App?

Yes. Most currency converter APIs provide documentation and code snippets to make integration easy.