Currency & Costs

The official currency of Iran is Rial. The rate of Rial to Dollar/Euro or other currencies can vary considerably on a daily basis. In the past couple of months, each US Dollar was equivalent to 30,000 to 38,000 Rials.

Despite Rial being the official currency (and what is written on the bills), in the daily life people use a conventional currency called Toman. Each 10 Rials is equal to 1 Toman. Thus a Dollar equals to 3,000 to 3,800 Tomans. It should be noted that this conventional currency is just for the ease of use and is not actually a separate currency (nor does it have separate bills or etc.).

Below you can find the Iranian bills and their approximate value in USD.

2000 Rials = 200 Tomans ≈ 0.07 USD

5000 Rials = 500 Tomans ≈ 0.16 USD

10,000 Rials = 1,000 Tomans ≈ 0.32 USD

20,000 Rials = 2,000 Tomans ≈ 0.64 USD

50,000 Rials = 5,000 Tomans ≈ 1.6 USD

100,000 Rials = 10,000 Tomans ≈ 3.2 USD

500,000 Toman (Travel cheque that can be used like a normal bill) = 50,000 Tomans ≈ 16 USD

In order to get some idea of the costs in Iran before visiting the country, a list has been provided below that should only be used as an indication. Depending on the time of visit, the city you are visiting, currency rate and etc the costs can vary.

1. 1 night stay in a hotel (per person): 40 USD to 250 USD (2-3 stars to 5 stars hotel)

2. Cost of eating out:

• Street food: 1 USD to 5 USD
• Restaurants: 5 USD to 50 USD

3. Cost of transportation:

• Taxi trip for 30 minutes: 5-7 USD
• (Intercity) Bus ticket: Tehran to Isfahan: 10 USD | Tehran to Shiraz: 15 USD
• Single-use Metro ticket in Tehran: 0.20 USD

4. Cost of Goods

• A 300ml Coke bottle: 0.30 USD
• A small bag of potato chips: 1 USD
• A 0.5l bottle of mineral water: 0.25 USD
• A pack of 9 eggs: 1 USD

As a rule of thumb, a day in Iran (including hotel stay, food, transportation and visit to touristic places) would cost on average around 100 USD. (lower or higher depending on your taste and budget!)