Currency Converter Calculator

The spread, shown as money.

The spread, shown as money. The stated fee is rarely the cost.

Written and maintained by Mohit PatelLast checked August 4, 2026How we build these

Amount

Mid-market rate

From

Provider markup on the rate

Stated transfer fee

Exchange rates move constantly and no rate is stored here, enter the current mid-market rate from a source you trust. Everything below is arithmetic on the rate you provide.

You receive

828.53

864.53 at the mid-market rate

Mid-market rate (USD/EUR)0.8645

Rate you are offered0.8386

Stated fee12.00

Total cost including the spread36.00

The stated fee is 12.00 and the total cost is 36.00, because most of it is buried in the rate rather than charged as a fee. Comparing providers on the stated fee alone is exactly what that pricing structure is designed to encourage. The USD/EUR rate above is a published reference rate as of 2026-08-14, from Central-bank reference rates via Frankfurter. Rates move continuously, so treat it as a baseline rather than today's figure, and switch to "Enter my own" for a live quote.

How the Currency Converter Calculator works

The stated fee is rarely the cost. Most of it is buried in the exchange rate, which is exactly what that pricing structure is designed to encourage, comparing providers on the visible number while the invisible one does the work.

Also known as: exchange rate calculator · convert currency calculator · money conversion calculator

The rate you see and the rate you get

The number quoted on Google, in newspapers and by every conversion tool is the mid-market rate: the midpoint between what buyers are bidding and what sellers are asking on the interbank market. Nobody transacting retail volumes gets it.

What you get is the mid-market rate plus a margin. Banks typically add 2.5% to 4% on retail currency exchange. Payment processors converting a foreign sale usually add 1% to 2%. Specialist providers such as Wise or Revolut are considerably tighter, often 0.3% to 0.6%, and quote the mid-market rate transparently with the fee shown separately.

Which is why comparing providers on the exchange rate alone is misleading. A provider quoting zero fees at a worse rate can cost more than one quoting a fee at the mid-market rate, and the only comparison that means anything is how much of the destination currency actually lands in the account.

Comparing providers honestly

The only sound method is to compare the amount received for a fixed amount sent, all fees included. Send £1,000, count what arrives in euros. Everything else, rate quotes, fee percentages, headline claims, can be gamed by moving cost between the rate and the fee.

Do the comparison at the size you actually transact. Providers with a fixed fee look poor on small amounts and excellent on large ones; providers with a pure percentage look the reverse. A £200 transfer and a £20,000 transfer will not have the same winner.

Do it more than once, at different times. Rates move, and a provider's margin can widen at weekends and outside market hours when liquidity thins. Comparing on a Tuesday morning and concluding for the year is how sellers end up paying weekend spreads on Friday evening transfers.

How a foreign sale actually converts

A sale priced in euros to a customer paying in euros passes through several hands before reaching a sterling bank account, and each can convert. The card network converts, or the acquirer does, or your bank does, depending on how the account is set up.

Multi-currency accounts change this materially. Holding a euro balance means the sale settles in euros with no conversion at all, and you convert when you choose, in the amounts you choose, through the provider you choose. That removes conversion from the payment path and puts it under your control.

For anyone with meaningful euro or dollar revenue, this is usually worth more than negotiating the payment rate. Converting once a month at a specialist provider's 0.4% instead of on every transaction at an acquirer's 2% is a saving of over 1.5% of foreign revenue, which for most sellers exceeds their entire payment processing cost.

Dynamic currency conversion, and why to refuse it

Dynamic currency conversion is the offer at a foreign payment terminal or checkout to be charged in your home currency instead of the local one. It is presented as a convenience and it is a margin capture, typically 3% to 7% worse than letting your own card issuer convert.

The reason it exists is that whoever offers it keeps the spread. The merchant, the terminal provider and the DCC operator share a margin that would otherwise have gone to the card network at a much tighter rate.

The rule is simple: always pay in the local currency. As a seller offering it to customers, be aware it is a revenue line and also a source of complaints, since customers who work out what happened frequently do. Several jurisdictions now require the margin to be disclosed at the point of the offer, and the take-up drops sharply when it is.

Which rate to use in the accounts

Bookkeeping needs a rate for every foreign transaction and the choice is not arbitrary. Most tax authorities accept either the spot rate on the transaction date or an average rate for the period, applied consistently.

HMRC publishes monthly average rates that UK businesses may use, and using them consistently is simpler than recording a spot rate per transaction. The consistency requirement is real: switching between methods to suit the result is not permitted.

Then there are exchange differences. A sale invoiced in euros and settled a month later at a different rate produces a gain or loss that has to be recorded. For businesses with meaningful foreign revenue these accumulate, and they are taxable or deductible. Ignoring them because they are small is fine until they are not, and the point at which they stop being small usually arrives without warning after a currency move.

Where to go next

The Currency Converter question rarely arrives on its own. These are the ones that usually come with it:

FX Markup Calculator — A cost that never appears as a line item.
Foreign Transaction Cost Calculator — Conversion is the avoidable part.
Wise Fee Calculator — Visible fee against an invisible bank spread.
Etsy Fee Calculator — Every Etsy fee on one sale, itemised.

Not financial advice. Marketplace fees change, and they vary by country, plan and seller status. Every rate here is an editable default, not a quoted price, check the platform's current fee schedule before you price a product against it. This is not tax or business advice.

Frequently asked questions

What is the mid-market rate?

The midpoint between buy and sell prices for a currency pair, the rate you see on financial sites. It is the rate with no markup, and most providers do not give it to you.

How do I find the real cost of a transfer?

Compare what you receive against what you would receive at the mid-market rate. The difference is the total cost, whatever the stated fee says.

Which providers use the mid-market rate?

Some specialist transfer services convert at mid-market and charge a stated percentage instead. Banks and most payment processors do not, and the difference is usually several percent.

Does this calculator store rates?

No. Enter the current mid-market rate from a source you trust, everything here is arithmetic on the rate you provide, which means it never goes stale.

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