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What happened

The API could not retrieve a live exchange rate for the currency pair in your request. This returns HTTP 503 with error code RATE_UNAVAILABLE. 
{
  "type": "RATE_UNAVAILABLE",
  "title": "Rate Unavailable",
  "status": 503,
  "detail": "A live exchange rate could not be retrieved for USD/MXN.",
  "resolution": "Retry the request after a short delay. If the error persists, the rate provider for this currency pair may be experiencing an outage.",
  "docs": "/errors#rate-unavailable",
  "instance": "/v2/orders",
  "correlationId": "corr_xyz789",
  "timestamp": "2026-01-15T09:30:00.000Z"
}

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Common causes

  • Rate provider timeout — the upstream provider took too long to respond
  • Currency pair not configured — the requested pair is not set up for your account
  • Polling lag — rate data has not been refreshed yet (brief window, resolves automatically)
  • All providers down — every configured provider for this pair is unavailable

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Recovery

This is a transient error in most cases. A simple retry with backoff resolves it.
1. Retry with backoff Wait 2-5 seconds and retry the request. Most rate provider issues resolve within seconds. 
curl -X POST https://api.conduit.financial/v2/orders \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "source": {"type": "wallet", "id": "wlt_...", "assetCode": "USDC", "chain": "ETHEREUM"},
    "destination": {"type": "virtual_account", "id": "vac_..."},
    "autoPayout": {
      "rail": "ACH",
      "country": "USA",
      "recipient": {
        "type": "INDIVIDUAL",
        "name": "Jane Doe",
        "accountNumber": "1234567890",
        "routingNumber": "021000021"
      }
    },
    "lockSide": "source",
    "amount": "1000.00"
  }'
2. Check pair and recipient requirements Verify that the source and destination asset pair is supported, and fetch the recipient fields required for the destination shape: 
curl -X GET 'https://api.conduit.financial/v2/orders/requirements?sourceCode=USDC&sourceChain=ETHEREUM&destinationCode=USD&destinationCountry=USA&paymentRail=ACH&recipientType=INDIVIDUAL' \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"
If the pair is not supported, you will receive an UNSUPPORTED_PAIR error instead. 3. Contact support If the error persists after multiple retries over 30+ seconds, contact support with:
  • The instance value from the error response
  • The currency pair you are requesting
  • The approximate time of the first failure

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Prevention

  • Check pair availability before quoting — call the requirements endpoint during onboarding to confirm supported pairs and recipient fields
  • Implement retry logic — wrap order requests in a retry loop with exponential backoff (2s, 4s, 8s) and a maximum of 3-5 attempts
  • Handle gracefully in your UI — show a “rates temporarily unavailable, please try again” message rather than a generic error