Code Examples

Laravel and the CurrencyCore API

Add CurrencyCore to Laravel with the Illuminate HTTP client, config/services.php, an environment variable, a timeout, and one controller method.

There is no official Laravel or PHP SDK, so the Illuminate HTTP client is the supported path inside Laravel. Put the base URL and key in config/services.php, call the API from a small service class, and keep the controller thin. Reading config through config() instead of env() means php artisan config:cache continues to work in production.

The example needs Laravel 10 or later. Free includes 1,000 requests per month at 60 per minute. Live keys require a paid plan; test keys use the same reference data and quota, capped at 60 per minute.

// config/services.php
'currencycore' => [
    'key' => env('CURRENCYCORE_API_KEY'),
    'base_url' => 'https://api.currency-core.com/v1',
],

The service wraps one GET, applies a timeout, and returns the upstream status and body:

<?php

namespace App\Services;

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;

class CurrencyCore
{
    public function convert(string $from, string $to, float $amount): array
    {
        $key = config('services.currencycore.key');
        abort_if(blank($key), 500, 'Set CURRENCYCORE_API_KEY');

        $response = Http::withToken($key)
            ->timeout(10)
            ->acceptJson()
            ->get(config('services.currencycore.base_url') . '/convert', [
                'from' => $from,
                'to' => $to,
                'amount' => $amount,
            ]);

        return [
            'status' => $response->status(),
            'body' => $response->json(),
        ];
    }
}

The controller forwards the status so the caller sees 400, 401, 403, or 429 instead of a generic 500:

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Services\CurrencyCore;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class CurrencyController extends Controller
{
    public function convert(Request $request, CurrencyCore $currencyCore)
    {
        $result = $currencyCore->convert(
            $request->query('from', 'USD'),
            $request->query('to', 'INR'),
            (float) $request->query('amount', '100'),
        );

        return response()->json($result['body'], $result['status']);
    }
}

The response shapes differ by endpoint:

{
  "from": "USD",
  "amount": 100,
  "date": "2026-11-10",
  "results": [{ "to": "INR", "result": 8345.0, "rate": 83.45 }]
}

{ "base": "EUR", "date": "2026-11-10", "rates": { "EUR": 1, "USD": 1.0861 } }

Use Http::preventStrayRequests() in tests so a missing fake fails loudly instead of hitting the network. Cache by date and base: historical snapshots are stable for normal caching, while today’s value should expire on your business cadence.