Canadian dollar (CAD) exchange rate API

For Canadian companies the US dollar is the counterparty that matters most: cross-border sales, US-dollar supplier invoices and US-listed peers all need a reliable USD/CAD rate. The Canadian dollar is also often grouped with “commodity currencies” because Canada is a large exporter of energy and raw materials. The fxapi CAD exchange rate API delivers Canadian dollar rates against 190+ currencies, from live values to month-end series for financial statements.

CAD facts for developers

• Where it’s used: Canada.
• Symbol and formatting: $, shown as C$ or CA$ where it could be confused with the US dollar. English Canada writes $1,234.56; French Canada writes 1 234,56 $ with the symbol after the amount and a comma as decimal separator. Format by locale (en-CA vs fr-CA).
• Minor unit: 2 decimals (cents). The Royal Canadian Mint stopped distributing pennies in 2013, so cash totals are rounded to 5 cents.
• Central bank: the Bank of Canada.
• Regime: free float.
• Events in the historical data: on 20 September 2007 – the sample date on this page – the Canadian dollar reached parity with the US dollar for the first time since 1976. It weakened markedly during the 2014–2016 slump in oil prices.

Get CAD rates with the fxapi API

Accounting teams typically need two series: month-end closing rates for the balance sheet and monthly averages for the income statement (see closing vs average rates). This Python script pulls 2025 month-end CAD rates as CSV from /v1/range with accuracy=month (Professional plan and up):

import csv
import io
import os

import requests

params = {
    "base_currency": "CAD",
    "currencies": "USD,EUR",
    "datetime_start": "2025-01-01T00:00:00Z",
    "datetime_end": "2025-12-31T23:59:59Z",
    "accuracy": "month",
    "format": "csv",
}
r = requests.get(
    "https://api.fxapi.com/v1/range",
    params=params,
    headers={"apikey": os.environ["FXAPI_KEY"]},
    timeout=15,
)
r.raise_for_status()

for row in csv.DictReader(io.StringIO(r.text)):
    print(row["datetime"], row["currency"], row["value"])

The CSV columns are datetime,base_currency,currency,value, ready for a ledger import. On the Free plan, /v1/average gives you the monthly averages. Related: time series API, accounting and financial reporting, Python guide.

Things to watch

• Ambiguous $. A Canadian checkout showing $ next to a USD price is a support ticket waiting to happen – always show the currency code on cross-border pages.
• Cash rounding only for cash. Don’t apply 5-cent rounding to card or invoice totals.
• Locale-specific formatting. fr-CA puts the symbol after the amount; don’t hard-code $ as a prefix.

Popular CAD pairs

Request any of these pairs – or any other combination of the 190+ supported currencies – with base_currency=CAD:

Monthly averages and fluctuation for CAD

# Monthly average CAD rates for 2025 (IAS 21 / ASC 830)
curl -G "https://api.fxapi.com/v1/average" \
  -d date_from=2025-01-01 -d date_to=2025-12-31 -d period=month \
  -d base_currency=CAD -d currencies=USD,EUR,GBP \
  -H "apikey: $FXAPI_KEY"

# How did CAD move over the last year?
curl -G "https://api.fxapi.com/v1/fluctuation" \
  -d date_from=2025-10-01 -d date_to=2026-10-01 \
  -d base_currency=CAD -d currencies=USD,EUR,GBP \
  -H "apikey: $FXAPI_KEY"

See the historical exchange rates API, average rates API and documentation for every parameter.

CAD is one of 190+ currencies in fxapi, the foreign exchange rate API for developers – live rates, daily history since 1999 and monthly averages with one API key.

Frequently asked questions