Afriswap exchange rates API

Integrate live bureau buy and sell rates into your app or website with a simple JSON endpoint, and receive updates automatically by webhook when rates change.

Getting a key

1. Sign in (or create an account) and open My profile > API & Webhooks.
2. Send an API access request. We review requests and let you know.
3. Once approved, create your API key there. It is shown once, so store it safely.

Endpoint (v1.1)

GET http://www.afriswap.com/api/v1.1/

Include the trailing slash. Optional: ?currencies=USD,GBP to return only some currencies.

Authentication

curl -H "X-API-Key: your-api-key" http://www.afriswap.com/api/v1.1/

Successful response

{
  "version": "1.1",
  "base": "GHS",
  "date": "2026-11-04 11:00:00",
  "buy": {
    "USD": "11.70",
    "GBP": "15.40",
    "EUR": "13.40"
  },
  "sell": {
    "USD": "12.10",
    "GBP": "16.10",
    "EUR": "14.10"
  }
}

• version: API version (1.1).
• base: base currency (Ghana cedi, GHS).
• date: when the rates were last published (GMT).
• buy / sell: currency codes mapped to buy and sell rates against the base.

Request limits

Each key has an hourly and a daily limit based on its plan (shown on your profile). Every response includes:

• X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining, X-RateLimit-Reset: this hour (reset is a Unix time).
• X-RateLimit-Limit-Day, X-RateLimit-Remaining-Day, X-RateLimit-Reset-Day: today (GMT).

Over the limit you get 429 Too Many Requests with a Retry-After header in seconds.

Each response has an ETag. Send it back in If-None-Match and you get an empty 304 Not Modified when rates have not changed. Better still, use a webhook instead of polling.

Errors

Webhooks

Add an HTTPS address on your profile and we POST the latest rates to it: as soon as rates change (within about a minute), at most every X minutes, or at set times (GMT). Only the currencies you choose are sent, and only when they changed.

{
  "event": "rates.updated",
  "delivery_id": 1234,
  "sent_at": "2026-11-04T11:00:42Z",
  "data": {
    "version": "1.1",
    "base": "GHS",
    "date": "2026-11-04 11:00:00",
    "buy":  { "USD": "11.70", "GBP": "15.40" },
    "sell": { "USD": "12.10", "GBP": "16.10" }
  }
}

• Headers: X-Afriswap-Event (rates.updated or test), X-Afriswap-Delivery, and X-Afriswap-Signature: t=<unix time>,v1=<signature>.
• The signature is HMAC-SHA256 of <t>.<raw body> using your signing secret (shown on your profile).
• Reply with any 2xx status within 5 seconds. Otherwise we retry after 1, 5, 15, 60 and 180 minutes. If newer rates are ready, we send those instead of retrying old ones.
• After 20 failed attempts in a row, deliveries are paused. Fix your endpoint, then turn them back on from your profile.

Example check in PHP:

$body = file_get_contents('php://input');
$header = $_SERVER['HTTP_X_AFRISWAP_SIGNATURE'] ?? '';
preg_match('/t=(\d+),v1=([a-f0-9]+)/', $header, $m);
$expected = hash_hmac('sha256', $m[1] . '.' . $body, 'whsec_your_secret');
if (!$m || !hash_equals($expected, $m[2]) || abs(time() - (int) $m[1]) > 300) {
    http_response_code(401);
    exit;
}
$event = json_decode($body, true);
// ... save $event['data'] ...
http_response_code(200);

Legacy API (v1)

The original endpoint http://www.afriswap.com/api/ with the api header still works for existing keys, but it is being retired. Please move to v1.1: request access from your profile, then change the URL to http://www.afriswap.com/api/v1.1/ and use your new key. The response format is the same, plus a version field.