Currency Calculator
Convert between currencies using live exchange rates, with a full conversion table across every supported currency.
How to use this calculator
- 1Enter an amount and choose the currencies to convert between.
- 2Check "Rates as of" to see how current the rate is — if the live provider is unreachable, the calculator falls back to its last known rates rather than failing.
How the calculation works
Converted amount = (Amount ÷ Rate[from]) × Rate[to], where each Rate is that currency's value against 1 USD- Rate[from]
- How many units of the source currency equal 1 USD
- Rate[to]
- How many units of the target currency equal 1 USD
Routing every conversion through USD as a common base is standard practice — it means only one rate per currency needs to be tracked (against USD), rather than a full rate for every possible pair.
The rates behind this calculator are fetched from a public provider once an hour and cached, not requested fresh for every visitor — this keeps the number of external requests small regardless of how many people use the calculator.
Worked example
$100 USD to EUR
- 1.Using the 11 August 2026 snapshot rate: 1 USD = 0.865948 EUR.
- 2.$100 × 0.865948 = €86.59.
Result: €86.59 (using live rates when available)
What makes an exchange rate float
A floating exchange rate is simply a price, set the same way any market price is set: by supply and demand for the currency itself, traded continuously on the global foreign exchange market. Demand for a currency comes from several directions at once — importers and exporters needing it to settle trade, investors buying assets denominated in it, and speculators betting on where it is headed next. When more market participants want to buy a currency than sell it at the current rate, its price rises against other currencies; when more want to sell than buy, it falls. No central authority sets the number directly.
Types of exchange rate regimes
Not every currency floats freely — countries choose among several different regimes, trading off control for flexibility.
- Floating — the rate is set purely by the market, with the central bank not targeting any specific level. Most major currencies — the US dollar, euro, British pound, Japanese yen — float this way.
- Pegged (fixed) — a government commits to holding its currency at a fixed rate against another currency (often the US dollar), buying or selling its own currency as needed to defend that level.
- Managed float — sometimes called a "dirty float" — the rate is mostly market-determined day to day, but the central bank intervenes occasionally to smooth out sharp moves or nudge the rate in a preferred direction.
- Currency board or full adoption — the strictest form of fixed regime — a currency board holds full foreign reserves to back every unit of the local currency issued at a hard peg, while some economies skip a domestic currency altogether and adopt another country's currency outright.
What actually moves a floating rate day to day
Several forces push and pull on a floating rate more or less continuously.
- Interest rate differentials — a currency offering a higher interest rate tends to attract yield-seeking capital from investors borrowing in a lower-rate currency to invest in the higher-rate one — a flow commonly called the "carry trade" — which increases demand for, and typically strengthens, the higher-rate currency.
- Inflation expectations — a currency expected to lose purchasing power faster through inflation tends to weaken against currencies with steadier prices, since investors price that expected erosion in ahead of time.
- Trade balances — a country persistently importing more than it exports creates sustained selling pressure on its own currency (to pay for those imports) relative to its trading partners' currencies.
- Political and economic stability — currencies of stable, predictable economies tend to attract "safe haven" demand during periods of global uncertainty, while currencies facing political or economic turmoil tend to see capital flee toward safer alternatives.
- Central bank policy and intervention — even under a floating regime, central bank announcements and occasional direct market intervention can move a rate sharply, since markets are constantly pricing in what a central bank is expected to do next.
A short history of floating rates
For decades after the Second World War, most major currencies operated under the Bretton Woods system, agreed in 1944, which pegged participating currencies to the US dollar while the dollar itself was pegged to gold. That system ended in 1971, when the United States suspended the dollar's convertibility to gold — a move often called the "Nixon Shock" — and by 1973 the major currencies had transitioned to floating against one another. That floating-rate era has continued ever since, though many smaller and developing economies still choose to peg their currency to a larger one rather than let it float freely.
What this assumes, and where it stops
Assumptions
- Rates are mid-market reference rates, not the buy/sell rates a specific bank, card network or payment provider will actually apply.
Limitations
- This calculator is the one exception to the platform's "nothing is ever sent to a server" architecture — it fetches public exchange rates (never your input) so the conversion stays current. Every other calculator on the site makes no network request at all.
- Not suitable for time-sensitive trading decisions — rates are cached for up to an hour and can lag fast-moving markets.
- Currency coverage is limited to the 15 currencies listed — many national currencies are not included.
Common questions
Does this send my amount anywhere?
No. The number you type is converted entirely in your browser, exactly like every other calculator on this site. The only network request this calculator makes is a request for the current exchange rate table — the same request with the same response for every visitor, carrying no information about you or what you've entered.
Why is the rate I get from my bank different from this?
This shows the mid-market rate — the midpoint between global buy and sell prices, which is what you'll see quoted in the news and on rate-comparison sites. Banks, card networks and money transfer services typically add their own margin on top, which is why the rate you're actually charged is usually a bit worse than the mid-market rate shown here.
Sources
- Exchange rate data provider — ExchangeRate-API (open.er-api.com)
Formula and content last reviewed on .
Results are estimates for information only, not professional advice.
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