A currency pair names the two currencies in an exchange rate, written as a code such as AUD/USD. The first is the base currency, the second is the quote currency, and the rate states how much of the quote currency one unit of the base currency buys.
Reading a pair is mechanical once the convention is clear: AUD/USD at 0.65 means one Australian dollar buys 65 US cents. If the number rises, the Australian dollar has strengthened against the US dollar; if it falls, it has weakened. The same information can always be expressed the other way around as USD/AUD, which is simply the reciprocal.
Pairs involving the US dollar on either side are called majors, and they carry most of the world’s trading volume. Pairs that skip the US dollar entirely, such as AUD/JPY or AUD/NZD, are crosses, usually calculated through the US dollar rather than quoted directly.
Tradergy publishes AUD pairs in both directions, with each pair page carrying the live mid-market figure, recent history and the reverse pair.
Longer read: How to read a currency pair, and why the order is only a convention. The three letters, the order they appear in, and the fact that the same rate can legitimately be written either way round. Where the codes come from and who decides them.
See the currency converter pages for where this term shows up in practice.
Related terms
Base currency · Quote currency · Cross rate · All terms
Primary authority: SIX, ISO 4217 currency codes. Definition reviewed against the authority’s published material; this page is reference information, not advice.
Common questions
What does AUD/USD actually mean?
It is the price of one Australian dollar expressed in US dollars. AUD is the base currency and USD is the quote currency, so a figure of 0.65 means one Australian dollar buys 0.65 US dollars at that moment.
Why do some pairs look like the mirror of others?
Every exchange rate can be written in either direction. USD/AUD is the reciprocal of AUD/USD: divide one into the number and you get the other. Which direction is quoted is a market convention, not a difference in information.
How many AUD currency pairs are there?
As many as there are currencies to pair the Australian dollar with. Only a handful trade in large volume, led by AUD/USD, but reference rates can be derived for well over a hundred pairs, which is how Tradergy’s converter and corridor pages fan out.