AllRatesToday MCP Server — @allratestoday/mcp-server

Website: https://allratestoday.com · Hosted endpoint (no install): https://allratestoday.com/api/mcp · Docs: https://allratestoday.com/mcp/

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Give your AI assistant a live window into the foreign-exchange market. A Model Context Protocol server that lets Claude Code, Cursor, Claude Desktop, Windsurf, and any MCP-compatible client fetch real-time currency rates, historical series, and multi-currency lookups from the [AllRatesToday API](https://allratestoday.com).

After installation, your assistant can answer questions like:

• "What's the current USD to EUR rate?"
• "Show me how GBP/JPY moved over the last 30 days."
• "Convert 250 USD into CAD at a real rate."
• "Compare USD against EUR, GBP, and JPY simultaneously."

🚀 Why this server?

• 📡 Live mid-market rates — 160+ ISO 4217 currencies, refreshed every ~60 seconds
• 📈 Historical series built in — 1d / 7d / 30d / 1y windows with sensible granularity per period
• 🧰 Eight focused tools — get_exchange_rate, get_historical_rates, get_rates_authenticated, list_currencies, list_central_banks, get_official_rates, get_reference_rate, request_trial_key; small surface, easy for the model to use correctly
• 🔌 Works everywhere MCP does — stdio transport, MCP 1.x; Claude Code, Cursor, Claude Desktop, Windsurf, or any generic host
• 🔓 Works with no API key — installs and answers out of the box from open official central-bank tables (ECB first, else the bank that issues one of the two currencies); a free key unlocks real-time rates for 160+ currencies
• 🛡️ Honest about what it returned — every keyless answer says which rate it is and when it was published; API errors map to clear, actionable messages
• 🔒 Nothing leaks — only the request parameters and your API key ever reach allratestoday.com; never conversation context

⚖️ Mid-market vs official central-bank rates

With a key, get_exchange_rate, get_historical_rates and get_rates_authenticated return a mid-market rate, refreshed every ~60 seconds — the right number for price display, conversion, and anything that should track the market. It is not the official rate a tax authority or auditor may require. For those, call `get_official_rates`: the latest table published by any of 122 central banks and 4 tax authorities (ECB, Fed, HMRC, US Treasury, Swiss BAZG, …), fixed once published and carrying the institution's own rate_date, no key needed. list_central_banks gives the codes. Dated official tables (a past date) need an API key on a paid plan — a free key gets 403 Historical central bank rates require a paid plan. Mid-market history (get_historical_rates, and time on get_rates_authenticated) is paid-plan too — free and trial keys get 403. See the central bank REST API and per-bank npm SDKs. The two can diverge by several percent, so pick by use case, not convenience.

🔑 Get your API key (free)

A key unlocks real-time mid-market rates across 160+ currencies and multi-target lookups. The free tier is enough for development and trying it out — no credit card required. Historical series, point-in-time lookups and dated official and reference-rate tables need a paid plan from €4.99/month.

1. Register at allratestoday.com/register — 30 seconds
2. Verify your email
3. Copy your key from the dashboard (format: art_live_xxxxx)
4. Use it as ALLRATES_API_KEY in the configs below

Without one the server prints a short summary of keyless mode (below) on stderr and keeps running — it never exits, because an MCP server that exits breaks the host client's whole configuration.

🔓 Keyless mode — what works with no setup

Install it with no configuration at all and it starts, connects, and answers:

The keyless path reads the open, edge-cached /api/open/central-bank/{bank} endpoints — no upstream cost, no rate limit to trip over, nothing to sign up for.

Attribution. Keyless use requires a visible, followable link to AllRatesToday wherever the rates are shown (a footer, an about page, a README). With an API key it is appreciated but not required.

<a href="https://allratestoday.com">Exchange rates by AllRatesToday</a>

Markdown: Exchange rates by [AllRatesToday](https://allratestoday.com). Full wording: <https://allratestoday.com/terms/#attribution>.

🧩 Easiest install: the Claude Code plugin

If you use Claude Code, install the plugin instead of configuring this server by hand — it bundles both AllRatesToday MCP servers, two skills, and five slash commands (/rate, /convert, /official-rate, /fx-history, /add-currency-support):

/plugin marketplace add AllRates-Today/claude-code-plugin
/plugin install allratestoday@allratestoday

Everything below still applies for other MCP clients.

☁️ Hosted endpoint — nothing to install

The same tools also run as a hosted Streamable HTTP MCP server, which lists 11 tools: the 8 of this stdio package plus get_official_rate_history, compare_official_rates and get_publication_calendar from the sibling central-bank server. Paste the URL into any client that supports remote MCP — Claude.ai and Claude Desktop connectors, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code, Codex, Gemini CLI:

https://allratestoday.com/api/mcp

claude mcp add --transport http allratestoday https://allratestoday.com/api/mcp

Works keyless. With a key, send Authorization: Bearer art_live_… or, where the client only takes a URL, connect to https://allratestoday.com/api/mcp?api_key=art_live_…. That puts the key in the URL, where client configs, logs and screenshots can expose it: prefer the header when your client supports it, never share or commit that URL, and rotate the key at https://allratestoday.com/profile if it leaks. Registry name: com.allratestoday/mcp. One-click Cursor / VS Code buttons: https://allratestoday.com/mcp/#hosted

📦 Installation

The simplest install is zero-install via `npx`, which is what every config below uses:

# Run without installing (recommended)
npx -y @allratestoday/mcp-server

# Or install globally
npm install -g @allratestoday/mcp-server
allratestoday-mcp

Both commands launch the stdio MCP server and wait for a client to connect — they're not meant to be run interactively from your shell; your MCP client launches them as a subprocess.

🏁 Quick setup per client

Each client reads MCP servers from a different config file. Pick yours below.

Claude Code

The fastest path uses the built-in CLI:

claude mcp add allratestoday -- npx -y @allratestoday/mcp-server
claude mcp env allratestoday ALLRATES_API_KEY=art_live_xxxxx

Restart Claude Code. Verify by asking it: "What's the current USD to EUR rate?"

Cursor

Edit ~/.cursor/mcp.json (or .cursor/mcp.json inside your project for project-scoped servers):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "allratestoday": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@allratestoday/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "ALLRATES_API_KEY": "art_live_xxxxx"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Cursor. The eight tools should appear in the MCP tool picker.

Claude Desktop

Edit the config file (path depends on OS):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "allratestoday": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@allratestoday/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "ALLRATES_API_KEY": "art_live_xxxxx"
      }
    }
  }
}

Fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop (Cmd+Q on macOS, right-click tray icon → Exit on Windows). Closing the window alone keeps the old config loaded.

Windsurf

Edit ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json with the same mcpServers block as above, then restart Windsurf.

Generic stdio MCP client

Any MCP host that supports stdio transport works. The launch command is:

npx -y @allratestoday/mcp-server

…with the environment variable ALLRATES_API_KEY set. The protocol version is MCP 1.x.

✅ Verify it works

After configuring your client, test in this order:

1. Server starts — open the client. The server starts with or without a key (no key ⇒ keyless mode), so a red dot or "failed to connect" means the client could not launch it — usually npx or Node ≥18 (see Troubleshooting below). A wrong key does not stop it starting; calls then return Invalid AllRatesToday API key.
2. Tools are listed — most clients have a "tools" or "MCP" panel showing the eight tools.
3. A live call returns a number — ask: "What's the current USD to EUR rate?" The assistant should call get_exchange_rate(source: "USD", target: "EUR") and reply with a real rate. If it fabricates a number without a tool call, the server isn't connected.

More prompts that exercise the other tools:

• "What was the ECB's official USD rate on the latest published table?" → get_official_rates
• "Give me today's 16:00 London reference rate for EUR, GBP and JPY." → get_reference_rate
• "Which central banks can you get official rates from?" → list_central_banks
• "Convert 250 USD to CAD." → get_exchange_rate

🧪 Test with MCP Inspector

To check the server on its own, without any AI client in the way, run it under the official MCP Inspector:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector npx -y @allratestoday/mcp-server

1. Open the URL it prints and click Connect. The Tools tab should list the eight tools.
2. Call get_exchange_rate with source: USD, target: EUR — it answers keyless with an official rate.
3. Set ALLRATES_API_KEY in the Inspector's environment panel, reconnect, and call it again — now it returns the live mid-market rate.

If this works but your client doesn't, the problem is the client's config (path to npx, Node version, JSON syntax), not the server.

📚 Tools reference

• get_exchange_rate — current rate for one pair
• get_historical_rates — time series over a preset period
• get_rates_authenticated — multiple targets in one call, optional point-in-time
• list_currencies — all supported currency codes, names, symbols
• list_central_banks — every covered central bank / tax authority with its code and latest publication date
• get_official_rates — the official table (or one pair) a named institution published
• get_reference_rate — the Daily Reference Rate, one fixed mid-market table per business day (16:00 London)
• request_trial_key — self-issue a 100-call, 7-day trial key, no account needed

get_historical_rates and get_rates_authenticated require ALLRATES_API_KEY; the other six of the eight work keyless. History (get_historical_rates, and time on get_rates_authenticated) needs a paid plan.

get_exchange_rate

Current mid-market rate between two currencies.

Input

Example call

{ "source": "USD", "target": "EUR" }

Response (with a key):

{ "rate": 0.888889, "source": "mid-market" }

Response (keyless — `USD` → `GBP`, not in the ECB table, so the Bank of England table answers):

{
  "rate": 0.7598784195,
  "source": "Bank of England official rate (keyless mode)",
  "bank": "boe",
  "rate_date": "2026-10-14",
  "derived": true,
  "note": "Keyless mode: this is the Bank of England official rate published on 2026-10-14, not a live mid-market quote. For real-time rates across 160+ currencies set ALLRATES_API_KEY — free tier at https://allratestoday.com/register."
}

derived: true means the bank publishes the inverse (GBP→USD) and the rate was inverted. A pair no single bank publishes is refused keyless with No keyless official source covers … and a pointer to the key.

get_historical_rates

Time-series data points for a currency pair over a fixed period. Needs an API key on a paid plan (free and trial keys get a 403).

Input

Granularity by period

Example call

{ "source": "USD", "target": "INR", "period": "30d" }

Response (truncated):

{
  "source": "USD",
  "target": "INR",
  "period": "30d",
  "data": [
    { "date": "2026-09-17", "rate": 96.1006, "timestamp": 1789603200000 },
    { "date": "2026-09-18", "rate": 95.8142, "timestamp": 1789689600000 },
    "...",
    { "date": "2026-10-16", "rate": 94.9643, "timestamp": 1792108800000 }
  ]
}

get_rates_authenticated

Multiple targets in one call, with optional historical timestamp or grouping window.

Input

Example call

{ "source": "USD", "target": "EUR,GBP,JPY" }

Response:

{
  "rates": [
    { "rate": 0.888889, "source": "USD", "target": "EUR", "time": "2026-10-16T12:16:01+0000" },
    { "rate": 0.749766, "source": "USD", "target": "GBP", "time": "2026-10-16T12:16:01+0000" },
    { "rate": 157.985, "source": "USD", "target": "JPY", "time": "2026-10-16T12:16:01+0000" }
  ]
}

list_currencies

All supported currencies with codes, names, and symbols. Cached upstream for 24 hours — cheap to call for validating user input before the other tools.

Input — none.

Response (truncated):

{
  "currencies": [
    { "code": "USD", "name": "US Dollar", "symbol": "$" },
    { "code": "EUR", "name": "Euro", "symbol": "€" },
    { "code": "GBP", "name": "British Pound", "symbol": "£" },
    "..."
  ],
  "count": 163
}

list_central_banks

Every official source the server can quote — 122 central banks plus HMRC, the US Treasury, Swiss BAZG and India's CBIC — with the code that get_official_rates takes as bank, the institution's name, its latest publication date, age_days, its publication cadence and a stale flag when it is behind its own schedule. Keyless.

Input — none.

Response (truncated):

{
  "sources": [
    { "code": "ecb", "name": "European Central Bank", "latest": "2026-10-15", "age_days": 1, "stale": false, "cadence": "daily" },
    { "code": "fed", "name": "US Federal Reserve (H.10)", "latest": "2026-10-09", "age_days": 7, "stale": false, "cadence": "weekly" },
    "..."
  ],
  "stale_count": 3,
  "checked_at": "2026-10-16T12:16:46.232Z"
}

get_official_rates

The fixed, citable rate an institution published — for invoices, VAT and tax returns, customs, transfer pricing and audit. Not a live market rate.

Input:

Response (one pair):

{
  "bank": "ecb",
  "rate_date": "2026-10-15",
  "source": "EUR",
  "target": "USD",
  "rate": 1.1208,
  "rate_type": "reference",
  "derived": false,
  "method": "published",
  "age_days": 1,
  "stale": false,
  "cadence": "daily",
  "attribution": { "source": "Official rates published by ECB, served by AllRatesToday", "url": "https://allratestoday.com/central-bank-rates-api/ecb/", "terms": "Free to use with visible attribution linking to allratestoday.com" }
}

Omit source/target for the whole table as rates: [{ base, quote, type, value }]. Keyless, only pairs the bank publishes and their inverses (flagged derived: true) are served; other crosses are refused. With a key, pairs the bank does not publish directly are cross-computed inside its own table and flagged derived: true. Always cite rate_date.

get_reference_rate

AllRatesToday's Daily Reference Rate: the per-currency median of samples taken in a five-minute window centred on 16:00 London, published once per business day and never revised. Use it when a report, index or research series needs one reproducible rate per day. It is not the WM/Refinitiv fix and not a registered benchmark; every response carries a disclaimer and the rate_date.

Input

Output — { rate_date, base, time, rates } for the table, or { rate_date, source, target, rate, derived } for a pair, plus method and disclaimer. Keyless for the latest table. Docs: https://allratestoday.com/reference-rate/

request_trial_key

Self-issues an API key with 100 lifetime calls, valid 7 days, with no account and no email, and switches this server to it for the rest of the session. The reply tells the user to copy the key into the MCP config as ALLRATES_API_KEY to keep it across restarts. Capped at 3 keys per IP per day.

Input — agent (string, optional), purpose (string, optional).

Output — { key, calls, expires_at, adopted, note }.

⚙️ Environment variables

Set these in your MCP client's config (in the env block) — not in your shell — because MCP servers are launched as subprocesses with isolated environments.

💳 Plans

A free tier and paid plans are available — see allratestoday.com/pricing for current quotas. The free tier covers real-time rates and multi-target lookups. All history and dated rates — mid-market history, point-in-time lookups, dated official and reference-rate tables — need a paid plan (free and trial keys get 403 historical_requires_paid_plan). The Official Rates plan covers official central-bank and tax-authority rates only (no market rates).

🛠️ Troubleshooting

To inspect what the server is doing, run it manually with the key set:

ALLRATES_API_KEY=art_live_xxxxx npx -y @allratestoday/mcp-server

No output means healthy (stdio is reserved for the MCP protocol); errors print to stderr.

🛡️ Error reference

The server maps API errors to clear, actionable messages the assistant can relay to the user:

❓ FAQ

Is the free plan really enough for normal use? For trying it out and light dev use. It does not reset monthly; regular use or production needs a paid tier. Keyless mode costs nothing and has no quota.

Do you store my conversation or query data? No. Only your API key and the request parameters (source, target, period, time) are sent to allratestoday.com — never the LLM's conversation context.

What happens to my API key? It's only sent as a Bearer token in the Authorization header on requests to the AllRatesToday API. It's never logged or transmitted elsewhere.

Why is my first call slow? Cold-start of npx (first run downloads the package) plus the initial cache miss. Subsequent calls are typically <200ms.

Can I run this without npm/Node? Not currently — Node ≥18 is required. If a standalone binary matters to you, open an issue.

Is there a self-hosted option? Set ALLRATES_BASE_URL to your own AllRatesToday instance. Contact [email protected] for self-hosted licensing.

Does this work with ChatGPT? Yes, through the hosted endpoint: add https://allratestoday.com/api/mcp as a connector (custom MCP / remote server) in ChatGPT. This npm package is the local stdio server, for clients that launch a command — Claude Code, Cursor, Claude Desktop, Windsurf.

👩‍💻 Development

git clone https://github.com/AllRates-Today/mcp-server.git
cd mcp-server
npm install
npm run build
ALLRATES_API_KEY=art_live_xxxxx node dist/index.js

The server runs on stdio and waits for an MCP client to connect; Ctrl+C to exit. npm run dev watches and rebuilds. To test against a local AllRatesToday instance:

ALLRATES_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080/api ALLRATES_API_KEY=test_key node dist/index.js

Project structure

src/
├── index.ts      # MCP server, tool registration, request handlers
├── client.ts     # HTTP client for AllRatesToday API + error mapping
└── home-banks.ts # currency → issuing central bank, for the keyless get_exchange_rate fallback
dist/             # Compiled JS (gitignored)
server.json       # MCP registry manifest

Contributing — issues and PRs welcome at github.com/AllRates-Today/mcp-server. Before opening a PR: npm run build must succeed, test against a real API key, and update the tool descriptions in src/index.ts plus this README's tools reference if you change tool behavior.

📝 Changelog

Recent changes. Full history: GitHub Releases.

• 0.7.9 — README: changelog trimmed to the 0.7.x line
• 0.7.8 — README: MCP Inspector test guide, example prompts for every tool, hosted ?api_key= security note, ChatGPT FAQ and 401 row corrected, history consistently paid-plan
• 0.7.6 — Keyless get_rates_authenticated with time now says a paid plan is needed; README: free tier no longer listed as covering history, source example is mid-market
• 0.7.4 — Keyless get_exchange_rate falls back from the ECB table to the central bank that issues the target or source currency (USD/GBP, GBP/JPY, USD/INR now answer keyless), same as the hosted endpoint; response adds bank. Dated-table errors say a paid plan is needed. README: real response shapes, tool counts, lifetime free tier
• 0.7.0 — get_reference_rate (Daily Reference Rate, 16:00 London, keyless latest table) and request_trial_key (self-issued 100-call trial key adopted for the session)

🔗 Links

• API documentation · Interactive reference
• Register (free) · Pricing
• MCP protocol docs
• GitHub · Bug reports
• Support: [email protected]
• Dashboard
• Status

📜 License

MIT — see LICENSE.