Paraguay Currency and Money Guide

Paraguay's currency is the guarani. It is worth saying plainly, because Ecuador, Panama and El Salvador all use the US dollar and a traveler moving around this part of the world can arrive with the wrong assumption. Paraguay is not dollarised. Prices are in guaranies, change is in guaranies, and the note denominations run to a lot of zeros, which takes a day to get used to.

Cards and cash machines

Many cash machines accept foreign bank cards, and in Asuncion, Encarnacion and Ciudad del Este you can run most of a trip on a card. Outside the cities, and anywhere in the Chaco, assume cash. The gap between the two is wider here than in most countries in this region.

The cited safety advice gives two habits worth adopting. Use cash machines inside buildings rather than on the street. And expect to be asked for photo identification when you pay by credit card, which is routine and not a problem unless you have left every form of identification in the hotel safe.

⚠ Changing money, and the one rule that matters

Use registered banks or a bureau de change. Do not change money with people on the street or on arrival at the airport: the cited advice records that false banknotes are common in exactly those transactions.

This is the money defect that catches visitors in Paraguay, and it is different from the one that catches them elsewhere. The risk is not primarily that you will be robbed at a machine. It is that you will be handed a convincing forgery at a good rate by somebody friendly, and discover it two days later when a shop refuses it. A rate that is better than the bank's is the warning, not the opportunity.

Bringing money in

Cash or traveler's checks worth 10,000 US dollars or more must be declared, online in advance or at terminals at the airport or point of arrival. You are given a certified declaration showing that you brought it in with you, which is what lets you take it out again. Keep it.

Day to day

• Carry small notes. Breaking a large note in a market or for a bus is harder than it should be, and a vendor who cannot make change is a vendor who has lost a sale.
• Keep valuables and your passport somewhere secure and out of sight. The cited advice notes that many people carry photo identification in a money belt under their clothing.
• Tipping is modest and not obligatory. Rounding up, or ten per cent in a restaurant that has looked after you, is the normal shape of it.

Nothing on this page publishes a rate, because a rate published today is wrong within the month and a reader acts on it at a counter. Check the day's rate at a bank when you arrive. For what to do about card payments and identification on the move, see the travel safety guide.

Sources

• UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Paraguay entry requirements: a passport valid for the duration of the stay, 90 days of permission granted on arrival with a further 90 available from the Paraguayan Immigration Department, the instruction to make sure an immigration official stamps, dates and signs the passport on arrival, the fine levied on departure where there is no entry stamp, the note that long-distance bus drivers sometimes tell foreign nationals they can complete immigration formalities in Asuncion and that this is not true, the Permiso del Menor required of under 18s resident in Paraguay, the declaration required for cash or traveler's checks worth 10,000 US dollars or more, and the warning that false banknotes are common when changing money with people on the street or on arrival at the airport. Accessed 17 September 2026.
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Paraguay safety and security: the record that groups may set up blockades along the main roads and in downtown Asuncion near government buildings, that bag snatching and pickpocketing are a problem on public transport, the advice to use cash machines inside buildings and to call a licensed taxi from a landline or a hotel rather than hailing one in the street, the note that photo identification may be asked for when paying by credit card, and the assessment that although there is no recent history of terrorism in Paraguay attacks cannot be ruled out. Accessed 17 September 2026.