Free Historical Currency Conversion APIs

2024-07-03 12:28 UTC gpt-4 Open in ChatGPT ↗

Yes, there are several free APIs available for accessing historical currency conversion rates. Here are a few popular options:

ExchangeRate-API - This API offers both current and historical exchange rates. It provides a free plan with limited features, which is often sufficient for basic use cases. You can find more information on their website.
Open Exchange Rates - This API provides hourly-updated currency conversion rates as well as historical data. The free plan includes limited requests per month and provides historical data for up to one year in the past.
exchangeratesapi.io - A simple and easy-to-use API that offers both current and historical exchange rates. The free tier allows for a decent number of API requests and provides historical exchange rate data.
CurrencyLayer - This API offers a limited free plan that includes historical exchange rate data. It is particularly well-known for its accuracy and reliability.

Before choosing an API, you should review the specifics of their free plans to ensure they meet your needs, especially in terms of request limits, historical data depth, and available currencies. Some APIs may require an API key even for accessing free tier services, and they might have restrictions on commercial use.

To write a Python script that uses the Open Exchange Rates API to convert currency values from Euro (EUR) to British Pound (GBP) based on historical rates corresponding to specific dates, you’ll first need to sign up for an API key from Open Exchange Rates. Once you have the API key, you can use the following Python script:

This script assumes you have two lists:

amounts_eur: A list of amounts in Euros that you want to convert.
transaction_dates: A list of dates corresponding to each transaction. Each date should be formatted as "YYYY-MM-DD".

Here’s a Python script that will perform these conversions:

import requests

# API Key from Open Exchange Rates
api_key = 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE'

# Lists of amounts in EUR and their corresponding transaction dates
amounts_eur = [100, 200, 150]  # Example amounts
transaction_dates = ['2023-01-01', '2023-01-02', '2023-01-03']  # Example dates

def convert_eur_to_gbp(amounts, dates, api_key):
    results = []

    # URL for historical data from Open Exchange Rates
    base_url = 'https://openexchangerates.org/api/historical/{}.json'

    for amount, date in zip(amounts, dates):
        # Construct URL for the specific date
        url = base_url.format(date)

        # Parameters for the API request
        params = {
            'app_id': api_key,
            'symbols': 'GBP,EUR',
            'base': 'EUR'
        }

        # Make the request
        response = requests.get(url, params=params)

        if response.status_code == 200:
            data = response.json()
            # Extract the exchange rate from EUR to GBP
            exchange_rate = data['rates']['GBP']
            # Convert amount
            converted_amount = amount * exchange_rate
            results.append(converted_amount)
        else:
            results.append(None)  # Handle cases where API request fails

    return results

# Convert amounts and print results
converted_amounts_gbp = convert_eur_to_gbp(amounts_eur, transaction_dates, api_key)
print(converted_amounts_gbp)

Important Points:

Replace 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE' with your actual API key.
The script checks the response status to handle possible errors during the API request.
It uses the 'symbols' parameter to request only EUR and GBP rates, and sets the 'base' currency to EUR. Note that the base currency option might be restricted in free API plans, so you may need to adjust the script based on the capabilities of your plan.

If you’re working with a free plan that doesn’t support changing the base currency, you might need to adjust the script to work with the rates as provided (usually with USD as the base) and calculate the conversion rate from EUR to GBP through an intermediate conversion via USD.