Historical exchange rates: where to find them and why they matter

At some point you’ll need a number from the past. What was the euro worth on the day an invoice went out? What rate should go in a tax return? Why did the refund come back as less than you paid?

Good news: old rates are easy to find. The harder part is picking the right kind of old rate, because “the exchange rate on 1 May” can mean several different things.

Start with what you need the number for

Before you search, decide what the number is going to do. If it’s a rough budget check or a “did I overpay?” question, almost any reputable daily rate will serve. If it goes into accounts, a tax filing or a dispute, you want a rate that someone else can look up and get the same answer.

That second case is where the source matters. An authority that publishes a fixed daily figure, with its method written down, is easier to defend than a screenshot of a converter. Accountants usually prefer consistency: pick a method, apply it the same way every time, and be able to show where it came from. What counts as acceptable varies by country, so ask your accountant or check your tax authority’s own guidance.

Our date pages: quick lookups

Our own archive is the fastest route for most people. The page for a date, such as /2025-05-01/, shows the day’s rates across currencies. For a single pair on a date, use the pair-and-date format, like USD to INR on 1 May 2025. Swap in your own currencies and date.

Use these when you want a clean mid-market reference for comparison: for example, to see how far the rate you were charged was from the market on that day. For current rates, the main USD to INR page works the same way. Rates refreshed hourly there, which is a different job from looking up a past day.

These are reference figures for understanding and budgeting. They aren’t a rate any bank or provider promised you, and they aren’t a certified record for a tax authority. For that you’d normally go to an official source, below.

Central bank archives

Three of the best-known archives are free and run by central banks. Each does a slightly different thing.

European Central Bank

The ECB publishes euro foreign exchange reference rates for a set of currencies against the euro. They’re usually updated around 16:00 CET on each working day, except on TARGET closing days, and they come from a daily concertation procedure between central banks that normally happens around 14:10 CET. The ECB offers the full history as a downloadable CSV file, and a smaller XML file for the last 90 days, plus its Data Portal.

Read the ECB’s own warning. The rates are published for information only. Using them for transactions is, in the ECB’s words, strongly discouraged. They’re a reference point, not a price you can trade at. The ECB has also suspended its euro reference rate for the Russian rouble until further notice; the last one was published on 1 March 2022. So an archive can have gaps.

Federal Reserve, the H.10 release

Over in the US, the Federal Reserve Board’s Foreign Exchange Rates release, known as H.10, publishes daily bilateral exchange rates and dollar indexes. It comes out weekly, on Mondays at 4:15 p.m., covering the previous business week. If Monday is a federal holiday, it moves to the next business day. The page links to historical rates by country, and notes that its older data download tool is being retired, with St. Louis Fed’s FRED named as the route for the data. Check the Fed’s page for the current arrangement.

Bank of England

Bank of England data covers daily spot rates against sterling for a list of currencies, selectable by year going back to 1963. It carries an important caveat on the page: these are not official rates, and the Bank says they are no more authoritative than those of any commercial bank in the London market. Useful, then, but not a legal rate.

Why three numbers for the same day can all be right

Here is where people get tangled. A single date can have several legitimate rates:

Mid-market rate: the midpoint between what buyers bid and sellers ask in the wholesale market. It moves all day, so “the rate on 1 May” needs a time.
Central bank reference rate: one fixed snapshot per day, published at a set time with a stated method. The ECB’s is an example.
The rate you were charged: the mid-market rate adjusted by the provider’s margin, plus any fee.

None of these is wrong. They answer different questions. The reference rate tells you roughly where the market stood at a set moment; the charged rate tells you what it cost you.

Different sources also pick different times, or different data feeds, so two reputable archives can disagree by a small amount on the same date. That isn’t an error. Name your source and time whenever you quote one.

A worked example: invoice, payment and what landed

Here’s an illustrative case, with made-up rates. Say a freelancer sends an invoice for €2,400 and wants to record its value in dollars.

On the invoice date, the reference rate is 1.08 dollars per euro. The invoice is worth $2,592 on paper (2,400 × 1.08). Two weeks later the client pays, and the rate that day is 1.11. At that rate the same €2,400 is worth $2,664, which is $72 more than on the invoice date.

But the bank doesn’t convert at 1.11. Say its charged rate is 1.0845, about 2.3% below the market figure. The freelancer’s account is credited $2,602.80. That’s $61.20 less than the market value on payment day.

Three dates, three figures: $2,592 on paper, $2,664 at market, $2,602.80 in the account. Which one belongs in your records depends on the accounting or tax rules where you live. The $61.20 gap is what the conversion cost. Seeing it is the whole point of having historical rates to hand.

Common uses

Tax records. Rules differ by country. As one example, the IRS says that for taxpayers whose functional currency is the dollar, you use the rate prevailing when you receive, pay or accrue the item, and where more than one rate exists, the one that most properly reflects your income. It lists the Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the Department of Agriculture among sources, and says there is no official IRS rate. Other countries have their own methods; some publish monthly or annual rates. For instance, the UK’s old HMRC monthly rate collection for customs and VAT was withdrawn in October 2023, with later rates sitting elsewhere. Ask your adviser which method applies to you.

Invoices and disputes. If an invoice says “converted at the rate on the invoice date”, you need that date’s rate and a named source. Agree the source in writing before the work starts.

Refunds and chargebacks. If you paid in a foreign currency and got a refund, the amount back may differ from what you paid because the rate moved in between. Check what the merchant or issuer refunds, since policies vary. Look up the rates on both dates and compare.

Budgeting. Looking at a year of daily rates shows how much a currency typically wobbles, which helps you pad a budget. Try a pair you care about, such as GBP to NGN, and look at the range, not just the latest number.

A few habits worth keeping

Note the source, the date and the time whenever you copy a rate into a spreadsheet. Download rather than retype; typos in long series are common. Keep the original file or a screenshot. And when a figure matters, such as a tax return or a dispute, use the official publication for your situation, not a convenience site, including ours.

Check back on the source’s own page now and then. Archives get restructured, tools get retired, series get suspended, as the ECB’s rouble pause and the Fed’s download tool both show. Nothing here is tax or legal advice; check with your adviser.

Sources

Checked: November 2026