Choose Narwhal API when
You need published current rates, decimal-safe conversion, stored daily history, and adjacent economic data without integrating a separate agent interface.
Narwhal API vs Open Exchange Rates
Open Exchange Rates is a specialist JSON API for live and historical foreign-exchange rates. Narwhal supplies a smaller published currency set together with economic indicators and hosted MCP under one account.
Decision
Choose Open Exchange Rates for its wider documented currency set, daily history back to 1999, and FX-specific plan ladder. Choose Narwhal when its coverage fits and you want FX and Economics through one REST and MCP contract.
Choose the alternative when
You need more than 200 currencies, end-of-day history back to 1999, or its specialized time-series, conversion, bid/ask, and intraday plan options.
Evidence by requirement
Open Exchange Rates documents multiple service tiers with different base-currency, time-series, conversion, frequency, and market-data features. Compare the actual plan rather than the product name alone.
| Requirement | Narwhal API | Open Exchange Rates |
|---|---|---|
| Currency breadth | A published subset with explicit coverage and freshness documentation. | The checked product material advertises live and historical rates for more than 200 currencies. |
| History | Stored daily observations for supported currencies, including genuine gaps where the source did not publish. | End-of-day history is documented for every day back to 1 January 1999. |
| Conversion | Conversion is part of the live FX contract and uses decimal-safe arithmetic. | A dedicated conversion endpoint is documented for its Unlimited plan; other plans can calculate from returned rates. |
| Delivery | JSON REST and hosted MCP with one shared quota. | A JSON HTTPS API; its documentation says WebSockets, webhooks, and other keep-alive delivery are not currently supported. |
| Free evaluation | The Free plan includes 3,000 successful requests per UTC month across live products. | Its Free plan advertises hourly USD-base updates and up to 1,000 requests per month. |
Sources and review date
The comparison uses Narwhal's current public contract and the following first-party competitor pages.
Reviewed: