How to use this currency converter
Enter an amount, pick the two currencies, and read the result. The line underneath gives you the rate in both directions, which is worth glancing at — most conversion mistakes come from having the rate the wrong way round rather than from arithmetic.
The quick reference table converts common round amounts. It is deliberately there for travellers: memorise two or three of those lines before a trip and you can price things in your head without reaching for your phone every time.
Where the rates come from, and what they mean
Rates are fetched from a public exchange-rate API that publishes daily reference rates derived from mid-market data. The mid-market rate is the midpoint between what buyers are bidding and what sellers are asking on the interbank market. It is the rate you will see quoted by Google, Reuters and the financial press.
Crucially, it is not a rate you can buy at. Nobody sells you currency at the mid-market rate. It is the benchmark against which every actual offer should be measured.
Two honest limitations, stated plainly. First, these are daily reference rates, not live tick data — they update roughly once every 24 hours, which is fine for travel budgeting, invoicing and shopping, and unsuitable for trading. Second, the API is free and shared, so it occasionally rate-limits or goes down. If it does, the page will tell you clearly rather than quietly showing you a stale number. Every other tool on this site works without any network at all; this is the one exception, because exchange rates genuinely cannot be computed locally.
Why you always get less than the rate shown
The gap between the mid-market rate and what you actually receive is the spread, and it is where currency exchange makes its money. Rough figures worth knowing:
- Airport exchange counters: 8–15% worse than mid-market. The worst rate you will be offered anywhere, sold on convenience at the moment you have no alternative.
- High-street banks: typically 2–5% worse, sometimes plus a fixed fee.
- Credit and debit cards abroad: usually 1–3% worse — the network rate plus a foreign transaction fee. Some cards charge no foreign fee at all, and those are close to the best deal available to an ordinary consumer.
- Specialist transfer services: 0.3–1% for major currency pairs, with the fee stated separately. Generally the cheapest option for sending money internationally.
- Dynamic currency conversion: the "would you like to pay in your home currency?" prompt on a foreign card terminal. Always decline. Accepting hands the exchange to the merchant's provider at a rate typically 3–7% worse than your card's. Always pay in the local currency.
Multiply the amount by these percentages before you decide it does not matter. On a $3,000 holiday, the difference between an airport counter and a fee-free card is roughly $300 — a meaningful part of the trip budget.
Practical uses
Travel budgeting. Convert your daily budget before you go and round to a memorable number. Knowing that 50 of the local currency is "about £30" stops you overspending through uncertainty.
Online shopping. Convert the listed price before checkout so you can spot a bad conversion applied at the payment step. If the checkout total in your currency is more than about 3% above what this shows, you are being charged a conversion margin.
Invoicing across borders. Freelancers should agree which rate applies and on what date, in writing, before invoicing. Currencies move several percent in a month, and "we will use the rate on the day" means very different things to each side.
A note on rounding
Results show two decimal places for ordinary amounts and six for very small values, so converting into high-denomination currencies like the Vietnamese dong or Indonesian rupiah stays readable. Note that some currencies have no minor unit at all — the Japanese yen and Korean won are not divided into subunits — so treat decimal places in those as arithmetic precision, not as spendable amounts.
Not financial advice. This calculator is an educational tool that models a simplified scenario. Real outcomes depend on fees, taxes, inflation and market behaviour that no calculator can predict. Speak to a regulated adviser before making a financial decision.