Working with Multiple Currencies

Stripes supports processing charges in over 135 currencies so you can present prices in a customer’s native currency, improving sales and helping customers avoid conversion costs.

Which currencies you can process charges in depends upon the country of the Stripe account where the charge is being made:

• When creating direct charges or destination charges, currency support is dictated by the country of the connected account
• When creating separate charges and transfers (U.S.-only), currency support is dictated by the country of your platform account

The next question is whether or not the currency must be converted, which is required when the charge currency differs from the settlement currency: that accepted by a bank account or debit card.

Currency conversions

When any Stripe account—platform or connected—receives payments in multiple currencies, Stripe accumulates separate balances for each currency. If possible, Stripe automatically sends payouts to an associated bank account (or debit card) for each currency, thereby avoiding exchange fees.

When it’s time to pay out a currency balance to a bank account (or debit card):

• If there is a bank account for that currency, no conversion occurs
• If there are multiple bank accounts available for a given currency, Stripe uses the one set as default_for_currency
• If there is not a bank account for that currency, we automatically convert those funds to your default currency

If you regularly charge in multiple currencies, you may be able to define multiple bank accounts to have multiple settlement currencies and avoid conversions.

Currency conversions always use the current exchange rates provided by our banking partners. There are a number of online resources for conversion calculation, such as Open Exchange Rates or the Google Currency Converter, that can help you estimate current market rates. However, these numbers can fluctuate and they may not reflect Stripe’s rates at the time a payment is processed.

Application fees

Connect supports the ability to take application fees on direct charges. Although the charge itself—and the currency used—is controlled by the connected account, the application fee has its own behavior:

• If your platform has a bank account for the settlement currency, no conversion occurs
• If your platform does not have a bank account for the settlement currency, the application fee is converted to your platform’s default currency

Note the behavior is tied to the settlement currency (that going to your bank account or debit card), not the original charge currency.

If your platform doesn’t formally use application fees and instead just retains a portion of its charges, those funds are paid out and converted, or not converted, just the same as any other charge on the platform account.

Converting balances

When using destination charges, application fees are not converted; your platform always receives application fees in the connected account’s settlement currency. However, we recommend platforms do not use application fees for destination charges; instead the platform should just transfer less of the charge amount to the connected account.

But should a platform create destination charges with application fees, it’s possible to accumulate balances in a variety of currencies. Because platforms may not have bank accounts for these other currencies, Stripe provides a way for platforms to pay out balances in non-default currencies to the platform’s default bank account.

These are created as manual payouts with currency set as the currency of the source balance, and destination set to default_for_currency:

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/transfers \
   -u {PLATFORM_SECRET_KEY}: \
   -d amount=1000 \
   -d currency=eur \
   -d destination=default_for_currency

# Set your secret key: remember to change this to your live secret key in production
# See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/apikeys
Stripe.api_key = "sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2"

Stripe::Transfer.create(
  :amount => 1000,
  :currency => 'eur',
  :destination => 'default_for_currency'
)

# Set your secret key: remember to change this to your live secret key in production
# See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/apikeys
stripe.api_key = "sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2"

stripe.Transfer.create(
  amount=1000,
  currency="eur",
  destination="default_for_currency"
)

// Set your secret key: remember to change this to your live secret key in production
// See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/apikeys
\Stripe\Stripe::setApiKey("sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2");

\Stripe\Transfer::create(array(
  'amount' => 1000,
  'currency' => "eur",
  'destination' => "default_for_currency"
));

// Set your secret key: remember to change this to your live secret key in production
// See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/apikeys
Stripe.apiKey = "sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2";

Map<String, Object> transferParams = new HashMap<String, Object>();
transferParams.put("amount", 1000);
transferParams.put("currency", "eur");
transferParams.put("destination", "default_for_currency");

Transfer.create(transferParams);

// Set your secret key: remember to change this to your live secret key in production
// See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/apikeys
var stripe = require("stripe")("sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2");

stripe.transfers.create(
  {
    amount: 1000,
    currency: 'eur',
    destination: 'default_for_currency'
  }
);

As long as there are sufficient funds in the balance for the specified currency, Stripe automatically converts the funds to the default bank account’s currency.

To create these currency conversions, the platform has to be on manual payouts.

Example scenarios

To better understand working with multiple currencies in Connect, consider the following three scenarios:

Charge in USD, platform settles in USD, connected account settles in EUR

Your platform account accepts a charge in USD and supports USD as a settlement currency. The connected account settles in EUR.

The funds sent to the connected account are converted to EUR. For direct charges, the application fee is collected in USD. For destination charges, the application fee is collected in EUR.

Charge in USD, platform settles in EUR, connected account settles in EUR

Your platform account accepts a charge in USD and but settles in EUR. The connected account also settles in EUR.

The funds sent to the connected account are converted to EUR. The application fee is also converted to EUR, for either direct charges or destination charges.

Charge in USD, platform settles in EUR, connected account settles in USD

Your platform account accepts a charge in USD but settles in EUR. The connected account settles in USD.

The funds sent to the connected account are not converted (they stay in USD). For direct charges, the application fee is converted to EUR. For destination charges, the application fee is collected in USD.

Further reading

Discover what other Connect functionality is available!

• Creating Charges
• Creating Direct Charges
• Using Subscriptions