Where these rates come from
Rates are refreshed once a day from a published mid-market feed (rates by Exchange Rate API), validated, and served from our own server — the converter always shows the date its rates were captured, so you are never converting on silently stale numbers. As a cross-check, we compare the feed against the independent market rates our country sites track; the two sources typically agree within a fraction of a percent.
The mid-market rate is not the rate you will get
This is the honest limitation of every currency converter, ours included. The mid-market rate is the midpoint between global buy and sell prices — it is the fair reference, but no bank, forex bureau or transfer service deals at it. They add a margin, either openly as a fee or quietly inside the exchange rate they offer you. The result here tells you what your money is worth; what you will receive depends on who moves it.
- Sending money to or between African countries? The margin plus transfer fee is the real cost, and it varies enormously between providers on the same corridor. Our guide to sending money across Africa shows how to compare on the amount that actually arrives.
- Comparing quotes: convert your amount here first, then compare each provider's payout against this number. The gap is what that provider is charging you in total, whatever their fee line says.
Why we built our own feed
Most converter widgets fetch rates from a third-party API in your browser: if that service goes down or changes, the tool silently breaks or lies. Ours is fetched and validated on our server once a day — every rate must pass sanity bounds before it is published, and if the source ever fails, the converter keeps serving the last good rates with their date visible rather than pretending. That is the same standard our editorial guidelines apply to every figure on Rateweb. And if you are wondering why these numbers move at all, our guide to how exchange rates work explains the machinery.
Conversion happens in your browser — the amounts you type are not sent to us or stored. Results are indicative mid-market figures for education, not a quote or an offer to exchange. More tools: see the full list.