> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.kirafin.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Conversion

> Changing money from one form to another, which happens inside the other lifecycles rather than beside them.

Conversion is not a lifecycle you drive. It is a **leg inside** a deposit or a payout, and it has no state of its own, no endpoint of its own, and no events of its own.

## Where it happens

| It happens when                                     | The leg is                                  | Inside                                                |
| --------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- |
| Money arrives at a `crypto`-mode account            | Cash becomes digital currency               | [Inbound transaction or deposit](/lifecycles/deposit) |
| A payout in digital currency settles as cash        | Digital currency becomes cash               | [Payout](/lifecycles/payout)                          |
| A payout is funded on-chain and delivered to a bank | Both — a fresh receipt, then the conversion | [Payout](/lifecycles/payout)                          |

A `crypto`-mode account carries a `destination` saying what the money is converted to and on which network. A `fiat`-mode account has none, and converts nothing.

## The rate and the fee are separate

This is the part that surprises people:

* **The fee** for performing the conversion is charged as its own line, on top of anything else the movement is charged for.
* **The rate** is the market rate at that moment. A price shows both the rate applied and the market rate it came from, so the difference is visible rather than buried.

**Fees are calculated on the face value of the movement, not on the converted amount.** So the rate changes what arrives, never what you are charged. See [How you're charged](/overview/how-you-are-charged).

A price can be locked for a short window, and within it the rate is fixed. Outside it, the rate is whatever the market is doing when the movement settles — which is why a quote shown to a customer and accepted late is not the quote that will be honoured.