Historical Exchange Rates

Date

Base Currency

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Select a date and base currency to view historical rates

The Historical Exchange Rates tool lets you look up official exchange rates published by the European Central Bank (ECB) for any business day since January 1999.

Pick a date — Select any date from 1999 onwards. Weekends and EU holidays will show the rate from the last available business day.
Choose base currency — Select from 30+ currencies that the ECB publishes rates for.
View rates — See all available exchange rates for that date, with the option to compare against a second date.
Compare dates — Add a second date to see the percentage change for each currency between the two dates.

These are official ECB reference rates — the same mid-market rates used by central banks and financial institutions across Europe. They are published once per working day around 16:00 CET.

Use the comparison feature to see how much a currency has gained or lost between two dates. Green means the currency strengthened; red means it weakened.

Understanding Historical Exchange Rates: Why Past Data Matters

Exchange rates are not just numbers on a screen — they are a living record of global economic relationships. The European Central Bank (ECB) has published daily reference rates since January 4, 1999, when the euro was first introduced for electronic payments. This means you can look up the exact exchange rate for virtually any business day over the past 25+ years. The Historical Exchange Rates tool on Tixya gives you instant access to this data, letting you answer questions like "What was EUR/USD on the day I got married?" or "How much has the Japanese Yen weakened against the dollar in the last decade?"

What Are ECB Reference Rates?

The ECB publishes daily euro foreign exchange reference rates. These are not market prices — they are calculated based on the regular daily concert procedure between central banks within the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). The rates are published around 16:00 CET and represent the mid-market rate at that moment. They are used by EU institutions, member states, and many private sector contracts as a benchmark. Because they are reference rates rather than tradable quotes, they are the fairest publicly available measure of a currency's value on any given day.

Why Look at Historical Rates?

There are many practical reasons to check historical exchange rates. If you are a freelancer who invoiced a client in a foreign currency six months ago, you need the historical rate to calculate your actual income in local currency. If you are planning a trip and want to budget based on past trends, historical data gives you a realistic baseline. Researchers, students, and journalists use historical rates to analyze economic policy, track inflation, or write about financial events. Even casual curiosity — "was the pound stronger or weaker last summer?" — is easily answered with this data.

How to Use the Comparison Feature

The comparison feature is particularly powerful. When you select a second date, Tixya calculates the percentage change for every currency between the two dates. A positive percentage means the target currency strengthened against your base currency (you get more of it per unit). A negative percentage means it weakened. This lets you quickly see which currencies have appreciated and which have depreciated over any period — from a single week to several years.

Important Caveats

Weekends and holidays — The ECB only publishes rates on business days. If you select a Saturday, Sunday, or EU public holiday, the tool will show the rates from the previous business day. This is by design — there is no "official" rate on non-business days.
Coverage — The ECB covers approximately 30 major currencies. Not all world currencies are included. If you need rates for a currency not in the ECB dataset, you would need to consult a specialized data provider or the issuing central bank.
Not tradable prices — These are reference rates, not quotes you can trade at. If you exchanged money on a specific date, the rate you received from your bank or exchange service would have included a spread (markup) on top of or below the ECB reference rate.
Data source — All data comes from the Frankfurter API, which sources directly from ECB publications. The API is free, open, and does not require authentication.