What rate does this converter use?

A mid-market mid-month snapshot. We refresh quarterly per our data audit cadence. Mid-market is the rate banks see between themselves before any spread — it's the right anchor for estimation but not what you'll actually settle at.

Why does my bank's exchange rate differ?

Retail providers add a margin on top of mid-market. Incumbent US banks (Chase, BofA) typically take 2-3% plus a flat wire fee on international transfers. Wise Business and Revolut add 0.4-0.6% with no flat fee. Stripe / PayPal embed FX into their card-acceptance fee, usually +1% on top of the standard 2.9% + $0.30.

Should I invoice in my client's currency or my own?

Pick the rail that minimises total fees + FX spread. For US freelancers billing UK clients: invoice in GBP, receive into a Wise GBP balance, withdraw to USD when needed (~0.4% spread). For US-to-Singapore: invoice in SGD via Wise SGD balance, similar maths. Avoid letting the client's bank do the conversion — their FX margin is usually 2-3% wider than yours.

When does the IRS care about the exchange rate?

When you report income on Schedule C. The IRS accepts mid-market rate at the date of receipt (Federal Reserve H.10 data) or any reasonable consistent method. Keep an audit log: invoice date, payment date, rate used, source. The IRS publishes annual yearly average rates for retroactive reconciliation.

Are there cleaner ways to invoice multi-currency?

Yes — open a Wise Business account; you'll get USD, EUR, GBP, SGD, AUD receiving accounts as if you were local in each country. Clients pay domestically (free for them), you hold balances in the originating currency, convert when convenient. For settling regularly into a single currency, a multi-currency account beats spot conversion every time.

Free FX Converter for US Freelancers — USD to GBP, EUR, SGD, HKD

US freelancers invoicing internationally face a multi-step decision every month: which currency to bill in, which rail to receive on, when to convert, and how to record everything for the IRS. The FX converter above is for the first part — answering "what's this £2,500 invoice worth in USD" cleanly enough to model your monthly take. The actual settlement is a separate question with a different number; this page covers both.

What the converter shows you

The numbers in the converter are mid-market rates: the rate banks quote each other before any retail margin. Those are the right anchor for estimation, IRS yearly-average filings, and contract-stage pricing decisions. They are not the rate you will see when money lands in your account.

We snapshot the rates and label the snapshot date in the UI. We refresh quarterly during our internal data-freshness audit. For invoices and accounting, use mid-market for record-keeping; for cash modeling, subtract your rail's typical spread.

Spread by rail — what you actually receive

Same £10,000 GBP invoice, different rails (mid-market = ~$12,650 at current rate):

Rail	Net USD received (approx)	Loss vs. mid-market
Wise Business GBP balance → USD	~$12,600	~0.4%
Revolut Business	~$12,580	~0.6%
Stripe (card, embedded FX)	~$12,300	~2.7%
PayPal commercial	~$12,150	~4.0%
Incumbent bank wire (Chase/BofA)	~$12,250 + $15-45 wire fee	~3.1% + flat

The compounding cost is the silent one: a 3% spread on a $100k annual freelance income is $3,000 you didn't have to lose. Over five years, that's a Tesla.

Invoice in their currency, hold in their currency

The cleanest setup for a US freelancer with international clients:

Open Wise Business — free to apply. You get domestic receiving accounts in USD, EUR, GBP, SGD, AUD, and a few more.
Invoice in the client's local currency when they're outside the US. UK clients get a GBP invoice with your Wise GBP receiving sort code + account number. They pay domestically — free for them, free for you.
Hold the balance until you want to convert. This decouples invoice timing from FX timing.
Convert in batches when the rate is favourable, or set up a Wise Auto-Conversion rule.

The alternative — invoicing in USD and asking the client to wire — typically eats 2-3% on their side (which they pass back to you in the next negotiation) plus 0-1% on yours, for a 2-4% total drag.

IRS reporting — the rate you put on Schedule C

The IRS expects you to convert each foreign-currency receipt to USD. Acceptable methods:

Spot rate at date of receipt — use the Federal Reserve H.10 daily release for the closing mid-market.
Yearly average — for steady-stream income, the IRS publishes a yearly average you can apply across all income from that currency.
Method consistency — pick one method, document it, stick with it for the year.

The converter's mid-market snapshot is conceptually equivalent to the H.10 closing rate. For a $100 invoice paid in GBP that you converted on a different day, the IRS wants you to record the date of receipt rate — not the date of conversion. Your books should track three numbers: invoice currency amount, USD-equivalent at receipt for tax, USD actually deposited after conversion for cash flow.

When to convert — short version

You need the cash this month: convert immediately, eat the spread.
You don't need it for 60+ days: hold in the source currency. Markets are random over short horizons, but you save the spread on every conversion you don't make.
The rate moved >2% favourably: convert, lock the gain.
The rate moved >2% unfavourably: don't panic-convert; mean reversion exists.

This isn't a trading strategy. It's a fee-minimisation strategy that happens to look like one.

How this converter handles the US case

Default home currency: USD (set by the country slug).
Rate basis: mid-market mock snapshot, dated.
Rates list: USD, EUR, GBP, SGD, HKD, AUD, CAD, JPY, CNY, CHF, NZD, INR, VND.
No live feed — by design. The cost of pulling a real-time API is not worth the latency on a marketing page; for live numbers, see the live FX in your Docz.me account when invoicing.

General information — not financial or tax advice

This page is general guidance for US-based freelancers handling foreign-currency invoices. Currency markets are volatile and rate snapshots go stale; consult a tax professional for IRS reporting decisions and a financial professional for FX risk strategy. Authoritative reference: Fed H.10 release for daily rates, IRS yearly average for annualised reporting.