Currency Converter Guide: Converting Money Between Currencies
How live currency conversion actually works, why the rate you see online rarely matches what your bank charges, and how to convert money accurately for travel or shopping.
Converting currency looks simple — multiply your amount by an exchange rate — but the rate you use makes a bigger difference than most people expect. The number you'll see on a currency converter, a news site, or Google is almost always the mid-market rate: the midpoint between what banks buy and sell a currency for on the wholesale market. It's the most accurate reference point for "what is this money actually worth," but it is not the rate any bank, card network, or currency exchange counter will actually give you.
How to convert currency step by step
- Find the current mid-market exchange rate for your currency pair.
- Multiply your starting amount by that rate to get the converted amount.
- If you're estimating what a bank or exchange service will actually give you, subtract their typical markup — commonly 2-5% for cash exchange, 1-3% for card transactions.
Worked example
Converting $500 USD to EUR at a mid-market rate of 0.92 gives €460 (500 × 0.92). A currency exchange counter charging a 4% markup would instead give you closer to €441.60 — the gap is the provider's margin, not a different "correct" rate.
Why rates change daily, not by the second
Retail currency converters, including this one, typically use official reference rates published once per business day (the European Central Bank publishes its rates around 16:00 CET) — not the real-time interbank feed that trading platforms use. For everyday conversions like travel budgeting or comparing a price, a daily rate is accurate enough; for time-sensitive trading, you'd need a live market data feed instead.
Get the current daily rate for any of 30 major currencies with the Currency Converter.