Live-Rates.com

Real-time foreign exchange, commodity, and index rates — JSON, XML, and WebSocket streaming.

Live-Rates serves 170+ instruments — major & minor FX pairs, metals, crypto, indices, and commodities — updated every second from liquidity providers. Use the REST API for polling, or the Streaming API (socket.io) for push updates with sub-second latency.

Quickstart

# Free, no key — up to 3 requests/hour/IP
curl "https://www.live-rates.com/rates"

# With a key — unlimited (subject to fair-use throttling)
curl "https://www.live-rates.com/api/price?key=YOUR_KEY&rate=EURUSD,GBPUSD"

Don't have a key? Grab a trial — no card required.

REST API

Base URL: https://www.live-rates.com

Endpoint	Auth	Purpose
`GET /rates`	optional	Full quote stream for every instrument. Keyless = 3 req/hour/IP; with `?key=` = unlimited.
`GET /api/rates`	required	Lightweight index — one row per instrument with its last-update timestamp.
`GET /api/price?rate=PAIR[,PAIR...]`	required	Full quote(s) for one or more specific pairs.
`GET /historical/list`	required	List instruments that have historical coverage.
`GET /historical?base=&date=`	required	Closing price on a given UTC day.
`GET /historical/series?base=&start=&end=`	required	Series for a period (≤ 30 days).

All endpoints accept rate_format=xml to switch the payload from JSON to XML.

List all rates

Full quotes for every instrument. No key = 3 req/hour/IP; with a key = unlimited.

GET /rates HTTP/1.1
Host: www.live-rates.com

Sample response

[
  { "currency":"EUR/USD", "rate":"1.17942", "bid":"1.17942", "ask":"1.17953", "high":"1.18108", "low":"1.17559", "open":"1.17667", "close":"1.17942", "timestamp":"1776200275944" },
  { "currency":"GBP/USD", "rate":"1.35639", "bid":"1.35639", "ask":"1.35654", "high":"1.35891", "low":"1.3503",  "open":"1.35155", "close":"1.35639", "timestamp":"1776200277525" }
]

If you prefer a light index of what's available (pair + last-update timestamp only), call GET /api/rates?key=YOUR_KEY.

Get specific pairs

Pair codes can be passed as EURUSD or EUR_USD. Multiple pairs as a CSV:

GET /api/price?key=YOUR_KEY&rate=EUR_USD,EUR_GBP HTTP/1.1
Host: www.live-rates.com

Sample response

[
  {
    "currency": "EUR/USD",
    "rate":     "1.08542",
    "bid":      "1.08542",
    "ask":      "1.08551",
    "high":     "1.08891",
    "low":      "1.08201",
    "open":     "1.08395",
    "close":    "n/a",
    "timestamp":"1713045600000"
  }
]

Keyless / free tier

curl "https://www.live-rates.com/rates"

Capped at 3 requests per hour per IP. Above that you'll see 503 Service Unavailable. For continuous use, grab a key.

XML format

Append rate_format=xml to any REST endpoint:

curl "https://www.live-rates.com/api/price?key=YOUR_KEY&rate=EURUSD&rate_format=xml"

Response schema

Field	Type	Notes
`currency`	string	Instrument identifier, e.g. `"EUR/USD"`, `"BTC/USD"`, `"BrentOil"`.
`rate`	string	Alias for `bid` (retained for backwards compatibility).
`bid`	string	Last bid price.
`ask`	string	Last ask price.
`high`	string	24-hour high.
`low`	string	24-hour low.
`open`	string	Opening price of the current daily session (or the previous close if markets are shut).
`close`	string	Closing price of the previous session, or `"n/a"` if the market has not closed yet today.
`timestamp`	string	Unix epoch in milliseconds.

All numeric values are strings — parse them in your client.

Error responses

Status	Meaning
`200 OK` + JSON body with `{"error": "..."}`	Key expired, missing, or unknown.
`503 Service Unavailable`	Throttled — >1 req/s sustained over a 10-min average triggers a 10-min lockout.
`404 Not Found`	Unknown pair code in `rate=...`.

Streaming API

The streaming server is socket.io v4 with Engine.IO v3/v4 compatibility enabled — any socket.io client from v2 onward will connect. Once authenticated, rate updates are pushed to your socket as they arrive from liquidity providers (typically every few hundred milliseconds).

Streaming endpoints

Region	Hostname
Global (geo-routed)	`wss.live-rates.com`
Europe	`eu-wss.live-rates.com`
Americas	`us-wss.live-rates.com`
Asia	`as-wss.live-rates.com`

The legacy *-wss3. hostnames still resolve for backwards compatibility but are no longer needed — every hostname above serves socket.io v2, v3, and v4 clients on the same endpoint.

Connection lifecycle

Open a socket.io connection to one of the endpoints above.
(optional) Emit instruments with the pairs you want — omit to receive all.
Emit key with your subscription key (or the literal string "trial").
Listen on rates for updates.

Events

Client → server

Event	Payload	Purpose
`instruments`	`"EURUSD,GBPUSD"` (CSV string) or `["EURUSD", "GBPUSD"]` (array)	Filter the feed to a subset of pairs. Emit before `key`.
`key`	`"YOUR_KEY"` or `{ "key": "YOUR_KEY" }`	Authenticate. Emitting `"trial"` starts a 2-minute trial feed.

Server → client

The rates event carries all server messages. The payload is a JSON string; parse it to get one of three shapes:

// 1. Connection info (one-off, right after authentication)
{ "info": "Connected to Live-Rates Socket in EU Datacenter.. Feed Subscribed (v3)!" }

// 2. Authentication / session error (one-off, connection will be dropped)
{ "error": "You are not Authorised! (Wrong/Expired Key?)" }

// 3. A rate update (recurring, every few hundred ms per subscribed pair)
{
  "currency":  "EURUSD",     // no slash — different from REST, which uses "EUR/USD"
  "bid":       1.17949,       // number
  "ask":       1.17957,       // number
  "high":      1.18003,       // number — 24h high
  "low":       1.17876,       // number — 24h low
  "open":      "n/a",         // number OR the string "n/a" while session is live
  "close":     "n/a",         // number OR the string "n/a" while session is live
  "timestamp": 1776204525649  // number — unix epoch ms
}

REST vs streaming payload shape. REST endpoints return all values as strings and pairs as "EUR/USD"; the streaming feed returns numeric values and pair codes like "EURUSD" (no slash). Plan your parser accordingly.

v3 vs v4 info string. The production streaming fleet is migrating from a socket.io v2 server (info: … (v3)!) to a socket.io v4 server (info: … (v4)!). Any socket.io client from v2 onward works against either — the new server has allowEIO3 enabled.

Other server messages you may see:

{ "info": "Subscribing for 2 Minutes (Trial)" } — trial feed start
{ "info": "Trial with this IP recently used" } — trial cooldown active
{ "error": "Another connection from this key.. Disconnected!" } — only one active connection per key is allowed; opening a second drops the first.

Trial access

Send "trial" as the key to get a 2-minute live feed with no account. Trials are rate-limited per IP — wait an hour between attempts. Use trials to prototype; for anything else grab a subscription.

Historical data

Coverage: ~170 instruments (FX majors/minors, metals, major crypto). All endpoints require a key.

List available instruments

GET /historical/list?key=YOUR_KEY

Closing price for a specific UTC day

GET /historical?base=EUR&date=2024-03-15&symbols=USD,GBP&key=YOUR_KEY

symbols is optional — omit to get every quote against base.

Series over a date range (max 30 days)

GET /historical/series?base=EUR&start=2024-03-01&end=2024-03-15&symbols=USD&key=YOUR_KEY

Authentication & rate limits

Authentication is a single query-string parameter:

?key=YOUR_KEY

Tier	REST	Streaming
Keyless	3 req/hour/IP on `/rates`	❌
Trial	—	1× 2-min session per IP per hour
Subscribed	Unlimited, fair-use	1 concurrent connection per key

Throttling. If a single key averages more than 1 request per second over a rolling 10-minute window, it is locked out for 10 minutes and receives 503 Service Unavailable. For high-volume use cases, prefer the Streaming API — a single socket replaces thousands of polls.

Regions & geo-routing

Live-Rates runs three zones with local rate ingestion and full fail-over:

Zone	Rails / REST	Streaming
Europe	`eu.live-rates.com`	`eu-wss.live-rates.com`
Americas	`us.live-rates.com`	`us-wss.live-rates.com`
Asia	`as.live-rates.com`	`as-wss.live-rates.com`

The apex live-rates.com is fronted by a geo load balancer that routes each request to the nearest healthy zone. Pin a zone directly (e.g. eu.live-rates.com) for the lowest latency — at the cost of losing automatic fail-over if that box is down.

Client examples

Ready-to-run clients live under examples/. Each folder is a single file plus a minimal dependency manifest.

REST

Language	File
curl (bash)	`examples/rest/curl.sh`
Node.js	`examples/rest/node.js`
Python	`examples/rest/python.py`
Ruby	`examples/rest/ruby.rb`
Go	`examples/rest/go/main.go`
PHP	`examples/rest/php.php`

Streaming

Language	Folder	Library
Node.js	`examples/streaming/node`	`socket.io-client@4`
TypeScript	`examples/streaming/typescript`	`socket.io-client@4` + types
Python	`examples/streaming/python`	`python-socketio[client]>=5`
Go	`examples/streaming/go`	`github.com/maldikhan/go.socket.io`
Rust	`examples/streaming/rust`	`rust_socketio@0.6`
Java	`examples/streaming/java`	`io.socket:socket.io-client:2.1.1`
Kotlin	`examples/streaming/kotlin`	`io.socket:socket.io-client:2.1.1`
Swift / iOS	`examples/streaming/swift`	`socket.io-client-swift@16`
Dart / Flutter	`examples/streaming/dart`	`socket_io_client@3`
PHP	`examples/streaming/php`	`elephant.io/elephant.io:^5`
C# / .NET	`examples/streaming/csharp`	`SocketIOClient@3`

Ruby streaming: no shippable Ruby gem talks Socket.IO v4 cleanly today — socket.io-client-simple needs three separate monkey-patches to work on Ruby 3 + a Cloudflare-fronted origin, and the other maintained gems are asset-pipeline wrappers, not clients. Use the REST example or wrap faye-websocket around the Engine.IO v3 protocol yourself. PRs welcome when the ecosystem catches up.

Missing your language? Open a PR — most clients are <40 lines.

Cross-rates

For pairs without a direct quote, derive them from a common base. We publish quotes against liquid bases (USD, EUR, GBP…), so any two of those give you the cross:

MYR/CNY  =  USD/CNY  ÷  USD/MYR
         =  6.8421   ÷  4.14611
         =  1.65

Versioning

The REST surface is v1 and stable. Breaking changes will ship under a new path prefix (/api/v2/…) with at least 90 days of overlap. The streaming event names (instruments, key, rates) are part of the v1 contract.

Support

Subscriptions & billing → live-rates.com/checkout
Account / access issues → email the address on your receipt
Bugs or doc gaps → open an issue or a PR

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 47 Commits
examples		examples
.gitignore		.gitignore
CONTRIBUTING.md		CONTRIBUTING.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md

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Repository files navigation

Live-Rates.com

Contents

Quickstart

REST API

List all rates

Get specific pairs

Keyless / free tier

XML format

Response schema

Error responses

Streaming API

Streaming endpoints

Connection lifecycle

Events

Trial access

Historical data

Authentication & rate limits

Regions & geo-routing

Client examples

REST

Streaming

Cross-rates

Versioning

Support

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Repository files navigation

Live-Rates.com

Contents

Quickstart

REST API

List all rates

Get specific pairs

Keyless / free tier

XML format

Response schema

Error responses

Streaming API

Streaming endpoints

Connection lifecycle

Events

Trial access

Historical data

Authentication & rate limits

Regions & geo-routing

Client examples

REST

Streaming

Cross-rates

Versioning

Support

About

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Resources

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Contributing

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