Skip to main content

✨ fastFOREX API MCP is now Generally Available - let your agents manage your fastFOREX API ✨

fastFOREX API vs Frankfurter

Frankfurter alternative: when you outgrow the free tool

Credit where due: Frankfurter is a superb free, open-source API for daily reference rates from 104 central banks and official sources, with history to 1948 and no API key needed. But it's end-of-day data only — by its own FAQ, 'not for live trading'. fastFOREX API is what you graduate to when you need intraday, bid/ask, crypto, metals or streaming.

Create Your Free API KeySee full pricing

Figures from Frankfurter's public documentation, verified 10 September 2026. Frankfurter is free and open source — this comparison is about fit, not price.

The difference, quantified.

86,400x

Fresher — 1-second updates vs one rate per day

2,300+

Live bid/ask FX pairs — reference rates have no spread

500+

Cryptocurrencies — central banks publish none

Head to head

Feature comparison.

What you get on comparable plans.

Frankfurter is free, open-source and self-hostable — a different tool for a different job. Currency, time-series, metals, sign-in, account and MCP rows were checked on 2 October 2026. Currency counts come from each provider's published currency list, classified against the official ISO 4217 list (SIX Group, published 17 September 2026). Other rows were checked on 10 September 2026.

fastFOREX API

Frankfurter

Plans & pricing

Entry paid plan

$18/mo

Free (open source)

API calls included

1,000,000

No quota (rate-limited)

Update frequency

60 seconds

Daily (end-of-day reference rates)

Fastest published updates

1 second ($54)

Daily

Cheapest time-series plan

$18/mo (One) — every plan

Free

Currency coverage

ISO 4217 national & supranational currencies

155 of 155

154 of 155

Total currencies listed (fiat, pegged, supranational & instruments)

172

161

Cryptocurrencies

500+ (750+ pairs)

No

Metals

Precious metals

Gold, silver, platinum, palladium (from Premium, $54/mo)

Gold, silver, platinum, palladium (per troy ounce, daily)

Base metals

Copper, aluminium, lead, nickel, zinc

None listed

Market data

Data sources

100+ named institutional contributors

104 central banks & official sources (named)

Live bid/ask quotes (2,300+ pairs)

Yes

No

OHLC candles down to the minute

Yes

No

Historical data depth

55+ years (1970, to the minute)

77 years (1948, daily reference)

Streaming & AI

WebSocket streaming

Premium + WS plan

No

MCP server for AI agents (official)

Yes

Yes

Account & support

Sign-in options

Google, GitHub, email

No accounts

Multiple API keys

Multiple keys (live, dev, test)

No keys needed

Multiple users / team access

You can add other users & accounting email addresses

No accounts

Support

365 days/yr

Community (GitHub)

Create Your Free API KeySee all comparisons

  • Intraday, not end-of-day

    Central-bank reference rates are published once a day. fastFOREX API updates every 60, 30 or 1 second by plan — for prices that move while your users are watching.

  • The market's price, not the reference price

    Reference rates have no bid/ask spread. We stream live two-way prices on 2,300+ pairs from Tier-1 institutional liquidity — plus minute-level OHLC for charting.

  • Crypto and metals included

    Frankfurter lists gold, silver, platinum and palladium per troy ounce, but central banks don't publish Bitcoin, base metals or gold-per-gram prices. fastFOREX API covers 500+ crypto assets and nine metals in any currency, unit and purity.

  • Someone to call

    Open source means GitHub issues; production billing systems sometimes need more. Our support answers 365 days a year, with published SLA targets on every plan.

Switch in under an hour.

Both APIs speak JSON over HTTPS, so migrating from Frankfurter is usually a base-URL and response-shape change. Follow the migration guide, run both side by side on your free trial, and cut over when the numbers check out.

Read the Migration GuideStart Side-by-Side Trial

"We had intermittent failures with our previous currency exchange API provider. We switched to fastFOREX — setup was easy, and we always get fast response times. That's all we need."

Esteban Tósta

Beyond Bath & Bed — switched to fastFOREX API

Switching questions.

What developers ask when moving from Frankfurter.

Should I just use Frankfurter?
If daily ECB-style reference rates genuinely cover your use case — invoicing, reporting, academic work — honestly, yes, it's a great free tool. Reach for fastFOREX API when you need intraday freshness, bid/ask, crypto, metals, streaming, or supported infrastructure with an SLA.
Can I test both side by side?
Yes. The 7-day free trial gives full access to your plan's features with no credit card, so you can benchmark latency and data quality against your current provider before switching.
Where does fastFOREX API data come from?
We aggregate from 100+ FX contributors, major OTC inter-dealer brokers, and the dealing rooms of leading market-making banks including HSBC, JPMorgan, Barclays Capital and UBS. See our data sources.
What if I need more than a million calls?
Top up in 1M blocks at $18/month, with volume discounts from 10M calls per month.
Frankfurter vs fastFOREX API: what's the main difference?
The head-to-head table above compares Frankfurter with fastFOREX API line by line — update speed, data depth, limits, pricing and support — with every figure sourced and dated 10 September 2026.
How does Frankfurter pricing compare?
The table above shows what Frankfurter offers and what it costs, with sources and retrieved dates. fastFOREX API starts at $18/month with 1,000,000 API calls included.

Ready to benchmark us?

Free 7-day trial, no credit card, cancel anytime.

Create Your Free API Key

Sources & verification

Competitor figures were taken from the public pages below, last verified 2 October 2026 (pricing rows 10 September 2026). Plans and prices may have changed since.

Read how we compare providers. Frankfurter is a trademark of its owner; we reference it only to describe a factual comparison. Spot something outdated? Tell us and we'll correct it promptly.

For everything a daily reference rate can't do.

1-second updates, live bid/ask, crypto, metals, streaming and supported infrastructure — from $18/month.

Create Your Free API Key