Guides
Money, exchange, ATMs and cards
Information as of 2026-09-21
The national currency is the tugrik (togrog), written with the sign that looks like a T with two bars and carrying the ISO code MNT. Banknotes in everyday use run from 50 up to 20,000 tugrik; the smallest old notes have lost practically all value.
Notes in circulation: 50, 100, 500, 1,000, 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 MNT
A major Mongolian retail bank published these cash rates on the day this file was compiled. Cash buy is what the bank pays for your foreign notes; cash sell is what you pay to buy foreign notes back.
Khan Bank, 2026-09-21 — USD cash buy 3,586 / cash sell 3,614 MNT; EUR 4,027 / 4,239; JPY 22.15 / 23.58; KRW 2.45 / 2.78; CNY 532.5 / 543.9; RUB 38.2 / 48.2
Korean won and Japanese yen are both quoted and exchangeable at major Ulaanbaatar banks, so travellers from Seoul or Tokyo do not have to convert into dollars first. The catch is the spread: the gap between what the bank pays for your notes and what it charges to sell them back is far wider on won than on dollars, so won and yen lose noticeably more value per exchange.
Spread between cash buy and cash sell on 2026-09-21 — USD about 0.8%, EUR about 5.3%, JPY about 6.5%, KRW about 13.5%. 1,000 KRW fetched about 2,450 MNT; 100 JPY fetched about 2,215 MNT
Rough mid-market value of the tugrik on the day of writing, useful for sanity-checking prices quoted in local currency.
2026-09-21 mid-market: 1 USD = about 3,570 MNT; 1 EUR = about 4,098 MNT; 100 JPY = about 2,275 MNT; 1,000 KRW = about 2,576 MNT. So 10,000 MNT = roughly 2.80 USD / 2.44 EUR / 440 JPY / 3,880 KRW
The Bank of Mongolia publishes the official daily rate, which is the reference banks and exchange bureaux price around. Its rate table is rendered by script and did not return values to an automated fetch, so the figures above come from a commercial bank and a market feed instead.
Official reference rate published daily by the central bank
The tugrik loses value steadily, so any price you read on a website written a year or two ago is likely to understate what you will actually pay.
Roughly 8-10% depreciation in an average year
Tugrik are effectively unsellable once you leave the country, so convert only what you expect to spend and change leftovers back before your flight.
US dollars circulate informally in the tourist trade for larger bills such as hotels and guide fees, but they are not spendable in the countryside, where only tugrik work.
Customs rules cap how much cash you can bring in undeclared, and there is a separate declaration threshold in dollar terms. Failing to declare can mean the money is seized when you leave.
Up to 15 million MNT may be brought in without declaration; cash or travellers cheques worth 10,000 USD or more must be declared
Cards and ATMs work in Ulaanbaatar at hotels, supermarkets, larger restaurants and bank machines, but coverage thins fast outside the capital and provincial centres. Plan the countryside portion of a trip as a cash-only stretch and draw enough tugrik before leaving the city.
A working guide to cash volume: for a guided countryside trip where accommodation, transport and meals are prepaid, budget cash only for tips, drinks, souvenirs and roadside stops. For independent travel, carry the full countryside spend in tugrik.
Rough planning figure: 50,000-100,000 MNT per person per day of countryside travel (about 14-28 USD) for incidentals, plus a reserve
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- Bring US dollars in clean, unmarked notes if you want the best exchange value; the dollar spread at Mongolian banks is a fraction of the won spread.
- Change money once, in a larger amount, rather than in small daily instalments, because the spread is charged every time.
- Draw and split your countryside cash before leaving Ulaanbaatar; do not assume the next provincial town has a working ATM.
- Keep a few 1,000 and 5,000 tugrik notes for guanz meals, toilets and small roadside purchases, where nobody can break a 20,000.
- Change leftover tugrik back before you reach the airport gate, since the currency is close to worthless once you have left.