Working on an application that requires payments in different currencies and I need an exchange rate API so I can convert the currencies and display them to the user after payment based on the current exchange rate and also save it in the database. I’m using both Stripe and PayPal and even though they handle the exchange rate conversions on their end is there a way for me to get a public API for exchange rates from Paypal or Stripe or any other external APIs?
Question posted in Paypal API
The official documentation to get you started can be found here.
2
Answers
PayPal has no generally available API for this, but when you specify the transaction currency you want to receive payers will be able to pay with almost any currency, including whatever their local one is, converted at the current market rate.
When payer funding source conversions are done, the receiver will receive the specified transaction currency same as any other payment, and will have no indication any conversion took place.
So, with PayPal, you only need to specify different transaction currencies if the receiving account wants to directly receive and hold various different currency balances, which may not be useful. There is also a PayPal account option to immediately convert all other transaction currencies to the account’s primary balance one on that receiving end.
On Stripe’s side, there is not an Exchange Rate API to look upfront, however, they document how they calculate the exchange rate here. You can also look at the ‘estimate’ tool provided on that document. After the payment, they expose the exchange rate that applied on a transaction on the balance transaction. On PayPal’s side, I see this article from their website that indicates no as well. You might also want to confirm with their Support team on this.