Documentation

Historical Rates Endpoint

The Historical Rates endpoint provides access to past exchange rates for any supported currency pair. This endpoint is essential for financial analysis, trend tracking, backtesting trading strategies, and building historical charts and reports.

You can retrieve historical rates for any date back to the year 2000, allowing you to analyze currency movements over time and make informed decisions based on historical performance.

Historical Rates

GET /api/v1/history
Available on:
EssentialStartUpProfessional

Request Parameters

key string

Your API key for authentication

date string

The date for which you want historical rates (YYYY-MM-DD format)

base string

The base currency for exchange rates. All rates will be relative to this currency

Default: USD

output string

Response output format. Use `json` (default) or `xml`

Default: json

Response Properties

valid boolean

Indicates whether the request was successful

updated integer

The timestamp when the rates were last updated (Unix timestamp)

base string

The base currency used for all exchange rates

date string

The date for which the historical rates were retrieved

rates object

Object containing historical exchange rates, where the key is the currency code and the value is the exchange rate. If the currency did not exist on the date requested, the value will be NULL.

Date Format and Examples

The date parameter must be in YYYY-MM-DD format. Here are some examples:

  • 2024-01-15: January 15, 2024
  • 2023-12-31: December 31, 2023
  • 2024-02-29: February 29, 2024 (leap year)
  • 2023-06-01: June 1, 2023

Data Availability

Our historical data goes back to the year 2000.

NOTE: Not all currencies have data back to 2000, eg newer fiat currencies or cryptocurrencies. In this case, the rate will show as null.

Our historical data is updated at 00:00 UTC every day, and rates are saved for the previous day.

With most fiat currencies, weekend and holiday rates are typically the same as the last business day.

Common Use Cases

The Historical Rates endpoint is commonly used for:

  • Financial Applications: Build historical charts and analysis tools
  • Trading Platforms: Provide historical data for backtesting and analysis
  • Investment Research: Analyze currency performance over time
  • Risk Management: Calculate historical volatility and risk metrics
  • Reporting Systems: Generate historical reports for clients
  • Educational Tools: Create learning materials about currency markets

Best Practices

To optimize your use of the Historical Rates endpoint:

  • Cache historical data: Historical rates don't change, so cache them permanently
  • Batch requests: If you need multiple dates, consider using the timeframe endpoint or looping through the dates
  • Validate dates: Ensure dates are in the correct format and within our data range
  • Error handling: Always check the valid field and handle date-related errors