USD to GBP exchange rate

• Rates are the euro reference rates the European Central Bank publishes, read through the Frankfurter API.
• A rate between two currencies that are neither of them the euro is worked out by dividing one euro rate by the other, which is how the API derives it too.
• Every rate here is mid market. It carries no margin, no card network charge, and no transfer fee.
• Reference rates are set once each working day at about 16:00 Central European Time. Weekends and days the euro payment system is closed have no rate of their own.
• The page opens with the rate stored when the site was built, then replaces it with a live rate once the request returns. If that request fails, the stored rate stays on screen and the page names the date it belongs to.

The figure at the top of this page says how many pounds one US dollar buys. It is a mid market rate, the midpoint between what buyers are bidding and what sellers are asking, taken from the reference rates the European Central Bank publishes and the Frankfurter API republishes. Read this way round, it answers what a US dollar buys in the United Kingdom, the question behind a UK supplier, a UK subscription, or a trip to London.

Sterling and the US dollar are both reserve currencies with deep markets behind them, so this rate rarely gaps. What moves it is the distance between Bank of England and Federal Reserve policy rates, plus the UK's reliance on money coming in from abroad, which makes sterling sensitive to how confident investors feel.

Nobody sells currency at the mid market rate. A bank, a card network, or a transfer service quotes a rate slightly below it and keeps the difference, usually alongside a flat charge. The gap is easy to overlook because it arrives as a rate rather than as a price. On a 2,000 USD transfer, a markup of one percent costs 20 USD, which is more than most visible transfer fees. The exchange fee calculator puts the markup and the fee side by side so you can see which one is doing the damage.

Reference rates are published once each working day, at about 16:00 Central European Time. No rate exists for a weekend or for a day the euro payment system is closed, so a figure dated Friday stands until Monday. The history table skips those dates instead of repeating the previous number.