Chinese yuan (CNY) exchange rate API

The renminbi (“people’s currency”) is the currency of mainland China; the yuan is its unit. China’s role in global trade makes CNY a core currency for importers, marketplaces and supply-chain software, even though the currency is not fully convertible for capital transactions. The fxapi CNY exchange rate API returns yuan rates against 190+ currencies, and its history since 1999 spans the end of the dollar peg and the 2015 change to the daily fixing.

CNY facts for developers

• Where it’s used: mainland China. Hong Kong and Macau have their own currencies (HKD and MOP).
• Symbol and formatting: ¥ (also 元 in Chinese text), shared with the Japanese yen – use CN¥ or RMB where needed. Format: ¥1,234.56.
• Minor unit: 2 decimals. One yuan is 10 jiao or 100 fen.
• Central bank: the People’s Bank of China (PBOC).
• Regime: managed. The PBOC publishes a daily central parity rate, and onshore spot trading against the US dollar is limited to a band around it (±2% since 2014).
• Onshore vs offshore: yuan traded outside the mainland, mainly in Hong Kong, is quoted as “CNH” and can differ from onshore CNY. fxapi lists CNY only.
• Events in the historical data: the yuan was held at about 8.28 per US dollar until 21 July 2005, when China revalued it and moved to a managed float with reference to a basket. On 11 August 2015 – the sample date on this page – the PBOC changed how the central parity is set, and the yuan fell by roughly 2% against the dollar that day.

Get CNY rates with the fxapi API

/v1/historical is available on every plan and returns end-of-day (UTC) values. This Go program walks through the days around the August 2015 change:

package main

import (
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"log"
	"net/http"
	"os"
)

func usdCNY(date string) (float64, error) {
	url := "https://api.fxapi.com/v1/historical?currencies=CNY&date=" + date
	req, err := http.NewRequest("GET", url, nil)
	if err != nil {
		return 0, err
	}
	req.Header.Set("apikey", os.Getenv("FXAPI_KEY"))
	resp, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		return 0, err
	}
	defer resp.Body.Close()
	if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
		return 0, fmt.Errorf("fxapi returned %s", resp.Status)
	}
	var out struct {
		Data map[string]struct{ Value float64 } `json:"data"`
	}
	if err := json.NewDecoder(resp.Body).Decode(&out); err != nil {
		return 0, err
	}
	return out.Data["CNY"].Value, nil
}

func main() {
	for _, d := range []string{"2015-08-10", "2015-08-11", "2015-08-12", "2015-08-13"} {
		v, err := usdCNY(d)
		if err != nil {
			log.Fatal(err)
		}
		fmt.Printf("%s  USD/CNY %.4f\n", d, v)
	}
}

For a single start-to-end comparison, the free fluctuation endpoint returns the change in one call. See the Go guide and the historical exchange rates API.

Things to watch

• CNY vs CNH. If your payment provider settles in offshore yuan, its rate can differ from the CNY value.
• Fixing ≠ market rate. The PBOC central parity is a reference; fxapi returns market rates.
• Symbol collisions with JPY – never infer the currency from ¥.

Popular CNY pairs

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

Monthly averages and fluctuation for CNY

# Monthly average CNY 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=CNY -d currencies=USD,EUR,HKD \
  -H "apikey: $FXAPI_KEY"

# How did CNY 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=CNY -d currencies=USD,EUR,HKD \
  -H "apikey: $FXAPI_KEY"

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

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

Frequently asked questions