CurrencyFreaks is the Open Exchange Rates alternative for developers who need more currencies, conversion endpoints or older history without paying $97 a month. It covers 1,000+ currencies including crypto and precious metals, starts paid plans at $9.99 a month with any base currency and live and historical conversion, and serves daily historical rates back to 28 November 1984 for major fiat currencies on paid plans. Open Exchange Rates has the better free tier for intraday data: its free plan updates hourly and includes historical rates, where the CurrencyFreaks free plan updates every 24 hours and has no history.
Both free plans give you 1,000 requests a month and both lock the base currency to USD. Any base currency costs $9.99 a month on CurrencyFreaks (Starter, 15,000 calls) and $12 a month on Open Exchange Rates (Developer, 10,000 requests). Past the entry tier the gap widens: Open Exchange Rates gates its convert endpoint to the Unlimited plan at $97 a month, while every paid CurrencyFreaks plan includes it.
Open Exchange Rates figures below were checked against its pricing page and API docs on 15 October 2026. CurrencyFreaks figures come from our pricing page.
Why Developers Look for Alternatives to the Open Exchange Rates Free Plan?
The free plan is generous on update speed and limited on everything else. You get 1,000 requests a month, hourly rates and USD as the only base currency. Changing the base, converting amounts and pulling a time series all need a paid plan, and the last two need one of the upper tiers.
CurrencyFreaks Vs. Open Exchange Rates API: Key Numbers
| CurrencyFreaks | Open Exchange Rates | |
|---|---|---|
| Free calls per month | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| Base currency on free plan | USD only | USD only |
| Update interval, free plan | Every 24 hours | Hourly |
| Fastest update interval | Every 60 seconds (Professional, $99.99/month) | Every 5 minutes (Unlimited, $97/month); up to every second on VIP (price on request) |
| Starting paid price | $9.99/month for 15,000 calls, hourly updates | $12/month for 10,000 requests, hourly updates |
| Historical data starts | 28 November 1984 for major fiat currencies (paid plans) | 1 January 1999 (all plans, including free) |
| Currencies | 1,000+ (fiat, crypto and precious metals) | 200+ |
| Crypto | Yes | Yes, limited: Bitcoin in the main list, about 19 more digital currencies via show_alternative |
| Precious metals | Yes | Yes: gold, silver, platinum, palladium |
Feature Comparison
| Feature | CurrencyFreaks | Open Exchange Rates API |
|---|---|---|
| Paid plans | $9.99 (15,000 calls), $49.99 (150,000), $99.99 (550,000), Enterprise custom | $12 (10,000 requests), $47 (100,000), $97 (unlimited), VIP on request |
| Response Formats | JSON and XML on every plan | JSON |
| Request limits | Monthly quota only, no daily or hourly throttle | Monthly request quota |
Filter to chosen currencies (symbols) |
✔️ All plans | ✔️ All plans |
| Change Base Currency | ✔️ Paid plans, from $9.99 | ✔️ Paid plans, from $12 |
| Historical Rates | ✔️ Paid plans | ✔️ All plans |
| Latest Rates Conversion | ✔️ Paid plans, from $9.99 | ✔️ Unlimited plan only ($97) |
| Historical Rates Conversion | ✔️ Paid plans, from $9.99 | ❌ |
| Time Series Endpoint | ✔️ Professional plan and above ($99.99) | ✔️ Enterprise and Unlimited plans (from $47), up to one month per query |
| Fluctuation | ✔️ Professional plan and above | ❌ |
| IP To Currency | ✔️ Growth plan and above | ❌ |
| Supported Currency Symbols | ✔️ | ❌ |
| OHLC (open/high/low/close) | ❌ No equivalent endpoint | ✔️ VIP plan only |
| Usage / quota endpoint | ❌ Usage visible in dashboard only | ✔️ Any App ID, and usage requests do not count toward the quota |
| Enterprise Solutions | Custom Enterprise plan | VIP plan with uptime SLA and phone support |
| Code examples | Shell, Node JS, Java, Python, Ruby, JavaScript, Go, C#, PHP, Swift | Libraries and integrations available for many languages |
Switch From Open Exchange Rates in 5 Minutes
Most integrations need three edits: the endpoint URL, the key parameter name, and the code that reads the timestamp. The symbols and base parameters keep their names.
Latest rates, curl
Open Exchange Rates:
curl 'https://openexchangerates.org/api/latest.json?app_id=YOUR_APP_ID&symbols=EUR,GBP,PKR'
CurrencyFreaks:
curl 'https://api.currencyfreaks.com/v2.0/rates/latest?apikey=YOUR_APIKEY&symbols=EUR,GBP,PKR'
CurrencyFreaks response:
{
"date": "2026-08-25 13:26:00+00",
"base": "USD",
"rates": {
"EUR": "0.9278605451274349",
"GBP": "0.8172754173817152",
"PKR": "281.6212943333344"
}
}
Latest rates, Python
Open Exchange Rates:
import requests
r = requests.get(
"https://openexchangerates.org/api/latest.json",
params={"app_id": "YOUR_APP_ID", "symbols": "EUR,GBP,PKR"},
)
data = r.json()
eur = data["rates"]["EUR"] # already a number
as_of = data["timestamp"] # Unix seconds
CurrencyFreaks:
import requests
from datetime import datetime
r = requests.get(
"https://api.currencyfreaks.com/v2.0/rates/latest",
params={"apikey": "YOUR_APIKEY", "symbols": "EUR,GBP,PKR"},
)
data = r.json()
eur = float(data["rates"]["EUR"]) # rates are strings
as_of = datetime.strptime(data["date"] + "00", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S%z")
How the endpoints map
latest.jsonbecomes/v2.0/rates/latesthistorical/2026-08-20.jsonbecomes/v2.0/rates/historical?date=2026-08-20(paid plans)convert/500/USD/PKRbecomes/v2.0/convert/latest?from=USD&to=PKR&amount=500(paid plans)time-series.json?start=...&end=...becomes/v2.0/timeseries?startDate=...&endDate=...(Professional plan and above)ohlc.jsonhas no CurrencyFreaks equivalent
CurrencyFreaks returns HTTP 429 once the monthly quota is used up. On 1,000 calls a month that is about one call every 45 minutes, so fetch rates on the server, cache them, and fall back to the last cached response on a 429. Full parameters are in the CurrencyFreaks documentation.
CurrencyFreaks
CurrencyFreaks returns real-time and historical exchange rates for 1,000+ currencies, including 166 fiat currencies, 4 metals, and 874 cryptocurrencies, in JSON or XML on every plan. Updates run every 24 hours on the free Developer plan, hourly on Starter, every 10 minutes on Growth and every 60 seconds on Professional. The documentation has examples in Java, Python, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, Swift and more.
Open Exchange Rates API
Open Exchange Rates serves live and historical rates for 200+ currencies, with end-of-day history back to 1 January 1999 on every plan. Paid tiers run from $12 to $97 a month, with time series from $47, conversion at $97 and real-time updates down to one second plus OHLC prices on the VIP plan. The free plan is limited to USD as the base currency and 1,000 requests per month.
Conclusion
For a free tier alone, Open Exchange Rates wins on update speed and history. Once you pay, CurrencyFreaks gives you more for less: any base currency and conversion from $9.99, 1,000+ currencies including crypto and metals, XML, and history to 1984. Compare plans on the pricing page, or see how both rank against other providers in our 10 best currency exchange APIs list. If you are also weighing Fixer, our Fixer pricing comparison covers it.
FAQs
Is Open Exchange Rates free?
Yes, with limits. The Open Exchange Rates free plan gives 1,000 requests a month, hourly updates and historical rates, with USD as the only base currency. CurrencyFreaks also has a free plan with 1,000 calls a month and USD as the base, updated every 24 hours, with no credit card required.
What is the best Open Exchange Rates alternative?
CurrencyFreaks is the closest alternative for developers who need more currencies or cheaper conversion. It covers 1,000+ currencies including crypto and precious metals, includes live and historical conversion on every paid plan from $9.99 a month, and has daily historical rates back to 28 November 1984 for major fiat currencies. Open Exchange Rates remains the better choice if you need hourly updates on a free plan or OHLC prices.
Open Exchange Rates vs CurrencyFreaks: which is cheaper?
CurrencyFreaks is cheaper at the entry tier: $9.99 a month for 15,000 calls with any base currency, against $12 for 10,000 requests on Open Exchange Rates. For conversion, CurrencyFreaks includes it from $9.99 while Open Exchange Rates requires its $97 Unlimited plan. For time series, Open Exchange Rates is cheaper at $47 a month against $99.99 on the CurrencyFreaks Professional plan.
What are the limitations of the Open Exchange Rates free plan?
The Open Exchange Rates free plan allows 1,000 requests a month, fixes the base currency to USD, and excludes conversion and time series. The CurrencyFreaks free plan has the same 1,000-call allowance and USD base, updates every 24 hours, and also excludes conversion and historical data, which start on its $9.99 Starter plan.
Can I switch from Open Exchange Rates to CurrencyFreaks without rewriting my integration?
Mostly, yes. Both return JSON with a base and a rates object keyed by currency code, and both accept symbols and base. To move to CurrencyFreaks, change the endpoint URL, rename app_id to apikey, parse the date string instead of the Unix timestamp, and convert rates from strings to numbers. Code that uses the Open Exchange Rates OHLC endpoint has no CurrencyFreaks equivalent.
