Live market
Live FX rates, and the three prices people mix up
The rate on a currency pair is really three numbers, the bid somebody will buy at, the ask somebody will sell at, and the mid halfway between them, and the mid is the one everybody quotes and nobody trades at.
Read from a currency market as this page rendered. These are traded prices, not an interbank reference and not what a bank would quote you, and the difference is the subject of this page.
Run it instead of reading it
Hibachi FX MM · EUR/USD
quotes both sides of this same EUR/USD book and earns the spread this page is about.
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| Pair | Bid | Ask | Mid | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EUR/USD | 1.14509 | 1.14510 | 1.14509 | 0.1 pips |
| GBP/USD | 1.33472 | 1.33540 | 1.33506 | 6.8 pips |
| AUD/USD | 0.71035 | 0.71056 | 0.71046 | 2.1 pips |
| NZD/USD | 0.57056 | 0.57068 | 0.57062 | 1.2 pips |
Top of book on each pair at 2026-09-23 02:12 UTC, through our own keyless relay and refreshed at most every five minutes. Traded prices from a currency market, not an interbank reference rate and not a retail quote.
Where these numbers come from
Each row is the top of a live order book on a currency market, read when this page was served. That is a traded price: somebody is willing to buy at the bid and somebody to sell at the ask, right now, in size you can see. It is not the interbank reference rate published once a day, and it is not the rate your bank offers, both of which are derived from markets like this one rather than the other way round.
The mid is a reference, not an offer
Halfway between bid and ask is a number nobody transacts at. It is useful precisely because it belongs to neither side, which makes it the fair way to state what a currency is worth. The moment you actually convert, you cross to one side or the other and pay half the spread for the privilege. A converter that shows the mid and calls it your rate has quietly left that cost out.
Why the rate you are offered is worse, and why that is not necessarily unfair
Anyone quoting you a price has to hold the currency, hedge it, and be there again tomorrow, and the margin over mid is what pays for that. The question worth asking is not whether there is a margin but how large it is and whether it is stated. A provider quoting mid plus a visible fee and one quoting a worse rate with no fee can charge exactly the same amount, and only one of them lets you check.
Reading the spread in pips
A pip is the fourth decimal place on most pairs, and the spread column is the distance between bid and ask counted in them. A fraction of a pip means a deep, busy market. Several pips on the same pair means fewer people are quoting, which happens outside the main trading sessions and during news. The number moves for reasons that have nothing to do with what the currency is worth, which is why a wide spread is a statement about the moment rather than about the money.
Run it instead of reading it
Open, change it, publish your own
Hibachi FX MM · AUD/USD
the same desk on a pair that trades in a different session, which changes the spread.
Open the template
Three working apps that read this kind of market. Open one, change it, and publish your own.
- Hibachi FX MM · EUR/USD
quotes both sides of this same EUR/USD book and earns the spread this page is about.
- Hibachi FX MM · GBP/USD
the same desk on sterling, where the spread is wider and the reason is visible.
- Hibachi FX MM · AUD/USD
the same desk on a pair that trades in a different session, which changes the spread.
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