specification: FinOps Framework
specificationVersion: '1.0'
schema: https://www.finops.org/framework/
provider: Open Exchange Rates
providerId: openexchangerates
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 Open Exchange Rates spend. Billing is a flat monthly (or
  discounted annual) subscription per tier rather than pure metered usage -
  Free at $0 for 1,000 requests/month, Developer at $12 for 10,000, Enterprise
  at $47 for 100,000, Unlimited at $97 with no request cap, and custom-priced
  VIP service levels for 1-second updates, bid-ask, and OHLC data. The cost
  driver is therefore which tier your monthly request volume and required
  features (base currency change, time-series, convert, OHLC) push you into.
  Annual billing yields two months free per year.
notes: >-
  Watch time-series consumption - each day in a queried range counts as one
  request, so a daily 31-day time-series job consumes roughly 930+ requests a
  month on its own. currencies.json and usage.json calls are free, making
  usage.json the natural zero-cost telemetry feed for spend monitoring.
sources:
- https://openexchangerates.org/signup
- https://docs.openexchangerates.org/reference/usage-json
- https://docs.openexchangerates.org/reference/time-series-json
- 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: Open Exchange Rates
serviceCategory: Financial Data and Market Data
billingModel:
  pricingCategory: Subscription (Tiered)
  billingFrequency: Monthly or Annual
  billingCurrency: USD
  chargeCategories:
  - Purchase
  - Adjustment
focusColumns:
  ServiceName: Open Exchange Rates API
  ServiceCategory: Financial Data and Market Data
  ProviderName: Open Exchange Rates
  PublisherName: Open Exchange Rates
  InvoiceIssuerName: Open Exchange Rates
  BillingCurrency: USD
  ChargeCategory: Purchase
  PricingCategory: Subscription
meters:
- name: api_requests
  description: API requests made per month against the plan quota (1,000 / 10,000 / 100,000 / unlimited by tier).
  unit: requests
  aggregation: sum
  dimensions:
  - app_id
  - endpoint
- name: time_series_days
  description: Days included in time-series queries; each day in a requested range counts as one API request.
  unit: requests
  aggregation: sum
  dimensions:
  - app_id
- name: subscription_fee
  description: Flat monthly subscription per tier ($0 / $12 / $47 / $97, VIP custom); two months free with annual billing.
  unit: months
  aggregation: sum
  dimensions:
  - plan
principles:
- name: Visibility
  description: Poll the free usage.json endpoint to track requests, requests_remaining, and daily_average per App ID, and forecast month-end volume against the plan quota.
- name: Allocation
  description: Use separate App IDs per application or team where practical so request volume maps to internal cost centers.
- name: Optimization
  description: Cache responses and poll no faster than the plan's rate update frequency; use symbols filtering to shrink payloads; scope time-series ranges tightly since each day is a billed request; right-size the tier to actual monthly volume and required features, and take annual billing for two months free.
- name: Accountability
  description: Assign an owner per App ID; review monthly request volume and feature needs (base, time-series, convert, OHLC) against tier boundaries before renewing or upgrading.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com