Quick answer: CurrencyFreaks is the Fixer alternative for developers whose project has outgrown 100 free calls or has started earning money. Its free plan gives 1,000 calls a month with no non-commercial clause, it covers 1,000+ currencies including crypto and precious metals, and paid plans start at $9.99 a month for 15,000 calls with any base currency. Fixer does one thing better: its free plan updates hourly and includes historical rates back to 1999, where the CurrencyFreaks free plan updates every 24 hours and keeps history for paid plans.
Fixer's free plan is 100 requests a month, EUR as the only base currency, and non-commercial use only. That last clause catches teams out more often than the request cap, because a side project that starts earning money is no longer covered. Fixer's paid plans run from $14.99 a month ($13.99 billed annually) for 10,000 requests up to $99.99 for 500,000, with update speed rising from hourly to every 60 seconds.
Fixer figures were checked against fixer.io/pricing and the Fixer homepage on 15 October 2026. CurrencyFreaks figures come from our pricing page.
Below: every Fixer plan, the free-tier limits that force an upgrade, and a side-by-side table. If you have already decided to move, the Fixer to CurrencyFreaks migration guide maps every endpoint with code in Python, JavaScript and PHP.
What Is the Fixer API?
Fixer is a REST API that returns foreign exchange rates for 170 currencies, including Bitcoin, gold and silver, as JSON. It is operated by apilayer and sources its reference rates from financial data providers and central banks, including the European Central Bank. You authenticate with an access key passed as a query string parameter, and every endpoint returns a flat JSON object keyed by ISO 4217 currency code.
The API exposes six endpoints. latest returns current rates. historical returns rates for a single past date. convert turns an amount in one currency into another. timeseries returns rates across a date range. fluctuation returns the change between two dates. symbols lists supported currency codes.
Rates are quoted against a single base currency. On the free tier that base is fixed to EUR, so a USD-based application has to divide every returned rate itself, which introduces rounding error on long conversion chains. Switching the base at the API level requires a paid plan.
Fixer is a data API only. There is no dashboard widget, no hosted converter, and no client SDK maintained by the vendor. You call the endpoint and handle the response yourself.
Fixer API Pricing: Every Plan and What It Costs
Fixer publishes five tiers. Prices below are the monthly billing rate, with the discounted annual rate shown in brackets where one exists.
| Plan | Monthly price | Requests per month | Update frequency | Commercial use | Base currency | Endpoints beyond latest and historical |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 100 | Hourly | No | EUR only | None |
| Basic | $14.99 ($13.99 annual) | 10,000 | Hourly | Yes | All | Convert |
| Professional | $59.99 ($52.99 annual) | 100,000 | 10 minutes | Yes | All | Convert, time-series |
| Professional Plus | $99.99 ($84.99 annual) | 500,000 | 60 seconds | Yes | All | Convert, time-series, fluctuation |
| Enterprise | Custom | Volume | 60 seconds | Yes | All | All |
Two things in that table decide most purchases. The first is that commercial use begins at $14.99, not at $0, so any revenue-generating project starts on a paid plan regardless of how few requests it makes. The second is that update frequency, not request volume, is what pushes teams up the ladder. A trading dashboard needing sub-minute rates lands on Professional Plus at $99.99 even if it only makes 20,000 calls, because the 60 second refresh is gated to that tier.
Cost per 1,000 requests works out at $1.50 on Basic, $0.60 on Professional and $0.20 on Professional Plus. The unit price improves sharply with volume, which suits high-throughput applications and penalises low-volume commercial ones.
Prices checked against fixer.io/pricing on 15 October 2026.
What the Fixer Free Plan Actually Limits
The Fixer free plan gives you 100 API requests per month. Spread across a 30 day month that is roughly three calls per day, which is enough to prove an integration works and not enough to run anything on a schedule. A cron job polling once an hour exhausts the month in just over four days.
Four restrictions apply beyond the request cap:
Non-commercial use only. The free tier licence does not cover revenue-generating applications. This is the restriction that most often forces an upgrade, and it applies regardless of request volume.
EUR base currency. Rates are quoted against EUR and cannot be rebased through the API. Converting USD to GBP means fetching both against EUR and dividing client-side.
No conversion endpoint. The convert endpoint that turns an amount into a target currency is a paid feature. On the free tier you fetch raw rates and do the arithmetic yourself.
Hourly updates. Rates refresh once per hour. That is acceptable for accounting and invoicing, and too slow for anything priced against live markets.
SSL is included on the free plan, so free tier traffic is encrypted. Historical data is also available at the free tier, subject to the same 100 request cap.
CurrencyFreaks Vs. Fixer API: Key Numbers
| CurrencyFreaks | Fixer | |
|---|---|---|
| Free calls per month | 1,000 | 100 |
| Commercial use on free plan | No non-commercial clause | Non-commercial only |
| Base currency on free plan | USD only | EUR only |
| Update interval, free plan | Every 24 hours | Hourly |
| Starting paid price | $9.99/month for 15,000 calls, hourly updates | $14.99/month ($13.99 billed annually) for 10,000 requests, hourly updates |
| Cost per 1,000 requests, entry plan | $0.67 | $1.50 |
| 10-minute updates from | $49.99 (Growth) | $59.99 (Professional) |
| 60-second updates from | $99.99 (Professional) | $99.99 (Professional Plus) |
| Historical data starts | 28 November 1984 for major fiat currencies (paid plans, Starter and up) | 1 January 1999 (all plans, including free) |
| Currencies | 1,000+ (fiat, crypto and precious metals) | 170 |
| Crypto | Yes | Bitcoin only |
| Precious metals | Yes | Gold and silver |
| Base currency switching | Paid plans | Paid plans |
| Conversion endpoint | Paid plans (Starter and up) | Paid plans (Basic and up) |
| Time series endpoint | From $99.99 (Professional) | From $59.99 (Professional) |
| Fluctuation endpoint | From $99.99 (Professional) | From $99.99 (Professional Plus) |
| IP to currency endpoint | From $49.99 (Growth) | Not offered |
| Response formats | JSON and XML | JSON |
| Free plan support | Limited | None |
The entry rows are where the gap is largest. Commercial use on Fixer starts at $14.99 for 10,000 requests. On CurrencyFreaks the free plan has no non-commercial clause, and the first paid plan is $9.99 for 15,000 calls, less than half Fixer's price per request. Higher up, the gap narrows, and 60-second updates cost $99.99 on both.
Three rows favour Fixer. Its free plan refreshes hourly against every 24 hours on CurrencyFreaks, it includes historical rates on the free plan, and its time-series endpoint unlocks at $59.99 against $99.99. If you need time series on a small budget, Fixer is the cheaper route. See the CurrencyFreaks pricing page for what each tier includes.
CurrencyFreaks API
CurrencyFreaks is a REST API for real-time and historical exchange rates, returning JSON or XML on every endpoint and every plan. It covers 1,000+ currencies across fiat, precious metals and cryptocurrencies, listed on the supported currencies page.
The free Developer plan allows 1,000 requests per month with USD as the base currency and 24-hour updates, with no credit card. Starter ($9.99) adds any base currency, hourly updates, historical rates back to 28 November 1984 for major fiat currencies, and live and historical conversion. Growth ($49.99) adds 10-minute updates and the IP-to-currency endpoint. Professional ($99.99) adds 60-second updates plus the time-series and fluctuation endpoints. There is no daily or hourly throttle on any plan, only the monthly quota.
Fixer API
Fixer covers 170 currencies, including Bitcoin, gold and silver, sourced from financial data providers and central banks including the European Central Bank. It is operated by apilayer and shares infrastructure with currencylayer and other APIs on the same platform.
The free plan allows 100 requests per month, non-commercial use only, EUR base only, with hourly updates and historical data. Paid plans start at $14.99 for 10,000 requests and unlock commercial use, all base currencies and the conversion endpoint. Time series arrives at $59.99, fluctuation at $99.99.
Fixer's strength is data lineage. If your requirement is ECB reference rates specifically, for accounting or regulatory reporting, that is what Fixer is built to deliver. Its weakness is the shape of the free plan, which works as a trial rather than a working allowance.
Fixer vs Four Alternative Currency APIs
Fixer is usually shortlisted against three or four other providers rather than evaluated alone. The table compares free tier allowance, the price of the cheapest paid plan, and what that plan buys per 1,000 requests.
| Provider | Free requests per month | Free plan base currency | Cheapest paid plan | Requests included | Cost per 1,000 requests |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CurrencyFreaks | 1,000 | USD | $9.99 | 15,000 | $0.67 |
| Fixer | 100 (non-commercial) | EUR | $14.99 | 10,000 | $1.50 |
| Open Exchange Rates | 1,000 | USD | $12 | 10,000 | $1.20 |
| currencylayer | 100 | USD | $14.99 ($13.99 billed annually) | 10,000 | $1.50 |
| ExchangeRate-API | 1,500 | Any | $10 | 30,000 | $0.33 |
Fixer and Currencylayer are both apilayer products built on shared infrastructure, so shortlisting both adds little to an evaluation. Pick one or the other and spend the time on a provider from a different stack.
The axis that separates these providers is not the feature list, which is close to identical across all five. It is the licensing of the free tier and the price of the first commercially licensed plan. Fixer publishes a non-commercial free licence, so a small revenue-generating service pays from its first request no matter how little traffic it has. Check that clause on any provider you shortlist before you compare anything else, because it decides whether a free tier is a trial or a working allowance.
Where Fixer holds up is data provenance. Its ECB-sourced reference rates carry a documented lineage that matters for financial reporting, and cheaper options do not always describe their sourcing as precisely. If you need a defensible rate for a ledger entry rather than a rate for a price display, that outweighs unit cost. For a wider view of the market, see the currency exchange API comparison, and for the closest priced competitor, the Open Exchange Rates pricing breakdown.
Fixer and currencylayer figures checked on their pricing pages on 15 October 2026; Open Exchange Rates and ExchangeRate-API figures checked the same day. Third-party prices change without notice, so confirm against each vendor's pricing page before budgeting.
When Fixer Is the Right Choice and When It Is Not
Fixer is the right choice when your rates need a documented source. Accounting systems, invoicing, tax reporting and anything that may be audited benefit from ECB reference rates with a clear lineage, and Fixer is explicit about where its numbers come from. It is also a reasonable pick if you need the time-series endpoint on a modest budget, since it unlocks at $59.99 rather than $99.99.
Fixer is the wrong choice in three situations. The first is any commercial project with low request volume, because the non-commercial free licence forces a $14.99 minimum spend for what might be a hundred calls a month. The second is anything needing sub-minute rates below the $99.99 tier. The third is a USD-denominated application on a tight budget, because rebasing EUR-quoted rates client-side compounds rounding error across chained conversions and the fix is a paid plan.
The honest summary is that Fixer prices its data lineage, not its throughput. Teams that need the provenance find it fair. Teams that need volume find it expensive. Work out which of the two you are before comparing feature tables, because the feature tables across all of these providers look nearly identical and the pricing does not.
Migrating From Fixer to CurrencyFreaks
Both APIs return a rates object keyed by ISO 4217 code, and the symbols and base parameters keep their names, so most of your response parsing survives the move. What changes is the base URL, the key parameter (access_key becomes apikey), a few endpoint paths, and error handling: Fixer reports errors inside an HTTP 200 response with "success": false, while CurrencyFreaks returns 4xx status codes.
The Fixer to CurrencyFreaks migration guide maps every Fixer endpoint to its CurrencyFreaks equivalent, with before-and-after code in Python, JavaScript and PHP.
Conclusion
Fixer's free plan is a 100-request trial licensed for non-commercial use, not a working allowance, so almost every real project starts at $14.99 per month. From there the unit economics improve steeply with volume, and the tiers are structured around update speed rather than request count.
Choose Fixer if documented ECB provenance or a cheap time-series endpoint matters more to you than cost per request. Choose CurrencyFreaks if you need 1,000 free calls with no non-commercial clause, crypto and metals beyond Bitcoin, gold and silver, or a $9.99 entry plan for a small production service.
If you have decided to move, the migration guide maps every Fixer endpoint to its equivalent with working code, and covers the error handling difference that trips up most cutovers.
FAQs
Is Fixer API free?
Yes, with limits. The Fixer free plan gives 100 requests a month for non-commercial use only, with EUR as the only base currency, hourly updates and historical rates. Any revenue-generating project needs a paid plan from $14.99 a month. CurrencyFreaks has a free plan with 1,000 calls a month, USD as the base and 24-hour updates, with no non-commercial clause and no credit card.
What is the best free alternative to Fixer API?
CurrencyFreaks is the closest free alternative for projects that have outgrown 100 calls or need commercial use. Its free plan gives 1,000 calls a month, it covers 1,000+ currencies including crypto and precious metals, and paid plans start at $9.99 a month for 15,000 calls with any base currency. Fixer stays the better pick if you need hourly updates or historical rates on a free plan.
Fixer vs CurrencyFreaks: which is cheaper?
CurrencyFreaks is cheaper at the entry tier: $9.99 a month for 15,000 calls against $14.99 for 10,000 Fixer requests, which is $0.67 against $1.50 per 1,000 requests. CurrencyFreaks is also cheaper for 10-minute updates ($49.99 against $59.99). Fixer is cheaper for time series ($59.99 against $99.99 on CurrencyFreaks), and 60-second updates cost $99.99 on both.
Can I use the Fixer free plan in a commercial product?
No. Fixer's free plan is licensed for non-commercial use only, however few requests the product makes, so a revenue-generating application needs Basic at $14.99 a month or above. The CurrencyFreaks free plan has no non-commercial clause and allows 1,000 calls a month.
How do I switch from Fixer to CurrencyFreaks?
Change the base URL to https://api.currencyfreaks.com/v2.0/, rename access_key to apikey, move /latest to /rates/latest, replace the success check with an HTTP status check, and cast rate values from strings to numbers. The symbols and base parameters keep their names. CurrencyFreaks has a full migration guide with code in Python, JavaScript and PHP.
Sign up for CurrencyFreaks free: 1,000 calls a month, no credit card.
