How prices work
Where every number on this site comes from, and how fresh it is.
The main price: CoinGecko
The headline prices, the top 100 table and the currency pages start from CoinGecko, which combines trading data from many exchanges into one average price per coin. Our server fetches that data every 60 seconds and shares the same copy with every visitor, so the price is already in the page when it loads. Charts, market caps and all-time highs come from the same source.
Live trades: Coinbase Exchange
Between those refreshes, the page in your browser connects to Coinbase Exchange’s public live feed. For coins listed there against the US dollar, each new trade moves the price you see, which is why the digits change while you watch. Prices in other currencies are converted from that live dollar price using Coinbase’s public exchange rates. Coins with no US dollar market on Coinbase update with the 60-second refresh only.
History and supply data
- Price history: the yearly table (1 January price, yearly high and yearly low) uses Blockchain.com’s market price data.
- Block height and halving: the current block number comes from mempool.space, which reads the Bitcoin blockchain. Coins mined, coins left and the halving countdown are calculated from that block number using Bitcoin’s fixed reward schedule.
Why prices differ between sites and exchanges
There is no single official Bitcoin price. Each exchange has its own buyers and sellers, so prices can differ slightly from one to the next at the same moment. An average like CoinGecko’s smooths those differences out, while a single exchange shows only its own latest trade.
Timing matters too: a price fetched a minute ago and a trade from a second ago will rarely match. The price an app quotes for buying usually includes a spread and sometimes a fee, and converting into another currency adds another rate on top. Small gaps between sites are normal.
Times, updates and outages
Every time on this site is shown in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). The “Updated” line beside a price says when the server last refreshed it.
If a data source stops responding, the page keeps showing the last good price and says when it was updated, rather than going blank or guessing. Questions about a figure are welcome at info@howmuchisbitcoin.com.