Fairrate
The fair rate, and what your card really charges.
Fairrate converts with the European Central Bank's daily rates and shows what you really pay with your own card: the markup on purchases, the fee for cash and the cash machine's own fee. It works offline, in 12 languages.
Coming soon to the App Store
Screens from the app
What the rate on the screen doesn't tell you
The rate you find online is the mid-market rate. What you pay abroad is that rate plus whatever your card adds.
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A markup you don't see
Most cards add a percentage on top of the rate for every purchase in a foreign currency. It is rarely on the receipt, only in the bank's price list. Among the 595 cards on our card fees page, it runs from 0% to 6%.
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Cash costs extra
Taking out cash usually costs more: a percentage, often with a minimum amount or a fixed fee, and the cash machine may charge a fee of its own. On many credit cards, interest runs from the day you withdraw.
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“Pay in your own currency?”
Card terminals and cash machines abroad often offer to charge you in your own currency. It looks safe, but the terminal then uses its own rate, which is usually 3–8% worse. Choose the local currency and let your card convert.
What Fairrate does
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Every currency at once
Each currency in your list shows the same amount. Tap a row to type in it. The keypad is a calculator, so 250 × 3 just works.
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Your own card
Pick your card from a catalogue of real cards, with fees read from each issuer's own price list, or set your own markup. The home currency row shows what you really pay and how much goes to fees.
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Purchase or cash
Switch between card purchase and cash withdrawal. For cash, Fairrate adds the card's cash fee and the cash machine's own fee, which you type in.
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Pay in your own currency?
When a terminal offers to charge you in your own currency, type the amount it shows. Fairrate tells you which choice is cheaper and how much you save.
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Cheapest card
Mark the cards you have, and Fairrate ranks them, cheapest first, for the amount you are about to pay.
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The local currency, by itself
When you land somewhere, the local currency appears by itself, and it disappears when you are home. Fairrate reads the iPhone's time zone, so it needs no location access.
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Price tags
A cheat sheet of round prices in the local currency and what they cost you, with or without your card fee. It works offline.
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History, widget and Siri
Rate charts from one month to five years, a home and lock screen widget with the last 30 days, and a Convert Currency action for Siri and Shortcuts.
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Receipts and expenses
Scan a receipt or pick one from Photos. Fairrate reads it on your iPhone and saves the expense in your home currency, with your card's fee. Export everything as a spreadsheet (CSV).
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Rates you can check
The European Central Bank's daily reference rates (via Frankfurter) for about 30 currencies, and an open community feed for the rest. Each currency shows where its rate comes from.
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Works offline
Fairrate checks once a day, shortly after the European Central Bank publishes, and uses the last saved rates when you are offline. It always shows which day's rates are in use.
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12 languages
English, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. Switch inside the app.
Help
What you need
- An iPhone with iOS 18 or later.
- An internet connection now and then for new rates. Everything else works offline.
Which rate does Fairrate show?
The mid-market rate. For about 30 currencies it is the European Central Bank's reference rate, published every working day around 16:00 CET; the rest come from an open community feed once a day. A currency's rate history shows where its rate comes from. Your bank or card adds its own markup on top: choose your card to see it.
How do I choose my card?
Tap Card fee above the keypad, or open Settings and choose Your card under Card and fees. Choose your country under Cards from, then your card. If your card is not in the list, choose Your own markup and type the percentage from your bank's price list.
Where do the card fees come from?
From each issuer's own price list. Every card shows when its fees were checked, with a link to the price list. Banks change their prices, so check the price list before a long trip.
What does a cash withdrawal cost?
Choose Cash withdrawal under How you pay. Fairrate adds your card's markup, its cash fee (a percentage, at least a minimum amount, plus any fixed fee) and the cash machine's own fee. Many cash machines abroad show their fee on the screen before you confirm: type it under Cash machine fee.
How does the pay in your own currency check work?
Tap the button with your home currency and a question mark above the keypad, for example EUR?. Type the price in the local currency and the amount the terminal offers in your own currency. Fairrate compares it with what your card charges and tells you which to choose and how much you save.
How do I find my cheapest card?
Type an amount in a foreign currency, tap Card fee and choose Which card is cheapest?. Tap Your cards to mark the cards you have, and Fairrate ranks just those, cheapest first. Tap a card to use it.
How does the local currency appear by itself?
When you land somewhere, your iPhone sets its time zone by itself. Fairrate uses it to add that country's currency, and removes it when you are home. No location access is needed. You can turn it off in Settings: Add the local currency, under Travel.
Does Fairrate work offline?
Yes. It keeps the last rates it downloaded and tells you which day they are from. Converting, card fees and price tags all work without a connection.
How often are the rates updated?
The European Central Bank publishes once every working day, around 16:00 CET. Fairrate checks once a day, shortly after. Settings shows the date of the rates in use, and Check for new rates fetches them at once.
How do I change the language?
Open Settings and choose Language under General. Fairrate switches at once, without a restart. Same as iPhone follows your iPhone's language.
How do I save expenses and receipts?
Tap the wallet button at the top to open Expenses, then choose Scan a receipt or Receipt from Photos. Fairrate reads the shop, date and total on your iPhone: check the amount before you save. You can also touch and hold a currency row and choose Save as expense. Each expense is saved in your home currency with your card's fee at the time, and Export as a spreadsheet (CSV) gives you all of them in one file.
Are my receipts uploaded anywhere?
No. Fairrate reads receipts on your iPhone with Apple's built-in text recognition, and with Apple Intelligence's on-device model when your iPhone has it turned on (iOS 26 or later). The photo and its text are not uploaded.
Privacy
Last updated 11 October 2026
Fairrate does not collect data about you, and it has no account. What you type and the receipts you scan stay on your iPhone; the app only downloads public exchange rates.
What stays on your iPhone
Amounts, currencies, your card, the cards you have marked, your expenses and your settings are stored only on your iPhone. None of it is sent to us or anyone else. Export, when you choose it, creates a spreadsheet file only where you send or save it.
Exchange rates
To get rates, Fairrate downloads public files from Frankfurter (api.frankfurter.dev, the European Central Bank's rates) and from the open community feed (cdn.jsdelivr.net, with currency-api.pages.dev as a backup). The requests only say which rates and dates to fetch, nothing about you, but like every connection on the internet, those servers see your IP address. The widget fetches rates the same way.
Location
Fairrate never asks for your location. It finds the local currency from the iPhone's time zone, and that stays on the iPhone.
Receipts and the camera
The camera is used only to scan receipts. A receipt you scan or choose from Photos is read on your iPhone with Apple's built-in text recognition, and with Apple Intelligence's on-device model when it is turned on. The photo and its text are not uploaded anywhere.
Analytics
Fairrate does not include analytics, and it does not share data with anyone.
Children
Fairrate collects no personal data from anyone.
If you contact us
Messages from the contact form are sent by e-mail to the developer and are not stored on the website. Your IP address is used for a moment to stop spam, and is not stored. Your e-mail address is only used to answer you.
Who is responsible
Fairrate is made by Peter Rekdal Khan-Sunde in Norway. Ask about your data or this policy through the contact form below.
Changes
If this policy changes, we will update this page and the date above.
Contact
Questions, a card that is missing or a fee that has changed? Use the form below. If it is about a card, tell us its name and country.
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