specification: FinOps Framework
specificationVersion: '1.0'
schema: https://www.finops.org/framework/
provider: CurrencyAPI
providerId: currencyapi
created: '2026-07-11'
modified: '2026-07-11'
reconciled: true
tags:
- Foreign Exchange
- Currency
- Exchange Rates
- FX
- FinOps
- Cost Management
- FOCUS
description: >-
  FinOps view of CurrencyAPI spend. CurrencyAPI is billed as a flat monthly (or
  discounted annual) subscription per tier - Free $0 (300 requests), Small
  $9.99 (15,000 requests), Medium $39.99 (600,000 requests), Large $79.99
  (1,700,000 requests), Custom by contract - rather than pure pay-per-call.
  The cost driver to manage is therefore plan right-sizing: matching your
  monthly successful-request volume and required rate freshness (daily, hourly,
  or 60-second updates) to the cheapest sufficient tier. Only successful calls
  consume quota, and the free /status endpoint exposes month and grace quota
  counters for programmatic spend/usage monitoring.
notes: >-
  Annual billing discounts each paid tier roughly 20% (Small $7.99, Medium
  $31.99, Large $63.99 per month). Overages are supported on the Large plan;
  a grace quota provides bounded headroom. Cache latest-rate responses and use
  the range endpoint (one call for a whole time series) to cut request volume.
sources:
- https://currencyapi.com/pricing
- https://currencyapi.com/docs/rate-limit
- https://currencyapi.com/docs/status
- https://focus.finops.org/focus-specification/v1-3/
alignedWith:
  framework: FinOps Foundation Framework
  frameworkUrl: https://www.finops.org/framework/
  dataSpec: FOCUS
  dataSpecVersion: '1.3'
  dataSpecUrl: https://focus.finops.org/focus-specification/v1-3/
publisherName: Everapi
serviceCategory: Financial Data APIs
billingModel:
  pricingCategory: Subscription
  billingFrequency: Monthly or Annual
  billingCurrency: USD
  chargeCategories:
  - Purchase
  - Usage
  - Adjustment
focusColumns:
  ServiceName: CurrencyAPI
  ServiceCategory: Financial Data APIs
  ProviderName: CurrencyAPI
  PublisherName: Everapi
  InvoiceIssuerName: Everapi
  BillingCurrency: USD
  ChargeCategory: Purchase
  PricingCategory: Subscription
meters:
- name: api_requests
  description: Successful API requests per month, counted against the plan quota (300 to 1,700,000 by tier).
  unit: requests
  aggregation: sum
  dimensions:
  - account
  - api_key
  - endpoint
- name: grace_quota_usage
  description: Overage requests consumed from the grace quota reported by the /status endpoint.
  unit: requests
  aggregation: sum
  dimensions:
  - account
- name: plan_subscription
  description: Flat monthly or annual subscription fee for the selected tier.
  unit: months
  aggregation: sum
  dimensions:
  - account
  - plan
principles:
- name: Visibility
  description: Poll the free /status endpoint and read the X-RateLimit-* response headers to track month and grace quota consumption in near real time.
- name: Allocation
  description: Use separate API keys (2 on Medium, 5 on Large) per application or team so request volume maps to internal cost centers.
- name: Optimization
  description: Cache latest rates for your refresh interval, request only needed currencies via the currencies parameter, and use the range endpoint to fetch a whole time series in one call instead of many historical calls.
- name: Accountability
  description: Review monthly usage against the plan quota and right-size the tier - upgrade before hitting 429s or downgrade when sustained usage sits well below the allowance.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com