What are bid and ask prices? Why there are two rates for every currency
By SendPay Business · · 2 min read
Anyone who swaps currency or crypto for a living quotes two prices at once. The bid is what they'll pay to buy from you, and the ask (also called the offer) is what they'll charge to sell to you. The ask is always the higher of the two.
Reading a two-way quote
- A quote for GBP/USD might read 1.2500 / 1.2503.
- The first number is the bid: the dealer buys one pound from you for 1.2500 dollars.
- The second number is the ask: the dealer sells you one pound for 1.2503 dollars.
- The gap, 0.0003 here, is the spread, which is how the dealer earns on the trade.
Why the gap matters
If you bought and sold straight away, you'd lose the spread. Wider spreads mean more cost to you, and they usually get wider for less-traded currencies and at quiet times of day.
Bid, ask and the mid-market rate
The mid-market rate sits halfway between the bid and the ask. It's the rate you see on news sites, but nobody actually deals at it: a provider's rate to you will sit either side of it, plus any fee.
Where SendPay fits
SendPay platforms let your customers exchange between GBP, EUR and USD and buy, sell and hold crypto, with an exchange fee and trading fee you set, under your own brand and powered by licensed partners.
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Build my platform →Questions people ask
What price would a market order get?
See how an order fills level by level and what slippage it causes.
Order book calculator →What does the spread cost me?
Turn bid and ask prices into the spread and its cost.
Forex spread calculator →What is the mid-market rate?
The halfway point between buy and sell prices.
What is the mid-market rate? →Read next
This guide is general information, not legal or financial advice. SendPay Business is a technology company, not a bank, and does not take deposits; regulated services on the platforms are provided by licensed partners. PayPal, Patreon and Substack are named as reference points only and are not affiliated with SendPay Business.