Convert with Exchange Rate API

How to authenticate

ExchangeRate-API uses a simple API key for authentication. Here's how to get connected:

1. Get your API key from ExchangeRate-API
   • Visit ExchangeRate-API and sign up for a free account (no credit card required for the free plan, which includes 1,500 requests per month).
   • Once logged in, navigate to your dashboard where you'll find your API key displayed.
   • Copy your API key and store it somewhere secure.
2. Connect in Parabola
   • In your Parabola flow, add a Pull from ExchangeRate-API step.
   • Click Authorize and paste your API key when prompted.
   • Parabola will securely store your credentials and use them to authenticate each request.

Once authenticated, you can start pulling conversion rates into your workflows.

Important tip: Reduce API calls by removing duplicate currency conversion pairings before hitting the API

Before your conversion step, use Parabola's Remove duplicates step on your currency pair columns to eliminate redundant requests. This helps you stay within your monthly quota, especially on the free plan. Then, you can use a Combine tables step to re-join your live exchange rate pairs.

Available data

Using the ExchangeRate-API integration in Parabola, you can pull:

• Currency pair conversion rates: Get the latest exchange rate between any two currencies using ISO 4217 three-letter codes (e.g., USD to EUR, GBP to JPY). The response includes the base currency, target currency, conversion rate, and timestamps for when rates were last updated.
• Currency conversions with amounts: Convert a specific amount from one currency to another and receive both the exchange rate and the calculated result. Perfect for converting invoice totals, product prices, or transaction amounts in bulk.

Each response includes helpful metadata like the last update time and next scheduled update, so you always know how current your data is.

Common use cases

• Standardize multi-currency financial reporting: Pull transactions from systems like Shopify, NetSuite, or Stripe, convert all amounts to your reporting currency (e.g., USD), and generate consolidated revenue reports without manual conversions.
• Display localized pricing for international customers: Automatically convert your product catalog prices into local currencies for different regions, ensuring customers see accurate pricing in their preferred currency.
• Reconcile invoices and payments across currencies: Match vendor invoices or customer payments in different currencies against your accounting records by converting everything to a single base currency, making reconciliation faster and more accurate.
• Audit and validate currency conversions: Compare conversion rates used in past transactions or invoices against current market rates to identify discrepancies, overcharges, or outdated exchange rates in your financial data.
• Automate landed cost calculations: Combine exchange rates with freight invoices, customs data, and tariff information to calculate accurate landed costs for international shipments in your local currency.
• Month-end close currency adjustments: Pull exchange rates on the last day of the month to revalue foreign currency balances, calculate unrealized gains/losses, and generate journal entries for your ERP or accounting system.

Tips for using Parabola with ExchangeRate-API

• Reduce API calls by removing duplicates upstream: Before pulling conversion rates, use Parabola's Remove duplicates step on your currency pair columns to eliminate redundant requests. This helps you stay within your monthly quota, especially on the free plan.
• Separate rate lookup from conversion: Instead of converting each row individually, pull unique currency pairs first, then rejoin the rates to your original dataset and use Parabola's Add math column step to calculate converted amounts. This approach is much more efficient.
• Schedule your flow strategically: Exchange rates typically update once daily (around midnight GMT for most services). Schedule your flow to run after rates refresh to ensure you're always working with current data—daily runs in the morning work well for most use cases.
• Store historical rates for trend analysis: Export conversion rates to a Google Sheet or database with timestamps to build a historical record. This lets you analyze currency volatility, track rate changes over time, or audit past conversions.
• Set up alerts for significant rate changes: Use Parabola's Add column and Filter steps to flag currency pairs where rates have changed by more than a certain percentage. Send alerts via Slack or email to notify your finance team of major movements.
• Standardize currency codes: Use Parabola's Find & replace or Edit text steps to ensure all currency codes in your source data match ISO 4217 format (three uppercase letters) before making API calls. This prevents errors from inconsistent formatting like "usd" vs "USD."