Exchange Rates

Tired of launching the macOS Calculator app and stepping through menu paths or launching the fullscreen OS X Dashboard just for doing a simple currency conversion? Maybe even without having to move your fingers from the keyboard? Here's the solution:

Exchange Rates 4 is a small currency calculator residing in the macOS status bar – always available and always up to date. Nothing more, nothing less.
Everything can be done using keyboard shortcuts, so you can easily convert an amount between two currencies without interrupting your current workflow by using the mouse or launching another window-based application.

And just in case you would like to know what your paper currency is worth in sound money: Exchange Rates now also offers precious metals for conversions - each in grams and troy ounces.

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World Currencies

In addition to all important world currencies Exchange Rates also offers the current rates of IMF Special Drawing Rights, the U.S. Dollar Index and either the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD, version 3.3.0 and later) or the VanEck GDX ETF (version 4.0 and later) as well.

Euro-Predecessors

All euro predecessor currencies with their fixed exchange rates are available as well, for example the Austrian Shilling or German Mark.

Cryptocurrencies

Exchange Rates also shows the prices for various built-in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ether, Monero or Ripple. You can choose from a variety of supported currency exchanges, other currencies and exchanges can be added easily in the app preferences (custom cryptocurrencies are only available in version 3.0 and newer, see the FAQ section for more informations about that).

Precious Metals

You can also check what your paper currency is worth in sound money: Exchange Rates shows the prices of the precious metals gold and silver in either grams or troy ounces.

Notifications

You can also create notification rules for any currency pair or precious metal to be notified whenever an exchange rate ex- and/or deceeds a specific threshold.

Today Widget

Exchange Rates 3 also includes a today widget for the macOS notification center showing a list of your favorite currency pairs. On macOS Catalina and earlier, two more widgets are available as well: a tiled overview of you favorite currency pairs and a simple yet powerful currency converter. Please keep in mind that due to the profound changes in macOS Big Sur and several new functional limitations the latter two are unfortunately not available any more on macOS Versions 11 and later.

System Services

Exchange Rates is also available from within other macOS applications - like for example Safari - by offering two macOS system services to convert any amount to either local currency or to all your favourites without the need of copying and pasting it first. Keyboard shortcuts for these system services can be configured in the macOS system preference pane "Keyboards".

Track Your Favorites

Favorites help you to keep track of all your favourite exchange rates by allowing you to add any currency pair you wish to follow - be it of common world currencies, a cryptocurrencies or a precious metals. You can also choose a separate quotation (direct or indirect) for each favorite. This favorite exchange rates selection is then used for the menu bar panel and the today widgets inside the notification center, and they offer additionally informations about the up-to-dateness of the exchange rate data.

Always Up-to-date

Everything is updated automatically in the background, so the most recent rates are immediately available in the macOS status bar and the notification center (on OS X Yosemite and newer).

Simple & Efficient

Exchange Rates offers lots of keyboard shortcuts, so you can control basically all features of the app without the need of a mouse and thus interrupting your current workflow for a rather basic task like converting an amount to a different currency.

Focused

The user interface is focused on the essentials to keep it simple and its usage as efficient as possible. It helps you keeping track of all those currencies which are important to you - always available and always up-to-date.

No unnecessary data collection

No user tracking or any additional data acquisition of any kind (e.g. via Google Analytics, Flurry etc.) is done by this app. The only network comunication done is for updating the exchange rates from the respective servers, these requests may be tracked by the respective server owner. The update frequency can be changed in the application's preferences, more informations about the loaded feeds can be found on the FAQ page.

Main Features:

✓	All important foreign exchange rates & currencies in your menu bar. Always available, always up-to-date
✓	No more annoying fiddling with the OS X Calculator just to do a simple currency conversion
✓	Everything can be done using keyboard shortcuts to avoid interrupting your current workflow
✓	Provides two system services for even more convenient currency conversions. Keyboard shortcuts for them can be set in the OS X System Preferences
✓	You can also check what your paper money is worth in gold and silver
✓	Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin or Ether are also available
✓	The fixed exchange rates for all Euro predecessor currencies are available as well
✓	Add favourites (accessible with keyboard shortcuts) for frequently used conversions
✓	Keeps a history of all most recently used currencies (can be deactivated)
✓	The statusbar panel supports several different list types for using direct/indirect quotations and the used destination currency
✓	Data Minimization: no unnecessary data collection (e.g. user tracking)

Advanced Features:

✓	Today Widget for the macOS Notification Center
✓	Notification rules pair to notify you when the exchange rate of any any currency de- and/or exceeds a predefined threshold
✓	Other cryptocurrencies can be added manually
✓	You can manually add feeds for other Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ether exchanges (only JSON feeds via http or https and without any authentification)
✓	Offers two system services for convenient currency conversions
✓	URI-Scheme for switching currencies, performing conversions or just opening the panel
✓	Command line interface for currency conversions
✓	Optionally shows the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) on the main panel and the today widget
✓	Shows direct and/or indirect quotations (price or quantity notations)

Version 4.0

Please note: Exchange Rates is a research tool, it cannot trade foreign exchanges on your behalf. It is however a fantastic tool to keep an eye on the market, so all exchange rates and precious metal prices are provided for informational purposes only, and do not constitute financial advice of any kind. Although every attempt is made to ensure their quality, currentness, validity and availability, no guarantees or warranties of any kind can be given - so please use them at your own risk. The data is sourced from various providers with public-facing APIs, so copyright may apply. The resale of any data is prohibited.

Exchange Rates is being distributed eclusively via the Apple Mac App Store. If you should miss a feature or have any ideas how to make Exchange Rates even better, don't hesitate to drop me an email. Thank you!

Terminal Integration

To use the Exchange Rates command line interface for currency conversions from within your shell scripts more conveniently, you can install a command line tool for shell support and use it like this: exchangerates convert from:USD to:EUR value:10 Usage informations are available using this command: exchangerates help Due to restrictions of the Apple sandbox security concept and Apple's policies for Apps distributed via the Mac App Store, you have download and run this separate package to install the Terminal support script for Exchange Rates to the folder /usr/local/bin, which will require administrator privileges:
	Terminal support installer for Exchange Rates 3.0 and later
	Version: Published: File size: SHA Checksum:	4.0 Nov. 29, 2023 app. 11 kB 4508acb638f506273efb1c87f59e9b5a343da040
	Terminal support installer for Exchange Rates 2.x (Legacy Version)
	Version: Published: File size: SHA Checksum:	1.0 August 19, 2018 app. 15 kB 19f3dc3d442bc2ca80032f2d8f4b12b63c9af8e0
Please note: The package for the legacy version 2.x won't work on macOS Big Sur (Version 11) and later, at least not without further ado, since it requires a PHP interpreter which is not part of macOS any longer since Version 11.0.

Updating Exchange Rates 2

The previous version - Exchange Rates 2 - has been superceded by version 3 and thus has been pulled from the App Store. But since Apps that aren't for sale any longer can't be found on the App Store in order to be updated, you have to follow a slightly diffeent approach.
So if you haven't had the chance to update it to its latest version, just follow these steps in order to get the last update of Exchange Rates 2:

Uninstall the app by deleting its App Bundle from the Applications folder
Reinstall the app on the Mac App Store via the list of purchases from your account overview

If the app is still listed with an "Open" button in there, you may have to reboot your mac or at least logout and re-login in order to make the App Store app update its internal cache.

Errors happen and may not always be found in time, so if you should find one or if you are missing an important feature, feel free to send me an email.

ExchangeRates Appcast

System Requirements

Exchange Rates Version 3.2.0:

OS X Version 10.11.0 or later

System requirements for OS X 10.11.0

Exchange Rates 3 is the first version fully supporting macOS 10.15 (Catalina). Previous versions may run, but there may be incompatibilities.

Exchange Rates 2.9.6 is the last version of Exchange Rates 2, and hereby the last one running on OS X version 10.10 (Yosemite). All future versions starting with Exchange Rates 3 – which is available as a paid update – will require at least OS X version 10.11 (El Capitan) or newer.

Exchange Rates 2.9.5 is the last version running on Mac OS X Version 10.10 (Yosemite). Exchange Rates 2.9.2 is the last version running on Mac OS X Versions 10.7 (Mountain Lion) through 10.9 (Mavericks). Exchange Rates 2.9.3 and newer requires OS X Yosemite (version 10.10.0) or newer.

Version History

Although ExchangeRates is being developed with the utmost care and intensively tested before being published, I cannot guarantee the suitability of this program for any purpose not described on this website. No warranty can be assumed for the performance and flawlessness of the software for all usage conditions and cases and for the results produced when utilized by the user. ExchangeRates is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind.

Please keep in mind that the release of new versions on the App Store takes some time to to pass the review process, so bugfixes will not be immediately available. The current average review time of the App Store (as a rough guide value) is available on appreviewtimes.com.

From where do you load the exchange rates?

The exchange rates of all currencies (except the euro predecessor currencies) and the prices of precious metals gold and silver (or rather the respective Comex futures contracts GC=F and SI=F) are being fetched from Yahoo. They are updated with a delay (not realtime), please browse the feed for a complete list of all currencies and their dates. Since Version 4.0 you can alternatively fetch the exchange rates of the most important world currencies from the Euuropean Central Bank, which are updated once per working day at about 1600 hours.

The euro predecessor currencies however are maintained manually, so changes (if a country should join or leave the euro zone) will require an update of the application.

Cryptocurrency prices (Bitcoin, Litecoin etc.) are loaded from the servers of the respective bitcoin/litecoin exchange. You can open the respective feed in your default web browser by clicking on the small arrow button next to the exchange selector.

All feeds use the same update frequency set in the application's preferences popover.

Please keep in mind that the exchange rates and prices shown by this app are only for informational purposes and are no financial advice of any kind. The availability, quality and accuracy of this data cannot be guaranteed, so please use it at your own risk.

Which euro predecessor currencies are available?

To make it short: all of them. At this moment (November 2013) these currencies are available:

Austrial Schilling (ATS)
Belgian Franc (BEF)
Cypriot Pound (CYP)
Dutch Guilder (NLG)
Estonian Kroon (EEK)
Finnish Markka (FM)
French Franc (FRF)
German Mark (DEM)
Greek Drachma (GRD)
Irish Pound (IEP)
Italian Lira (ITL)
Latvian Lats (LVL)
Lithuanian Litas (LTL, as of 2015)
Luxembourgian Fran (LUF)
Maltese Lira (MTL)
Portuguese Escudo (PTE)
Slivak Koruna (SKK)
Slovenian Tolar (SIT)
Spanish Peseta (ESP)

It may take a while if a country should join or leave the euro zone, since these currencies are currently maintained manually and thus require an update of the application.

My preferred cryptocurrency exchange is missing, can I add it myself?

With Exchange Rates (version 2.5 and newer) you can easily add your own, custom cryptocurrency exchanges for loading their prices and converting them into all available foreign currencies. The application preferences window contains a separate tab for adding and editing these feed definitions with separate sub tabs for each coin type:

Please note the following limitations when adding a new feed:

Only JSON feeds are supported
At the moment the feeds have to be publicly available without any authentication
It is recommended to use https (if offered by the respective server)

Which keyboard shortcuts are available?

General control:

Choose source currency:	⌘S
Choose destination currency:	⌘D
Switch currencies:	⌘⇧X
Copy result to clipboard:	⌘⇧C
Show all favourite base exchange rates:	⌘⇧A
Open application menu:	⌘M
Open preferences / help popover:	⌘E ⌘,
Switch tabs in the "Preferences" window	⌘1 ... ⌘5
Open the help window	⌘?
Quit the App (only when visible):	⌘Q

Favourite currencies / Main panel:

Choose source currency:	⌘1 … ⌘0
Choose destination currency:	⌘⎇1 … ⌘⎇0
Search for currencies (on the main panel's favourite list)	⌘F
Add source currency to favourites:	⌘⇧F
Add destination currency to favourites:	⌘⎇⇧F

Favourite currencies / Preferences:

Move the selected entry upwards	⌘ ↑
Move the selected entry downwards	⌘ ↓
remove the selected entry	fn ⌫ (Delete)
open a menu to add new favourites	⌘ +

You can also assign a global keyboard shortcut to show the Exchange Rates window. Global keyboard shortcuts for system services can be configured in the OS X System Preferences (Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts, section "Services").

Can I assign a keyboard shortcut to the system services?

Yes, you can assign keyboard shortcuts to all OS X system services in the System Preferences Pane "Keyboard". You'll find the services offered by Exchange Rates on the tab "Keyboard Shortcuts", section "Services":

How do I use the URI scheme?

Exchange Rates also offers its own URI scheme called "exchangerates://" to trigger currency conversions or just change the current application selection. These URIs have to be created like this:

exchangerates://?=&=

Examples:

exchangerates://convert?src=EUR&dst=USD&val=1.49exchangerates://convert?src=XAU.g&dst=USD&val=1.49exchangerates://set?src=XAU.g&dst=USD&val=1.49exchangerates://open

More informations are available in the application's help documents.

What exactly are direct and indirect quotations?

Direct and indirect quotations in the foreign exchange market describe the price relationship of a domestic and a foreign currency, for example USD to EUR.

Indirect quotation:

The indirect quotation expresses the amount of foreign currency required to buy exactly one unit of the domestic currency and is also known as a "quantity quotation". The indirect quotation of USD-EUR would mean:

1 $USD amounts to n €

Direct quotation:

The direct quotation expresses the exact opposite: the amount of domestic currency required to buy one unit of a foreign currency and is also know as a "price quotation". The direct quotation of USD-EUR would mean:

n $USD amount to 1 €

I cannot find the Exchange Rates Login Item in the System Preferences!

Due to the App sandboxing model used in the Mac App Store, sandboxed apps have to register Login Items using a system framework called "ServiceManagement". Such a login item is not visible in the System Preferences Panel "Users & Groups", so you can only remove it using the respective application which created it in the first place.
So this is an intentional (but very unfortunate) behaviour of OS X.
Alternatively, you can manually add Exchange Rates to the Login Items in the System Preferences Panel "Users & Groups" instead of using the respective checkbox in the Exchange Rates settings.

Why is it that the status item sometimes disappears?

On screens with lower resolutions (for example on a MacBook Air) it can happen that applications like Safari, which has many menus, cause a few status bar items to suddenly disappear.

This is automatically done by OS X because it always shows all menus and leaves the available space to the status item area on the right side of the bar. But this space may not be sufficient to show all active status items, so the system starts to hide them until there is enough space to show the others; it usually begins with those on the very left.

Unfortunately there is no way to influence this behaviour, nor can a developer choose where a status item should be shown. It is all decided and done by OS X.

The only possible way to create more space is to deactivate unused status items. Some items - like for example the user menu - also offer reduced appearances which require less space and thus leave more of it to the others.

But Exchange Rates is always accessible with its own global keyboard shortcut (which first has to be set of course), even though it may not be visible at the moment.

The Exchange Rates system services do not appear on my system.

It sometimes happens that the system services are not detected properly by macOS and thus may be missing from your services menu. In this case you can run the following Terminal command to rebuild this menu:

/System/Library/CoreServices/pbs -flush

Errors happen and bugs may not always be found in time, so if you found one in one of my programs, if you are missing an important feature or just have another question, feel free to drop me an email.