TravelScan FAQ

TravelScan is built for anyone who encounters a foreign price and needs instant clarity. Holiday and leisure travellers use it to check if a restaurant, hotel, or market find is good value in their own currency. Digital nomads and remote workers use it to manage day-to-day spending while living across multiple countries. Business travellers use it to convert receipts and expenses without switching apps. Backpackers use it to track spending across countries and stay within budget. Expats and long-stay visitors set their home currency once and see all local prices in familiar terms. The AI scanner is especially popular with shoppers in markets, tourists reading menus in unfamiliar languages, and anyone splitting a restaurant bill across currencies.

There are two ways. First, on the Convert screen, select the local currency and your home currency, enter the amount, and TravelScan converts it instantly using live mid-market rates. Second, use the AI scanner: open the Scan screen, point your phone at a price tag, menu item, or printed receipt, and TravelScan reads the amount and converts it automatically — no typing required. The scanner also handles full restaurant receipts, extracting each line item and showing the total in your currency. Useful scenarios include reading a Thai menu, checking whether a hotel minibar charge is reasonable, reviewing a market stall price tag, or scanning a foreign invoice. Photos are never saved or sent to any server after scanning.

Yes. TravelScan is completely free for travelers. There are no accounts, subscriptions, or hidden fees — just open the app and start converting prices instantly.

Live exchange rates are refreshed every hour from open.er-api.com, which sources rates from the European Central Bank and other public reference feeds. The home page shows when the rates were last updated.

Rates are pulled from open.er-api.com, a free public exchange-rate API that aggregates mid-market rates from central banks. These are reference rates — banks and card networks may add a small markup at point of sale.

Yes. TravelScan installs as a Progressive Web App and caches the most recent exchange rates on your device, so you can keep converting prices even without an internet connection.

The Kuwaiti Dinar (KWD), Bahraini Dinar (BHD), and Omani Rial (OMR) are consistently the highest-valued currencies against the US Dollar — 1 KWD is worth approximately 3.25 USD. Among major reserve currencies, the Swiss Franc (CHF) and British Pound (GBP) typically rank highest. However, 'strongest' changes daily with market conditions. Use TravelScan's live converter to check the current rate between any two currencies — rates refresh every hour from the European Central Bank reference feed.

For most destinations, withdrawing local currency from an ATM on arrival gives the best rate, especially with a fee-free travel debit card such as Wise or Revolut. The US Dollar and Euro are accepted as informal secondary currencies in many tourist-heavy regions — including parts of Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe — making them useful as a backup. Avoid exchanging at airport kiosks, which typically charge a 5–10% spread. Use TravelScan before you travel to compare how far your home currency goes at your destination, and set a rate alert to get notified if the exchange rate improves before your trip.

No. TravelScan shows mid-market reference rates, which are the rates banks use between themselves. Your card issuer or money changer typically adds a 1–4% margin, so expect the price you actually pay to be slightly higher than the converted amount shown.

Open the Scan screen and point your phone camera at any price — a restaurant menu, a shop price tag, or a printed receipt. TravelScan uses AI to read the amount and converts it to your home currency in seconds. For full receipts, it extracts each line item individually so you can see exactly what each dish or product cost in your own currency, not just the total. If the scanner detects the wrong source currency, you can tap the currency badge on the result screen to correct it. Photos are processed in real time and never stored — your privacy is preserved.

Yes. TravelScan supports 70+ world currencies. Tap the '+' button on the home page to add any currency to your live conversion list. You can also save favourite currency combinations — for example, GBP + THB for a Thailand trip or USD + EUR + JPY for a multi-country itinerary — and switch between them with a single tap. Your selections are saved on your device, so the same list appears next time you open the app.

No account is required. Settings are stored on your device using a unique device ID, so your selected currencies and preferences persist between sessions without any sign-up.